Europe 2026 – Day 23 – Amsterdam to Toronto

As predicted by the conductor when we boarded the train, even though it was an hour late leaving Berlin, we arrived in Amsterdam exactly on time. I set my alarm for 30 minutes before the arrival time so that I could use the bathroom and have everything organized to get off the train quickly.

It was a beautiful morning as the train came into Amsterdam.

Each time we went back-and-forth across the IJ River on the free ferry we noticed this restaurant at the dock. We thought we would try it for breakfast this morning, but we were too early at just after 6:30 AM. So we walked back into the station and went to a coffee shop called Julia’s where we had some coffee and pastries.

Next, we went to the luggage storage facility adjacent to the central station. I was shocked at how much it was to store our luggage.  When Michael and I were in Prague, we left our luggage in the central station and it cost us under €4. In Amsterdam, for an extra large locker, which was big enough to store all of our luggage, it was €36 which we split two ways. It was a lot of money, but, it was better than lugging it around while we went sightseeing. There were signs in several places in the facility explaining that the price included unlocking ONLY ONCE. Alina put in her suitcase then in my sleep deprived state, after putting my stuff into the locker, I closed it without checking if Alina had stored everything that she wanted to. She had not. So I went to the front desk and pleaded my case, and the employee did come and unlock the locker for us to allow us to finish stowing our things. Rain was forecasted, but it hadn’t started yet, and our flight was not until nearly 6 PM.

We decided it was time for a second breakfast. We found a reasonably priced restaurant north, not far from the station.

It was a Monday morning, but there was very little motor vehicle traffic. People mostly get around by streetcar, walking, and cycling.

This 15th century church is known as De Nieuwe Kerk, or the new church. I find it interesting how they have built other building buildings right up against the church. We also saw this in Haarlem next to a church.

Magna Plaza was originally a post office dating back to 1899.  It is one of the top 100 monumental buildings in the Netherlands featuring both neo-Gothic and neo- renaissance styles.

When we were in Amsterdam a couple weeks ago it was from Monday to Saturday morning. We were impressed that despite crowds of tourists the city was incredibly clean. There was no litter. However, this morning (a Monday) we did see litter perhaps from even bigger weekend crowds. But, workers were out sweeping and blowing litter into the path of street sweeping trucks. Amsterdam is a much cleaner city than Berlin where we saw a lot of litter day after day.

This gift shop had tulips and clogs for tourists to pose with. 

We decided to visit The Sex Museum, a small museum a few blocks from the central station.  It was an interesting museum, the first of its kind in the world when it opened in the 1970s. I would recommend it.

Most of the pictures that I took there are NSFW (not safe for work).  The building layout was interesting. As were the all gender bathroom fixtures.

This video would begin playing when someone started to wash their hands. There is nudity in the latter half of the video below.

When we were finished there, it had started to rain so we decided to pick up our luggage and take the train to the airport. This time the train to the airport was uncrowded unlike nine days ago on a Saturday evening.

We were checked in and through security by 3 PM for our 5:50 PM flight. This clock in the departure area is a work of art called Clock Man by Maarten Baas. It is a seamless 12-hour continuous video recording of an actor (Tiago Sá da Costa) filmed wiping away the old time and drawing a new hand every minute.

We found a reasonably priced place to buy lunch with very comfortable chairs adjacent to it.

The rain had stopped, and there was a beautiful sky by the time we took off.

The food served on the plane was reasonably good for airplane, food, and plentiful.

We had good views as we descended into Toronto. In the first picture, you can see the Finch hydro corridor trail in the bottom left corner. In the second, you can see the stables that Woodbine racetrack.

I texted Michael that we had landed and he and Alun started driving to pick us up. However, our van broke down before he got to the airport. He called CAA for a tow. Cindy came to the rescue and picked us up, even though she had just flown in five hours earlier. As she was driving us north on Torbram Road the tow truck was just dropping off our van and the guys at our garage so she picked them up and dropped us all at home. Thanks, Cindy. Fortunately, it was a small repair involving replacing the thermostat.

It was a wonderful trip with a wonderful friends. It was also good to be back home with family.