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Amsterdam was my last port of call. Left and below are typical streets and buildings you see. Left is a 'pub', with the outoor seating - Heineken is the major beer over there. The Heineken brewery is in Amsterdam city as well.
To the right is Leidestraat - a long street in the city famous for its shopping ... Amsterdam has a great tram system - you can see a couple in the pic. They run everywhere very frequently, so its very easy to get around. Walking is easy as well, given that the virtually the whole of Holland is flat !
The Concert Gebouw - the "Opera House" of Amsterdam. This is situated at the bottom of the 'Museum Plein' - a huge area of grass where on the northern side you have the Reiks Museum, and on the western side you find the Van Gogh Museum
... with my brother Andrew - on my last night in Amsterdam. Drew has lived in Holland the last year and a half and will be there for a long while still...
Some photos I wasn't allowed to take - inside the Van Gogh Museum !
Drew and I found this great shop in Amsterdam, filled with Knives, swords, guns, and more as you can see... Unfortunately there was no 'try before you buy'... Just looking only...
Travelling along on the train one day, Drew and I saw a shop that had "PIANOS" on the outside window, spray painted in thick yellow writing. Looked more like a dodgy quick sale sorta vibe but as I hadnt played a piano in a couple of weeks I wanted to still go in to check them out and have a play...
They were all uprights, with just 2 grands. I went over to the grands and had a bt of a play. The shop keeper was watching cautiously. - Once he heard I was a player, and not just a shopper, he invited me upstairs to the "High Rollers Room"
It turns out this shop was the main carrier and distributer for Steinway in Holland - but you wouldn't know from just walking by. There were stacks of them - all new, from baby to concert grands. I tried them all out. The cheapest ? - 56000 Euros (about $100,000). After a quick call to the bank back home I discovered my credit card JUST didn't have enough room on it ... Next time ! ;-)
