Delightful Saturday...

Saturdays are awesome! Especially here in Amsterdam...my hubby & I get to spend the whole day together doing whatever we want. Today was no exception!! Started off getting out in the beautiful sunshine...well, it was a beautiful day...no sunshine. But I digress...we started our day of walking by heading to the Waag to check out the fresh marketplace. Beautiful & smells galore, fresh baked bread & fresh flowers galore. Then we made our way thru the outskirts of the Red Light District to a little book/map shop where I'd spied a very antique copy of Hans Brinker a few days ago. This was one of my anniversary gifts (early) but I treasure it already. We then headed toward Dam Square & to a new area of the city. We stopped for pizza...my favorite...then headed west.  We saw the Westerkerk (West Church) & the very long line waiting to get into the Anne Frank house. As we were making our way back toward our part of the city we ducked into a couple very curious little shops & browsed to our hearts' content. One was simply amazing...there the hubby bought me another anniversary gift. A beautiful antique wood gathering basket. I'd been looking for something for magazines that was pretty & functional. Well, I found an amazing one!!

The Waag: originally one of the city fortified gates. Dates from the 1480s & quickly became obsolete with the city's fast expansion. It was taken over by the surgeon's guild. Here the surgeons held lectures on anatomy & public dissections! Now, it has a very good cafe on the ground floor. Any connections? I hope not!!

One of the MANY flower markets in the city; this one outside the Waag.

Another shot of the Waag.

This is Magna Plaza...our MOA...Mall of Amsterdam!! Very upscale!

Beautiful architecture on our morning walk.

Westerkerk...just around the corner from Anne Frank's house. She loved to listen to the bells of the church while her family was in hiding. The bells were taken away & melted down for the German war effort. This is where Rembrandt & his son Titus are buried.

Amazing bell tower of the Westerkerk.

Corner of the Magna Plaza

My beautiful gathering basket & my Hans Brinker book...treasures!

Isn't this beautiful?!

We came back to the apartment to rest & had the great opportunity to Skype with Regan for a few minutes...so great. We headed to the grocery store...not a good idea on a Saturday. Came back & put those away & headed to the Three Sisters Pub for dinner...walked off our supper then in for the night! We're trying out another new church tomorrow...Christ's Church of the Church of England...we'll see!! More later!