Amstel Zeilen

So, we have a problem: We just can't stop renting boats. Miguel (Francisco's brother), Elisa (Miguel's girlfriend) and our friend Matt are in town and when trying to decide the best way we could all spend a sunny Saturday afternoon, absolutely nothing other than, "Get on a boat and cruise the canals" would come to mind. So we did it. We grabbed some good food, music and headed back to boaty, endured the 15 second boat training course and we were off in a canal cruiser (Her name was Nina).

"I'm on a boat!" (ft. Mig and Bacon)

Francisco was again the captain, Miguel and Matt shared the very important role of "Look out for other boats we might hit" and I was in charge of navigating the canal cruiser. Like last time, Boaty gave us a laminated sheet which outlined a couple of boating instructions and also contained a map with different routes we could take (The downtown route, The out of town route, the South East route).

I first directed the captain to take the downtown route; we cruised through Jordaan and stopped in the area for some french fries with mayonnaise.

When we finished this loop, we decided we should live on the edge and go a little off the map. We took some other canals to check out the flower market, Waterloopein market and the hotel Alicia Keys was staying at. We enjoyed our own makeshift cruise so much, we kept at it and ventured through some other turning, winding canals. Their names? No idea. I just know they were not Prinsengracht or Herengracht, which were the canals we were supposed to stay on.

Anyway, all was going well until a sudden gust of wind picked up our laminated map and tossed it overboard. We tried to reverse the boat to grab it, but that map sunk faster than my waitressing career. It was a very tense couple of minutes but luckily, we did have a rough idea of where we were and got ourselves back to the Amstel River. From here, it was easy to navigate ourselves back.

Amstel, straight ahead!

Aside from being potentially "lost at sea" (or "lost in canal," I guess I should say), we all agreed it was the best way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon.