Lucy chooses the activities

 

Day 10 –October 10 – Katie – EPIC Conference. Andrew and Lucy - Sightseeing

Weather – rain, moderate breeze – clearing up in the afternoon 6-15c

Katie had already attended her first night at the conference, and was set for a full day of conferencing  and an evening dinner thing - so it was a full Lucy/Daddy day. I said to Lucy that we could do what she wanted today. After careful consideration, her itinerary involved the following – Pancakes, Fanta, probably going to a playground, buying a toy, getting some ice cream - and then after we went to the tourist information place – Ripley’s believe it or not, oh, and a canal cruise. As you can see – a very full day.

We started with the pancakes at Dutch Pancake Masters – just on the Damrak, up from Dam square – about as tourist trappy as you can get. 

The theme was based on the paintings by the Dutch masters – and the pancakes were about as expensive as the paintings… Not cheap in case you were wondering. Lucy ordered the kids pancake which came in the shape of a princess dress – loaded with powered sugar, various sweets, fruits and syrups. Washed down with a Fanta – this was going to be an interesting day. I opted for the mini Dutch pancakes with sugar and butter. Lucy was having a great start to her day. Next stop was Ripley’s, we got a deal that included the tickets to Ripley’s and to the canal tour. Ripley’s was fun, you go up 5 levels and just wonder through the various craziness that is on offer. 

We took the chicken exit when it got to the scary section. The highlight for Lucy was the tunnel that rotated to make you think you were moving, we went through a few times, I was worried about all the Fanta – but Lucy’s stomach held up.

We were doing a fair bit of walking and it was starting to rain heavily by the time we left Ripley’s, so we detoured to a tourist shop and brought an umbrella, before heading off towards the canal tour meeting point near central station. 

At this stage we were both a bit hungry and we had about 45mins to wait for the boat. We wondered off to walk along the water and see if we could find anywhere to eat. Unfortunately, nothing really appealed and we ended up getting a pastry and a bottle of water and then back in time for the boat ride. The canal tour was good, although the weather didn’t cooperate and we had limited visibility. We did learn quite a bit about the history of Amsterdam and a better appreciation of the layout of the canals and the geography of the city. The cruise took about 1hr, which was probably a bit long for Lucy, although it was also pretty cold, grey and rainy, so that took some of the fun out of it. 

We decided to make our way back to the hotel for a quick stop to refresh and check of the maps and then off for something to eat. Side note here, even though we were nowhere near the red light district – as far as google maps shows, there were a few red lights and shops of ill repute on our walk – I had to get Lucy to look in different directions at times! Thankfully it was early in the afternoon and it didn’t look like the windows were occupied…

I did a little research and decided that due to the large amount of burger joints in the area, there must be a few good ones about. My googling directed me to Jungle Burger, just around the corner for the Lego store which was the next stop anyway. With a 4.7 on google, I was confident it would be a decent burger.

Ok – so I’m just going to diverge for a moment and just slip back into Burger blog mode – it’s been a while, but indulge me here – I might post a few on this trip. Actually, I will post separately in case there are people who don’t want to hear about my burger adventures – I don’t know who those people might be, but you never know. Just to summarise – the burger was ok, patty over cooked – the chicken nuggets had some sort of light curry flavour, which I liked, but Lucy wouldn’t eat them – 7.5 for the burger. 

Ok -back to the travel blog. Once our late lunch was done with, it was off to the Lego store to buy a toy, as that had been on list of things to do. On the way we passed a lollie shop (Candy store) – which had a choose your own treasure, pirate kind of theme. You scooped the lollies out of barrels and then paid by weight. Lucy was getting a little over excited by this stage. Who needs coffee shops in Amsterdam when you have lollies (I check the ingredients to make sure by the way!!!). Lucy was as high (on sugar) as anyone of the stoned tourists wondering around town. We were going have to walk this off. She’s a trooper though, and kept it together really well.

The Lego store was amazing, we decided to custom create a little mini figure – and Lucy had a great time designing the Lego version of herself – in harry potter costume – complete with a owl. Best 11 Euro’s of the trip. Once finished up there, we were back to the hotel, about 13,000 steps, and 8hrs of activity later! Katie made a brief appearance to get changed before her conference dinner, and now I’m blogging, Lucy’s crashing on the bed – ipading, but probably not long before bed – it’s 7pm but still light outside. What a day – if you want a full day in Amsterdam, get a 7 year old to plan it. I’m wrecked!