We (Nikki and I) seem to have the knack of finding those record breaking years in Europe, when it comes to summer temperatures.

Today it hit 36 degrees Celsius! No complaints though we know what we had left behind in Cape Town.

If yesterday had been exploring the lesser known areas of Amsterdam and getting the alternative stories of its history, this morning we did the mainstream tourism trip to Zaanse Schans. Here we learnt about clog and cheese making (spoiler alert they use milk) and got up and close with the famous Dutch windmills. It was great experience although we were grateful for the time limit the bus driver gave us as we were starting to melt at the end (the bus had aircon). But we did manage to find a chocolate and Gelato shop before making our way back to Amsterdam.

On our bike tour yesterday we passed an old Navy dock next to the Maritime museum that had been opened up as swimming area that even had a lane roped portion. So we made our way there with some lunch. We definitely didn’t fit the majority demographic not being local, not arriving by bike and about three decades above average age but it was cool being a part of what is a very new summer activity for the locals. It only opened to the public in February this year and it was clearly being appreciated by the, I would guess, 1000s rather that 100s that were there when we rocked up.

I had an easy 20mim lap swim dodging the locals while Nikki took in the scenes in the shade under a tree.

We then planned to make our way back to Central Amsterdam and caught the first bus intending to transfer to another. But at the bus stop I noticed the, a brewery in a windmill that was on the list to visit. At bus stop 2 a local convinced us to step out of the queue and go and give it a visit.

After a lekker little beer tasting and some down time in the shaded garden we eventually did make our way back to the Centre of Amsterdam. After a bit of general exploring we decided to make a visit to the Red Light Secrets Museum which gave us an interesting perspective on the ‘inner workings’ of the area.

Then we went for a 30 min sauna (Tram 12) back to our hotel.

Tomorrow should be a very different day.