According to Toli, Dutch is very difficult to speak but easy to spell. Just add some extra vowels or double them (like "Centraal"), or flip the order (like "Chinees"). Also, if you have an "i", just stick a "j" after it ("Tijger"), and you're golden. ;)
We did end up staying that extra day in Amsterdam, and a good thing too. We spent the morning at the Albert Cuyp market, eating lots of yummies (New Year's pastries like appelflappen, oliebollen, berliners, plus some Greek goodies) and looking at all the items for sale. You can find just about anything at this marketplace from Christmas lights to shampoo to Chinese ("Chinees") bric-a-brac.
Then, of course, we had to see the Poetzenboot. There's a little old Asian man named Gordon who volunteers there, and he is so cute with the cats! We chatted with him a little about the organization (the history, the number of cats, docking fees, etc.) while playing with the furry felines. One of them reminded us of "Leo" at Thundering Paws - all black, very talkative, and very eager to be petted. He literally crept into Christine's arms. And there was also a "schizo" cat like Pascal - luckily Gordon warned us about her, so Toli's reflexes were on high alert while petting her. She jabbed at him several times, but he managed to get away scratch-free.
Then, we spent a few hours at the Van Gogh museum, which really should be renamed the "Vincent & Friends" museum, since they have some works by artist friends of his like Bernard and Gauguin. It was a wonderful collection, spanning the breadth of his career. And not to sound like an art snob, but when it comes to Van Gogh, it's really worth seeing his works up close. You just can't capture the thickness of his brushstrokes on camera.
We tried again to go to the Upstairs Pancake House, but alas it was locked. We were well within their opening hours, and the light was on upstairs, but we rung the door bell, and nobody came. Boo hoo. We made it up by having another rice table at an Indonesian eatery called Kantjil and de Tijger. It was delicious, and we were glad to have the opportunity to try two different Indonesian places to compare and contrast.
And, by the way, Toli wanted to mention that there's a lingerie shop called "Christine le Duc" with a white cat as their mascot. With marketing like that, how could we not go in and purchase a souvenir from Amsterdam?
We'll be leaving Amsterdam tomorrow, probably for Maastricht. It might take us a few days until we get Internet access again so please don't forget us.
I guess I'll have to fix y'all those Dutch pancakes when you get back..........
I hope the "wafels" in Brussels, or elsewhere in Belgium will make up for the lack of pancakes.
By the way, you have to eat a 'vlaai" in Maastricht, that's the local pastry. They come with all kinds of fruit, but personally I like the "rijstevlaai" the best, without the whipped cream.... And since you're all experts on the Dutch language by now, you should be able to figure out what kind of "vlaai" this is......
Enjoy!