Feeling slightly refreshed, we decided to walk across town taking silly pictures, catch the canal bus at the other side, then ride around on boats for the rest of the afternoon. I didn't think it was worth attempting any museums with Antonia so tired, and we probably would have been short of time anyway.
The Palace Square - our silly pictures were rather successful
The Red Light District
I had been sort of nervous about taking a small kid round Amsterdam, because I didn't really know where the red light district was. I thought I would prefer to avoid it, and the questions that might go with it. Well, I did not succeed in avoiding it, and all I can say is that the capacity of children for ignoring things they feel don't concern them is phenomenal. My kid notices nature and sculpture. Twitching red curtains with lingeried ladies were lost on her, as was the irony of coffee shops stinking of pot, only two buildings away from the police station. I thought she might have noticed the 'Condomerie' with its very decorative novelty condoms ... but no! She walked past all those things. Yet, when we came to the sculpture below, she positively pounced towards it. It is an homage to the 'ladies' of Amsterdam. Needless to say, she has no idea.
The posher bits
We eventually found our way to the parts of Amsterdam that grandma would reccommend and got back on our boat, not without purchasing a child's size of indispensible yellow fluffy clogs along the way.
In the end, we were both exhausted, but I felt that I had barely got a feel of Amsterdam. Maybe just enough to know my way around the next time I come.
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