So Many Red Lights (August 21)

The beautiful weather that accompanied my travels around Amsterdam yesterday was washed away overnight and this morning was overcast with frequent showers. Heavy showers. Fortunately, I didn’t need to go out into those heavy showers immediately.

Today’s big plan consisted of two parts – neither being mind-blowingly awesome. The first was to repack all of my gear back into its rightful places for cycling. When I left for Kenya, everything became a little disorganized. And by “a little disorganized” I mean there was no semblance of order to be found anywhere. I’m not going to lie, sorting through everything took significantly more time than I would’ve thought. But it was certainly a good thing to do. Not just from an organizational standpoint but I also managed to purge a few unneeded items. That said, I’m still carrying a lot of weight.

The second, and more pleasant task of the day, was to return to the city centre to get some photos of Amsterdam at night. The fact that I began this part of the plan at around 3:00 PM meant that I had a lot of free time once I arrived back in the hub of Amsterdam’s tourist zone. I was more than a little pleased that the rain had cleared up by then.

Much like yesterday, I wandered around the streets and alleys and laneways that make up Amsterdam’s city centre. Thanks to a tip from Olle, I even ended up on the seventh floor of the library. Two things about the Amsterdam library: One, it’s beautiful! That shouldn’t be particularly surprising and yet, I was a bit surprised. I mean, it’s REALLY nice. Two, the seventh floor offers a very nice view of the city (which is why I was there).

Considering I hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast, I made a quick lunch stop on my way to the library. I opted for a large cone of french fries topped with a massive glob of mayonnaise – I figured I should eat something to offset all the vegetables I ate in Africa. Seriously, I was practically a vegetarian in Kenya. Okay, sure … many of those vegetables took the form of chips (i.e. french fries) but there were also plenty of other vegetables. The weird thing is I actually enjoyed them.

Dusk finally arrived in Amsterdam around 9:00 PM. And with it some rain. Needless to say, that put a bit of a damper on the number of photos I was hoping to take. That said, the few photos I took of the Red Light District and surrounding area didn’t really turn out as well as I had hoped. Of course, in the Red Light District you have to be careful as to where you point your camera. There are some very strict “No Photography” zones.

With some photos secured and my dogs beginning to bark, I headed back to Olle’s place to call it a night and bring to an end my Amsterdam experience. As cities go, this one is definitely an entertaining one.

As for tomorrow, well … I’ll be getting an early start to the day as Olle has to leave for work at 7:00 AM – which means I’ll be leaving at 7:00 AM as well. For the first time in about two weeks I’ll be back on my bike again. I’m not entirely sure where I’ll be heading other than a general direction. South.