Meeting Manuel, my good friend from Switzerland for breakfast this morning at the The Breakfast Club. He is arriving today at 8 am by FlixBus (you will hear more stories about the FlixBus). Manuel and I met last year at the Train Lodge.
Being overcast and cold in Amsterdam I have the idea to look at thrift stores for a jacket. First stop (and most successful stop) is at the Kringloopwinkel RataPlan thrift store (Generatorstraat 10, 1014 AT Amsterdam, Netherlands). It’s a huge thrift store and they have everything! I didn’t find a jacket, but Manuel does. Strange to me is that they are playing American music (in fact a lot of places we go into are playing American music). I guess I was expecting more local music. What is great about Amsterdam is that most people speak English, so communicating is not a problem.
Moving on from the thrift store, we continue our journey to find other stores in the Centraal area of Amsterdam. Stopped by the Koffie ende Koeck for a quick bite to eat. Not much luck with the other thrift stores, but then we found Primark – the mega store with great prices! Lots of jackets with prices cheaper than the thrift store jackets. I decided to not get a jacket because I have no room for it and will have to carry it around with me. It’s starting to get colder.
We are hearing a lot of commotion down the street from us, so I have a great idea to head over to the commotion! Turns out a pro-Palestinian protest is going on at a banned demonstration and the police are there in full force. Fortunately there was no violence at the time and we were okay.
Rest of the time spent looking at the beautiful night scenes. Yes, we did walk through the Red Light district (De Wallen) and being only around 8 pm, there wasn’t too much to see. Last year I walked it during the day and nobody was there (doh!).
Heading back to the Train Lodge. Took the Metro back to the Sloterdijk station instead of the train and that was a lot longer. I didn’t know Amsterdam had a Metro and wanted to try it out. Nice and looked pretty new.
End the day with a beer at the Train Lodge and then off to bed. 😴