A Tour of Amsterdam

We walked down to the Metro station for our trip into the city and stopped for a good cup of coffee overlooking one of the canals that comes out of the ij - the inland lake created by the Dutch 30 years ago to prevent the sea's rising from flooding the city.  Then on to one of our activities of the day - a visit to the Red Lights Secrets Museum.  This was a fascinating and highly educational look at the legal prostitution business here in the city.  Apparently there are around 400 legal sex workers in the red light district.  They are all registered with the government and have to abide by various regulations, are self-employed and pay taxes.  They are well protected by police, both uniformed and plain clothes who patrol the streets around on a regular basis.  They pay E 150 a day to rent their rooms and charge on average E50 Euros for a visit.  They have to be regularly checked for STDs.  Perhaps the most surprising and interesting fact to me was the fact that around 70% of them are either married or in committed relationships.  There was even a video of a man talking about his wife's job as a prostitute.
This was followed by a walk into Dam Square and some frites and Krokets - another Dutch snack 'delicacy'.  Then on to the highlight of the day - a canal cruise around many of the hundreds of canals and around the Ij - the lake I mentioned earlier.  There were lochs at strategic places which we learned are used to flush out the water into the sea and allow fresh water from the river to replace it, thus making the canals surprisingly clean.
On the way back from the city on the train, I learned that the technician who was servicing the roaster back at BG was having huge problems and what was working before he started was no longer operational.  This is a huge issue for our business if it is not fixed by Monday.  After much stressful attempts at contacting someone I knew might be able to help from the Dutch company that makes the roaster - the support technician who I happened to have WhatsApp contact with was kind enough not to ignore me even though it was Saturday evening and he wasn't at work - between us we managed to fix the problem after a couple of hours of going to and fro, and so I was able to sit down finally and enjoy a simple cold dinner with L - and relax again for the evening.  Looking back - what made the day special was experiencing all these things together and particularly L's calm and helpful preparing dinner while I was pulling my hair out.  It all turned out OK in the end, but being so far away when something like that happens is definitely stressful.  So - the photo - this has to be the longest narrow boat I have ever seen - apparently designed for river cruises down the Rijn (Rhein) into Germany - I just hope there aren't too many sharp bends in the river because this thing must be a beast to turn.  And the extra - had to post this - it is one of the bike parking facilities at Central Station - And this was a Saturday - not a work day!