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3rd and final day in Amsterdam
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A great nights kip in my little bunk bed and I was ready to go! Trekked it down to the Rijksmuseum again to meet up with Mike's Bikes Tours at 11 am. The weather went from chilly to absolutely roasting in the time I was there - exacerbating yesterdays sunburn - so much so that I put layers on to cover up my skin, sweltering in the process... doh!
Anyways, I never actually got to meet Mike - a grand disappointment and false advertising if you ask me! The tour was run by an American guy who had lived in Holland for ages and reguiled us with amusing tails about when he first moved in on a windy February day - Amsterdammers hoist their furniture up via gables at the top of their houses and it enters the house through the windows because the houses and thus stairways are so narrow. The wind meant that this guys furniture ended up knocking through the Neighbours windows instead!
My bike was a little odd at first - the handle bars were extremely wide and slightly unstable but I quickly got used to it - that and the Amsterdam traffic conventions... traffic lights for bikes. We went into Amstel and south of town, following the canal to a windmill apparently inhabited by some nudists who I unfortunately failed to spot.
  
Further down the canal we reached a cheese farm complete with cows, which also doubled as a clog factory, which we were guided through by one of the workers and then invited to sample a variety of cheeses. Extremely randomly, a visit to this farm was like one to Little India - all the people gathered in the courtyard were Indian for some unknown reason!
 
 
That was as far out of town as we got, and we made our way back into the centre via the same route the Nazis used when they invaded the city. We stopped for a while in the park to admire the Picasso work and secluded spots the guide recommended for smoking a joint ;)
Once back in the city we ditched the bikes for a drink at a good old Irish bar and a chat with all the others on the tour - English, Americans, and Aussies. The tour was about 4 hours in total, and afterwards I grabbed some food from the amazing food marketplace and browsed some shops on the main street, trying to stay in the shade.
Then it was back to the airport to cram in a final bit of spotting before our flight home - inevitably delayed!
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