I’m sure in any game of word association, the first thing to spring to mind for Amsterdam would be “canals”. Here are a few of my favourite canal scenes, offered without commentary, from our most recent visit in May.

This was our eighth stay in the city, but it was different from the others in two ways. One, we had never been at this time of year so hadn’t experienced Amsterdam in warm sunshine before, and two, we weren’t alone – we were accompanied by our friends Valerie and Kenn. They had only made one half-day visit to Amsterdam many years ago, so naturally we were pleased it was looking its best for them.

As it doesn’t seem that long since I wrote up our last trip, I’ve decided to do shorter, thematic posts this time, of which this is the first. The others are:

• Parks and gardens
• Decorative buildings
• Museums