We had no booked plans for today so we did not set the alarm. I had considered a tour to the Netherlands countryside but all the tours were 8 and 9 hours long and I just couldn’t make myself book them. Not with a 9 to 10 hour flight tomorrow.
We got up around 8:00 and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. The woman behind the grill made us omelets. In addition to the omelet, I had a latte and fresh squeezed juice, bacon, and a thick slab of the brown bread I like so much.
It was another beautiful day we decided to walk to the zoo. Google maps showed it being about a 20 – 25 minute walk so we knew it would be about 45 minutes for us. Most of our walking had been in the central district. This walk took us over to the art district so we saw a number of galleries. It was a nice shady walk.
The zoo was nice with lots of shade and large green spaces that people were just sitting and enjoying the sun. I could see if you had a yearly zoo pass and worked near there that it would be a nice place to come on your lunch hour. We walked along the exhibits on the outer edge and then when we got back to the front, we walked the exhibits in the interior of the zoo. In addition to all of the animals, this zoo also had an aquarium, a butterfly atrium, a bird atrium, a planetarium, a reptile house, and an insect house. We skipped the last three. The only place I felt crowded was the aquarium.
Once we finished walking around the zoo, we started walking back to the central area so we could stop at the currency exchange place. We first stopped at a little café for lunch. We found a table in the shade outside across from a park and people watched. We split another order of bitterballen. We also ordered a club sandwich to split. Interesting thing about their club sandwich. It was served open-faced. The meat, cheese, lettuce, and tomato were layered but there was no top slice of bread. We just cut it in half and I basically ate each layer separately. It was a large sandwich.
It took us longer to reach the exchange than Google predicted because we had to stop twice on canal bridges to wait until they raised/lowered them for the larger boats. But once we got there, Chuck got some Euros for his weird pound note. They didn’t give him any hassle per se but he felt he didn’t get a very good exchange rate. However, at this point, anything was better than nothing. We will save the Euros for our trip to the Mediterranean next year.
Once back to the hotel, we did some re-organizing of the luggage to meet airline requirements. We borrowed a luggage scale from the front desk and weighed the pieces that we would check. They were both under 50 pounds so we were good. We still need to do a better job of not taking so many clothes in the future.
We participated in the happy hour again and then walked up the street to one of the restaurants for dinner. Again, it was so shady, we sat outside. I had a shrimp and mango salad. The mango was so sweet. Chuck had chicken. We were too full for dessert.
I had purchased a round-trip ticket with the airport shuttle service so they would be arriving at 9:15 tomorrow for our 1:00 flight. We called it another early night. Tomorrow could be stressful.
I miss the towel animals. ☹
Amsterdam Zoo Trivia –
The zoo name is Artis, short for Natura Artis Magistra (Latin for “Nature is the teacher of the arts”),
It is the oldest zoo in the Netherlands and one of the oldest zoos of mainland Europe.
Artis has a library on the history of zoology and botany. It contains 20,000 books, 3000 manuscripts and 80,000 animal prints.
Fondest Travel Memories 