June 6, 2012
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(written on 17 February 2013)
After years of not having been on a canal boat, I went on one on Sunday on the last day of Andy and Colin's visit and tonight... I found myself on yet another one! My manager, my successor, and some Korean and American colleagues are visiting and we all went out for a meal and an 'activity' tonight. The first activity that had been planned was indeed a canal cruise. The weather at the time of departure, 6:30pm, was absolutely wonderful and the canal boat company we had today took a bit of a different, and longer route than the one on Sunday, so at least I got to see some other parts of the city from the water tonight. The picture shows Westerkerk, which was not included in Sunday's ride - but it was in today's.
The boat ride was only the start of the ride though because then it was up to me to give our guests a small city tour. I walked with them from Central Station to our restaurant on Oude Waal and tried to point out points of interest to them. Damrak, which is where once the river Amstel flowed on its way to the Zuiderzee. Nieuwmarkt, where the medieval city's St Anthony's gate is (these days known as de Waag) and some of the locks that protected the city's canals from the sea. The restaurant had great food but the service was amazingly slow (welcome to Amsterdam!) so it was actually quite a relief when we could finally get up and walk out again. Our guests also wanted a walk through the Red Light District, and that was going to be our 'dessert' but no one had counted on the rain that was coming down quite hard at the end of our meal, so that guided tour was a very quick walk towards Dam Square where I pointed everyone to the tram stop and then walked home and dried off. It was a great evening, and one of the best aspects of our company is how international it is, so no matter how I sometimes complain about work, that still makes it all quite special. And tonight once again highlighted that.
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