Canals, Dykes and Bikes....but not Dykes on Bikes!

We finally got out of Florence and touched down at Schipol Airport (to sponatneous applause from the whole plane) late in the afternoon. Not to be misunderstood, we really liked and enjoyed our time in Florence but after two nights and nearly three days in limbo, camped at the Ibis Airport Hotel with nothing to do and nowhere to go (read cabin fever here) we were really, really ready to move on!

Farewell Florence!

Hello Holland!

By the time we arrived at our digs (and sorted out that were were late but still wanted a room!!!) it was getting quite late in the day. We dumped our gear and headed out to explore the old centre of Amsterdam which, given more opportunity, we are sure would be a very interesting place...... especially as we were located right on Singel Canal in a really nice boutique hotel. Unfortunately, because of the "travel troubles", we were only able to spend one short night and had to explore the little shops and restaurants in the dark.

Nice room in a lovely little hotel.

We were not prepared for how slippery it was, especially on the little curved bridges over the canals. Within minutes of leaving the hotel we were holding on to each other for grim life as we skated all over the pathway and the road. It was a case of whoops, whoops, whoopsies and I've got you, I've got you ...no I ain't got you!
There were flailing legs and arms everywhere.....a fair bit of cursing but we managed to stay upright when even the locals were struggling. One motor scooter, two push bikes and a pedestrian all hit the deck after sliding over on the ice within our first hundred yards!

It's on the top of the small curved bridges that is the worst and bike riders put their feet on the road to slide over the other side. It would have been funny to watch except we were concentrating so hard we didn't have time to even crack a smile......just to watch in wonder.

One of the many canals in the neighbourhood  still with a light blanket of snow on the boats and cars.

In the less than 24 hours we actually spent in Amsterdam we did manage to have a quick look around in the dark, have an excellent  feed in a "funky" little restaurant and grab a few quick photos to remember it by. 

A local cheese shop.....check out the wine labels...only in Amsterdam!

But that was about it because we were up at 6.00am to get to the airport!

During the night (2.00am to be precise) we got a message from the airline that, unfortunately, the flight that we were on, had tickets for since August and had checked in on line for was....... OVER BOOKED! 

Would we like to change flights?..........and if not .......it would be first in, best dressed at the check-in in the morning! 

Well, we  were fourth in line in the morning. There was no way we were going to miss this plane....I mean.... just no way! 

And as I finish this post we are at gate D83 looking at our purple plane (WOW Airlines.....really, any airline that is named after an "exclamation" should be regarded with some suspicion) ......and looking forward to the next part of our trip. 

Iceland, here we come!

Arrivederci Amsterdam.