Dinsdag in Amsterdam

We passed a flower shop on our way to breakfast - what beautiful cabbage.

Breakfast was delicious. Dick and I both had cheese sandwiches.
Mike and Christina had the special fried eggs with ham, cheese and tomato. Yum.
We walked through a swap meet-style market, where I had herring, Dutch-style... (we'll have to get that photo off of Dick's camera later). Then we had a quick drink at Cafe Biljart. This is where we met Butchie the dog. He liked Christina.

We walked through one of the parks and took some photos.
Then we checked out the amazing Van Gogh Museum - which was really quite fantastic.

On our way home, we stopped at Van Dobben for the best croquettes ever.

Maandag: De zon schijnt

When we booked our accommodations we threw in a bus/canal tour. I talked about less-than-impressive bus tour on Saturday. Our canal tour was far better. The driver took us onto the Amstel, several canals, and out into the harbor. If it weren't for the glass windows, the photographic opportunities would have been better. The sun finally came out in the middle of the tour.



Next we shared some of those famous Dutch fries or frites, covered in mayonnaise and mustard. Before you assume that it's heavy and gross, I gotta say that the mayo is much more mild and creamy than mayonnaise I've had in the states. It's really pretty darn good.

Mike is serious about those frites.

Next we walked around the beautiful Jordaan area.
So many of the houses remind me of New York - you can really see the similarities in the layout and the architecture. It certainly drives home the fact that New York was once "New Amsterdam" initially inhabited by the Dutch.
On the plane trip out, I started crocheting a scarf for Dick, but unfortunately I ran out of yarn before I was able to finish it. This necessitated the discovery of de Afstap, a yarn shop in Amsterdam. A quick google search returned a blog post from someone who had visited the shop and it became our mission to find it. Mission accomplished.

He probably won't get his scarf until after the trip home, but the visit to the shop was great. The ladies who run the shop were really helpful. I got some beautiful wool yarn and Christina picked up a hand made hat while we were there.
I really love the prevalence of "shop pets" in these places!
During our boat tour, the guide pointed out what he called "the oldest Cafe" so we had to check it out. Built on the corner of Brouwersgracht and Prinsengracht in 1642 I'm not sure if Cafe Papeneiland is indeed the oldest, but apparently it is one of the oldest and well-known of the old cafes, known as "brown cafes".

We sat and enjoyed our beverages in the small, cozy, gellezig area upstairs. Speaking of gellezig: this is apparently a word used quite a bit in the Dutch language to mean warm, friendly, and cozy. There really is no English equivalent to the word, but I'm thinking it is the same as the German word gemütlich which my family has used ever since some German friends introduced it to us years ago. I'm finding that gellezig could be used to describe quite a few of the places we've visited on this trip.


As we continued to walk...

What do you think Mom & Dad, wouldn't be a bad look for Izzie, huh?


As the sun started to set...
Dat doet de deur dicht.

Zondag

The day started with a purple and orange sunrise
Mint tea at Stacey's Pennywell really is minty
Oh yeah, and I'm drinking coffee again - how could I not??
This was the best smoked salmon sandwich I've ever had.
This is for you, Alfonso.
flower stand
the boys
found in a shop window
leaning buildings
bikes everywhere!
don't they know it's snowing out here?

Zaterdag in Amsterdam

We started off our Saturday with a nice, long walk to a pancake restaurant Christina had read about. Mike took this shot of us on one of the many canal bridges along the way.
On that same walk, we saw a wedding taking place along the canal.
We also passed quite a few shops that I intend to revisit - here's a lomo camera shop window
I had heard about Dutch pancakes, and the fact that they're different than American pancakes, but I wasn't sure what to expect. Here Dick is deliberating.
I asked the waiter for his recommendation and as a result I had this delicious pancake with bacon, onions, tomatoes and cheese. Yum! As it turns out, we all ordered something completely different - and all of us enjoyed our meals. Next we got on a tour bus - we had purchased a canal/bus tour when we booked our hotel and flight. This one wasn't very impressive, consisting of ear buds plugged into a GPS-driven tour guide, which was often behind. Ah well... at least it was nice to get out of the rain for a little while.Later we walked through the shopping areas in the city center. I couldn't believe how busy it was - like going to a mall in the states the week before Christmas.
Dam Square was filled with bicycles and people today.We walked through the flower market - a long line of barges filled with seasonal flowers - due to the time of year we saw quite a few bulbs. I bet this place looks amazing in the spring.

't sneeuwt (It's snowing)

A quick update. I took a few photos while I was writing my last post. Here's the sunrise out our hotel window.
my peaceful little work area
and here's a shot I took when I thought it was snowing
correction: that was not snowing. This is snowing.