Today as we left the apartment, we actually saw a patch of blue sky.  I am sure you will not be surprised to hear that it didn’t last long.  I must admit that our friend Anya warned us that October in Amsterdam would be rainy, and we came knowing this full well.  Today it was just gray and overcast with occasional sprinkles so not too bad at all.

We decided to do the architectural walk to Dam Square.  Dam Square is the main square in Amsterdam and the walk there was really beautiful.  It was late Sunday morning but the bike and car traffic was light and the canals lovely.  Here are some of the homes and businesses along the canals heading to Dam Square.

This being Amsterdam, there were some other interesting shops we saw:

We found it interesting that there were coffee shops and stores everyplace where you could smoke cannabis or get ingestible cannabis products, but if you wanted to buy wine or beer you had to go to one of the few markets.  There are lots of bars, but to get beer to take home, very few places.

Dam Square was very busy, lots of people, bikes, cars, and noise.

 

Instead of heading back to the apartment, we decided to keep walking with the Jewish Quarter and the Portuguese Synagogue as our goal.

 

We got to the Portuguese Synagogue and it is very impressive.  The only light on the inside is natural light through the windows or candlelight from hundreds of candles.  It is still being used as a synagogue today.

We also went into the Jewish Museum.  It is located in the Ashkenazic Synagogue, whereas the Portuguese Synagogue is Sephardic.  They are right across the street from each other.  The Ashkenazic Synagogue is no longer in use for anything but the museum.

We headed home when the museum closed.

Some of the buildings look tilted in the photos.  Actually they are angled forward as they go up from the street.  This was limited by law to 1 foot forward for every 25 feet in height.  It was so that the buckets that were used on ropes and pulleys to raise things to the higher floors of the house didn’t hit the windows on the way up.

We had been commenting that we hadn’t yet had a Dutch dinner, so tonight we went to Lt. Cornelis Restaurant. http://restaurantcornelis.amsterdam/en/ It was excellent and we would return here again.  Food porn, at last!

My dinner included a starter with pickle sorbet.  Just thought I would add that.