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plan to meet with the delegation from Alaska and coordinate early exploration with them

Excellent!
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Museum or two will certainly be on the agenda (what do you recommend apart from Rijksmuseum?)


The van gogh is a must despite being a "must"
The Jewish museum and/or the resistance museum are actually pretty interesting, much better than the Anne Frank house.
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but I think the most time will be spent "soaking in the feel of the place", so to speak.


Absolutely! Just sitting in a couple of cafés observing people is a good way to experience Amsterdam (well, goes for Paris, Barcelona, Florence and a bunch of other places too ).
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I am sure I will have questions after perusing my guides for a while


Feel free to bombard me with questions
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Ah, yes: one of my obligatory points of interest is somewhere high with wide view (like TV towers, Eiffel Tower or (sigh ) WTC twin towers), provided that there 's an elevator . Recommendation appreciated.

Ummh, this is the Low Countries, so a kitchen ladder is considered a high place.

There are a couple of church belltowers in Amsterdam that have public access, but no elevator. A couple of top-floor cafés/restaurants - recommend the old post office building next to Central Station. But as far as I know, no public access to TV towers. But I will check...