Another day in Amsterdam, with bookends of pannekoeken this morning and a fly-by of one of the red-light districts this afternoon. In between the bookends there was some not so interesting sorting of logistics, namely determination of how to get to the University of Amsterdam and some other stuff. Why the university? Some of us are attending an event there; I, thankfully, am not.

So, onto the events of the day. Ten-minute walk west, over to the intersection of Rokin and Damstraat near the Royal Palace (I didn’t event notice said building — will have to pay more attention tomorrow); two-minute tram ride west, over to the intersection of Prinsengracht and Raadhuisstraat (near Anne Frank Huis); five-minute walk south to the intersection of Prinsengracht and Berenstraat; and voila Pancakes! Amsterdam. This trendy little pannekoek (pancake) eatery served us up some pretty tasty goods (see pictures below).

After scarfing pannekoeken (pancakes) we headed back downtown to the central train station to catch metrotrain #51 down to the university. The central train station seems to be the hub for inter-city travel as well as travel within Amsterdam. It took about 15-20 minutes to get to the university where the weather was crap: windy and rainy. Maybe we are protected from this by the buildings when we are in town. I was not too sure what part of the university we were at, and couldn’t really get a sense of how big the campus was; what I was sure about after my brief inspection, was that Dutch students are just as slovenly as Canadian students in terms of the shrapnel they leave behind in public areas.

Finally, back to town for a quick rest then out again to do some shopping at the neighbourhood Albert Heijn winkel (shop) and tour #1 of the closest red-light district (we finally found it – not that we were looking that hard). We topped off the day with dinner at Burgermeester (meester = master); aside from the pannekoeken, the first good restaurant food we’ve had here.

The following pictures appear in the order they were taken during our activities today. I’m posting this at about 9:20pm Amsterdam time.

Muesli pannekoeken with fruit, honey, and yogurt.

Michelle prior to disposal (into the gut) of her apple, walnut, cinnamon, and calvados pannekoek.

Pancakes! Amsterdam on Berenstraat.

A tender embrace following disposal (into the guts) of the pannekoeken.

Amsterdammer en route to a date with some fries and mayo. Ok, I don't know that for sure; it's just a guess.

Heading back to town from the pannekoek experience on Raadhuisstraat.

Perhaps the marketing genius who came up with this branding is also working on a franchise plan.

Beware of cat! No shoarma or patates if cat not like you.

Amsterdam is either shopping heaven or shopping hell depending on your perspective.

A somewhat obstructed view of Amsterdam's central train station.

One or two bikes at the University of Amsterdam.

A slightly more modern street in Amsterdam. In my opinion not quite as quaint as some of the older ones.

Looking south down one of Amsterdam's red-light districts. Word on the street is that if you try and take pictures of the women in the windows, your camera will end up being swan food. I'm sure some of you were hoping for more, but this is the best I could do.

There were quite a few ducks in the red-light district canal and only a few short steps away you can find some barbequed ducks. Hopefully there is not a connection here.

Cheese bike in Nieuwmarkt a little ways north of our temporary residence. Did I mention that there are a lot of bikes here?