We are in Amsterdam. We are staying in the de Jordaan area in a houseboat on the canal. It is really lovely. It is everything I had hoped for and more. There are lots of houseboats moored along the canal. It is so peaceful here. Leafy and green. The occasional boat sails past and there is a family of ducks making a nest in a tyre on the boat next to ours. They are building the nest out of twigs and bits and pieces foraged from the canal. It is interesting to watch them collect the things for the nest. The de Jordaan area is very pretty. Narrow streets alongside the canals and little lanes with houses whose windows have boxes of pretty flowers and the doorways have climbing roses draped around them.

A lot of restaurants, cafes and bars line the streets spilling out onto the sidewalk. Planter boxes line the streets filled with flowers and shrubs.

Minature cars and bicycles are the main form of transport. There's more than 600,000 bicycles in Holland.