Amsterdam has so much potential, and a goodbye

We must have gotten luck yesterday afternoon, since when we woke up it was raining and gross again. We decided to try to drop the car off today to give it a little head start, so I emailed the agency in Amsterdam to make sure we could. Angela hadn't gotten any post cards of Brugge yet, so we set out in the rain and wind to find some (and to find that waffle from last night, too). While we were out, the weather started to break just a little, reminding us a lot of yesterday actually.

We said goodbye to Brugge around 11:30 and made haste for Amsterdam. I had to get to the dropoff agency by 3pm and our SatNav told me we would get there around 2:30. Pretty close should we hit any traffic (which we did). I wound up getting there just in the nick of time at 2:45. We got all of the turn-in documentation filled out and had a taxi take us to our hotel; right on the back side of the red-light district and facing a nice, quiet canal near the Neuwe Markt.

By the time we checked in, the weather was awesome: predominantly blue sky and a nice temperature. We decided to do an exploratory walk down the "Damrak" to the Dam Square and down a small shopping street to the floating flower market.

We ate dinner on the "Zeedijk" at a hole in the wall Chinese (chinees in Dutch) place. Apparently, there really is no such thing as "Dutch" cuisine, since the only restaurants we can find are Asian, Italian, or Argentinian steakhouses (or all 3 in one).

My initial impression of Amsterdam is that if they would care that it looks like a dump with trash all over (including floating in the canals) and do something about it, that this would be the prettiest city in the world.