Our serene harbour village is approximately 65 km’s away from the bustle of Amsterdam. We enjoy the water and nature, but once in a blue moon we venture off to the capital to take in city life.

We park our car relatively close to Amsterdam, and catch the train for the last few stops, which saves us mucho money and stress from trying to find parking. The train journey into Amsterdam is really cool. First you ride past dreary flat blocks, which considering we’d contemplated living in the city, makes us appreciate our home even more. Then you ride past architectually-stunning apartments on the IJ River.

If you glance to the left, you’ll catch a glimpse of the “Amsterdam”, a tall ship berthed at the maritime museum as well as the science museum “Nemo”. Slavenburg is on your right, and pulls on our sentimental strings each time we ride past the “Afrika” building. Such history! A memoir to the thankfully bygone era of slave-trading. And then on the right, we sometimes mistake a cruise-liner for apartment blocks at the Passenger Terminal next to “Muziekgebouw aan het IJ” [Musical Theatre].

Amsterdam Central Station is an exquisite building currently undergoing much renovation. So not only should you gather your wits about you to step off the train, you need to ooze yourself out of the station into the stream of people, a building site, buses, trams and bicycles. Did I mention bicycles? Take a look at the Bicycle Parkade to the right of the station. It’s not a sight you’ll often see elsewhere.

The city only starts stirring round 11 o’clock, so if you’d like a bit of peace and quiet, get there beforehand. If crowds are your thing, you can hardly move from about 3pm. We like to get there around 10-ish in the morning. Heading down Damrak, we take the first alley right “Haringpakkersteeg” past the magic mushrooms and “coffee” shops to Nieuwendijk.

Heading down towards the Dam, our first port of call is the Febo, for yummylicious croquettes and french fries “at war” (see photos for explanation). If it isn’t raining, we usually sit on one of the benches next to the Palace on the Dam and watch the world taking place. There’s always such a relaxed, cosmopolitan vibe. Great stuff.

First mission accomplished, we ran the gaunlet of shops down Kalverstraat. This time we escaped Fame Music with one CD, the new Coldplay. Marcel was looking for a jacket, so we stopped at a few shops on the way. He tried on all sorts of jackets. The one-size-too-small biker jacket cracked us both up.

A glance at our watch reminded us of our second goal for the day, to enjoy a Kilkenny while watching the Springbok rugby match. There are lots of ways to get around Amsterdam. By bicycle, horse-drawn cart, trams, buses, taxis, bicycle-taxis, and our favourite method, “de benenwagen” … “the leg wagon”.

So we footed past Rokin towards Leidseplein; our favourite hangout in Amsterdam. We arrived at our “local Irish Pub” and Marcel went inside to see if the rugby match was showing. I took some snaps of the newly erected ice-rink and passersby. Marcel returned disappointed.

Darn football! Why does it always take preference over other sports? (LOL)

We’d taken the chance of walking all the way to Leidseplain because if the rugby was showing it would have been a double bonus. Now we needed to make a choice.

But let’s first explain … Dutch tv doesn’t show rugby. Ok, once … the last World Cup final (when the Boks won) The commentators had to explain the rules during the final! The English / Irish pubs show “different sports” through satellite. The BBC normally only shows rugby when England are involved in the test matches.

So to be able to watch the Springboks in action was a rare opportunity. And because we’d lost track of the time during our “shopping”, the call had become tougher. If we had a Kilkenny now, there wouldn’t be enough time to get back to Lelystad without missing the game. So would it be rugby or Kilkenny?

The odds weighed in favour that we would visit Amsterdam for a Kilkenny sooner than we’d be able to watch the Boks in action again. So rather disappointed that our plans didn’t work out as we wanted them to, we forfeited the Kilkenny, and retraced our steps.

Even when you’re in rush, you’ve still got to smell the roses, right? I VERY QUICKLY tooks some snaps of the Flower Market en-route. We also came across a “Zwarte Piet”, one of the helpers who’d just arrived with Sinterklaas from Spain (read about the tradition in “The Festive Season, As It Should Be“).

In spite of the setback, it was another good day in Amsterdam. And the rugby was fabulous! Talk about a beating! The Boks were in top form