There were shops all over Amsterdam selling plastic ducks. After passing several , I went in to one to ask ‘Why?” It seems they are simply a retail opportunity to attract tourists!

One of the Duck shops

Information re ducks

I loved the decoration outside a shop selling children’s clothes, the decoration comprising of painted bicycle parts and enormous knitted strawberries!

On the corner of the street near our hotel, Roemers Hotel, was a house beautifully decorated with blue and white tiles near the top of the building. Lower down was a plaque to Maria Tesselschade Roemers Visscher. She is described by her friends mentioned below as  “attractive, musically talented, and a skilled translator and commentator from French and Italian.They also praised her skill at singing, painting, carving, glass engraving and tapestry work.” From Wikipedia.  

Here’s a translation for you:

If Tesselschade is unfamiliar to you, then you may know
That she was a friend of Roemer Visscher,

That she sat in the circle of singers
And with her stylus wrote wittily on the glass
And if you wish to find more merit and gifts
Speak to Huygens, Hooft and Vondel, her friends

PIETER HUISINGA BAKKER
Maria Tesselschade Roemers Visscher 1594 – 1649 poet