Settling In to Being on Vacation

A beautiful afternoon on the Herengracht
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We arrived in Amsterdam late Thursday afternoon and found ourselves immensely well pleased and situated at the Golden Bear, the venerable independent gay hotel on Kerkstraat which we had never stayed at before, but knew from 2 prior stays in this street. The winding stairway is more like a luxury ladder, but not so daunting - go on, you know you want to try it. The room is clean and the last and highest in the hotel, occupying the rear attic window area of this narrow old brick house. Could not be more pleased, and are literally steps away from Leidsestraat, the ""main street"" of Jason & Guy's Conceptual Neighborhood in Amsterdam.

The attic window in our room
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We visited bars and bars and bars after dining well on pre-packaged salads, sandwiches and fruits in a hotel-room picnic (saving us a fortune and 2 or 3 hours of precious vacation time by sidestepping the tourist-choked restaurant scene). The Reguliersdwarsstraat nearby is the locus of youngish-themed gay bars including April (home of the rotating bar), The Arc (high-end cocktail scene mixed with beer-bar crowd, all fashionably dressed however) and Soho (the crypto-British pub). Four hours of flickering between the three, interspersed with long happy strolls up and down the street, and it finally occured to me that I really am on vacation, with the surprise bonus of having three more weeks still to come.

It finally occured to me that I really am on vacation, with the surprise bonus of having three more weeks still to come.

The gag is that the sign says, "No Bikes Here"
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Friday we mastered laundry at the nearby Powders laundrette, where the attendant, knowing how baffling tourists typically find the complex laundry automat computerised system, helped us a lot even though we have used it many times before. I said nothing and let her speed us along, and voila - now we have a week's worth of new wardrobe choices back in the mix. Since it swings between hot and sunny and cold and pouring rain, about every few hours, we are going through a lot of clothes changes so far on the trip. About 6 Euros to turn back the clock and have everything clean again, and only about 70 minutes invested to do it.

This houseboat has a pontoon garden on the side
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During the wash cycle we snuck out to Dr A'dams to buy, guess what, more shoes. You will see when we get back that we got 2 hot pairs of sneakers, which were a real need, since the shoes we brought have not been ideal for the truly heroic agenda of walking we have been putting in. Later, with laundry done and shoes carefully water-proofed, we hit H&M where I solved a similar dilemma involving pants.

A nice lazy afternoon of napping, cheap in-room eats and strolling and we will be back on the streets tonight. Until next time ...