Amsterdam

Thursday
Arrived in the morning and Colin and Daphne were outside the hotel. While they went to breakfast we freshened up as traveling for 28 hours we were a bit unpleasant. So nice to get it our room which is lovely and the hotel is so central right opposite the palace and beside Dam Square. Amazingly the shopping is excellent with many UK chains and Desigual with them all in Sale mode! (yes i did buy a dress) Not here to shop so we did a quick look around and lunch in a local large cafe while waiting for the free walking tour run by students. 3 hours later Colin and I were lagging from the heat 27 degrees and out in the sun. Very little air flow and trying to listen to our German guide Lars–Henrick. We tipped him and navigated the 3 canals across to get to Anne Frank Huis. The queue was over an hour long  but I pulled out my skip the line tickets , ta da ! and gained immediate entry through the fast track door. Very enlightening visit and well worth the experience. Climbing vertical stairs and seeing the actual writings and articles from the era.  Dinner in a chinese  restaurant because all the others were Italian, Mexican, Argentine, Indian but no Dutch restaurants. Plus Colin had been sick on the flight and we wanted something plain with veges. I did eat Amsterdam meat and sauerkraut with mustard on bun for lunch. Closest I could find to local food besides the Dutch pastries.
Made it back to our hotel and Colin and I crashed from a wonderful but exhausting day.