(The Dutch word for "please" is "alstublieft" - but Toli likes to say "pass the beef" instead. It doesn't really matter, though, because everyone here seems to speak English anyway!) Anyway, we're in the Netherlands! It was just a short drive from Henni and Peter's into Amsterdam, and we've been blessed with the mildest weather we've had this whole trip - 4 degrees Celsius here, compared to 0 in Germany. Believe us - it makes a big difference!
We very wisely parked our car at the Transferium outside the city and took the metro into the center of Amsterdam. The tourist office here, the VVV, is one of the most helpful we've ever come across. They found us a fabulous room at a really nice hotel at a bargain price, and we were able to buy museum tickets and all that to avoid the lines. That's one thing we've noticed about Amsterdam - there seems to be a lot of waiting in line.
Our first evening was spent scarfing down mounds of Indonesian food at a restaurant Henni and Peter recommended. The food and the service were fantastic, though we found it odd that the menu was printed in English/German/French - but not Dutch! (Toli asked later - they do have a Dutch menu, but it was pretty obvious that we were tourists.)
Then, we hit the (in)famous red-light district, with the sex shows and the women in the windows. It was strange, but not altogether that shocking. For some reason, we were expecting more out of it - like naked people carousing through the streets or something. Maybe it's more jarring once you get behind the curtains and closed doors; or in warmer weather. More amusing were the scores of Japanese tourists and other tour groups being led through the district.
Today, we had to move hotels, as they could only book us for that one night and were sold out the rest of the week. There was a mixup in the second hotel, as the girl at the VVV directed us to one end of the street, but the hotel was really located at the other end of the street - kind of a big deal here, since that's a difference of several kilometers, and it's not fun navigating that with all your luggage in the rain! One thing we learned very quickly - our bought-in-Texas umbrella was no match for the rain in Holland. That seems to be the case all-around, since we saw several umbrellas in nearby trash bins!
But after we found the hotel, things got better. We visited the Kattenkabinett - a museum devoted to works of art with felines. We saw works by Rembrandt, Picasso, and several by Steinlen (he's done the famous "Le Chat Noir" posters). Best of all, there were seven cats in residence, so we got to pet and love on some furry creatures. We then walked over to the Poetzenboot, a houseboat on the canal that is a non-profit cat sanctuary. Unfortunately, they're only open two hours a day, and we got there a bit after their closing hours. :( Oh well, at least we got to pet some cats earlier!
After that, we went to the Anne Frank house, where we spent about two hours touring the building and learning more about her life. There was an unbelievable number of tourists there, but it's a good thing that so many people have taken an interest. Looking out of the windows into the street, it's difficult to imagine that people were once hiding in that house for so long and even more difficult to imagine their eventual capture. The museum also has several other exhibits on tolerance, democracy, etc.
For dinner, we went to a restaurant that Christine's coworker Marjorie recommended - De Blonde Hollander. (We wanted to go to a pancake house she recommended, but it was closed.) We filled up on Dutch pea soup, some peas in this fatty sauce (yum!), and poffertjes and this semolina custard.
And that's about it. We were planning on leaving Amsterdam tomorrow morning, but we might end up staying a little longer. Being Sunday and all, a lot of things we wanted to see were closed or closed early. Plus, we'd really like another chance to catch the Poetzenboot...
Posted by Christine at December 28, 2003 02:57 PM