After we left the Queen's Day ceremonies and merriment in Amsterdam, we headed off on a road trip to two towns to check out their Queen's Day activities. The first was Volendam.
It was so nice, we went there twice!
Volendam is a port city and our first experience with it was walking through part of the town and ending up at near the boats.
The view from the waterfront was charming and the day was perfect! Remember how we had so much rain on our trip? Not this day!
But along the way we saw some charming homes with crisp curtains in the windows.
I loved these bright yellow shoes with the hyacinth showing.
This shop took photos of people in traditional Dutch costume.
As we walked along the waterfront, we spotted this cute little ice cream stop.
So of course, we stopped!
Then we wandered on some of the side streets. We passed the Volendams Museum, which had an interesting photographic mural on its side.
One of the first spots we noticed was on a street below -- a charming looking restaurant serving Amstel. It looked inviting but we'd already had lunch.
This shop had captivating windows. The photo and glare doesn't do it justice, but it will all make sense in a bit.
We still wanted to get to Edam, so we bid farewell to Volendam and hopped into the car. When we got out again, we were in a charming town.
The houses were all tidy with neat numbers.
The canals were, of course, plentiful.
And there were even interesting bridges.
The houses were close to the street...
...and some had interesting signs. This one would indicate the profession of the occupants had to do with livestock.
We noticed a familiar looking building...
...and then a bar/cafe serving Amstel.
Pretty soon, we noted that they even had the same small store as was in Vollendam -- with the same window display. What an odd coincidence!
Duh! We went back to Vollendam by mistake! And it was great, because we saw an entirely different part of the town, it all was delightful, and we had a jolly good laugh!
But not to worry -- there was still lots of light on this lovely day -- and we were off to Edam, which is where I'll take you next time!
