Amsterdam Canal Sunset Glow Countdown Timer

The sun does not set in Amsterdam so much as it slides down the canal and catches everything in the water. I was standing on a bridge on the Prinsengracht side, I think, though after a few days every canal starts to look like the same canal and you stop checking the signs. Houseboats lined both banks, low and wide, with potted plants and bicycles chained to the roofs and one man sitting on a deck chair reading a newspaper as if the whole orange sky belonged to him. The light got into the ripples and broke into a thousand small coins. A tour boat went past with its roof open and everyone on it turned to face the sun at the same time, which is a thing you only notice from the bank. Somewhere behind me a bell rang the half hour and then stopped, as if it had thought better of it. I waited until the sun was a flat disc sitting on the waterline, then waited a little longer, until the coins went out one by one. A heron landed on a mooring post and refused to move for anyone, which felt like a fair review of the entire evening.