Day 5:Amsterdam

My day started early due to a mishap with technology. Lisa at the international school had emailed me a time and schedule to come tomorrow...but the email never got to me. So unsure what to do, I just decided to show up and see what happened. If I was a day early well at least I showed initiative and if I was on time, perfect. Well, after cycling for 7 km in the fog (which I loved by the way), Lisa and I discovered the missing email. So I packed up my stuff and cycled on home again. Cycling 14 km in the space of 90 minutes is a bit tiring so I spent the rest of the morning snoozing.

Right before noon I headed out to the Museum Willet-Holthuijsen which is an old canalhouse that they've restored to its fanciness. It would have been super awesome had they not contracted with an art school to do a textile exhibit. Oh my gosh, worst exhibit ever! They had mannequins wearing really, really poorly made clothes (we're not even talking Project Runway bad. It was worse.) scattered randomly among the rooms along with huge lifesize sketches of sections of the rooms that were covering the actual room! How ridiculous is that?!?! I'm sorry, I didn't come to see a pencil sketch of that marble fireplace, I came to see the actual fireplace! In addition, other poorly made clothes were randomly scattered on the floor of the rooms. Ugh. It was such a poor pairing as far as the clothes and the sketches did nothing for the canalhouse and the canalhouse did nothing for the exhibit.

After surviving that, I soothed myself by going shopping. Well, browsing at least. I went to V&D's (a major department store) and HEMA (the Dutch Target). At HEMA I almost bought a ton of crap I didn't need which reminded me even more of Target's allure. By this time I was getting hungry so I went to this place:

I've been using a website called Spotted by Locals on this trip instead of Tripadvisor and I've been really pleased with the places they've picked out. This was no exception. They have fancy sandwiches and salads and contract with the local American bakery to sell cupcakes, cakes and cookies. I had a great late lunch of a Croque (sandwich dipped in egg and cooked) with goat's cheese, walnuts and honey with a boiled egg on top. It came with a small salad of shredded veggies sprinkled with raisins and dried blueberries. Double Yum! To end the meal, I had their double chocolate cookie which was super rich and lovely. 

Then I hopped on my bike to go to my requisite stop for any trip: a used English book store. This one, quite frankly, was disappointingly expensive. Way more expensive even than Paris. As I was walking out, suddenly a huge old-fashioned police van drove by and then two police officers on horseback trotted down the road with a film crew directly in front of them. I have no idea what was happening but it was different that's for sure. Looking at my watch I realized I had 10 minutes to get across town if I wanted to catch the premiere of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy for the Amsterdam Film Week. Despite my best efforts I was too late but they're showing it later this week so if I still want to see it there is time. 

I decided to try to find a store that sells designer clothes for half-price. I circled the neighborhood before finally parking my bike and walking up and down the street. I did go in a cool store called Raw Materials where they take left over wood or old cabinets and spruce them up and make them look cool...and charge a fortune for them. I wandered over to a "mall" which had maybe four shops tops and as the sun was setting discovered a grocery store to pick up dinner/breakfast at. Continuing on my weird police day, I watched as 13 police officers arrested a man who was yelling in the grocery store. Thirteen. Oh and four were outside. I don't know what he was saying but no one was too concerned and a few people were laughing. I just bought my stuff and pedaled away as fast as possible. As I cycled down the same street as Raw Materials, I saw the store I wanted to go to...I had passed it three times! But now the store front was lit up and you could actually see the sign. Oh well. 

Another day ended cycling through Vondelpark in the dark. It's such a relaxing ritual. There were fairy lights surrounding one of the ponds with a white tent next to it so it looked like some fun event was going to happen soon. I think I'll call it an early night since I'm waking up early again tomorrow, this time to go to the international school for real!

Day 3 & 4: Amsterdam

Halloween started with apple pie for breakfast at a fancy French bakery called Holtkamp. I had assumed it would have breakfast fare but it actually only had cake, pies and chocolates...oh darn. I ate my apple pie on a park bench and picked up some french fries for my movie. Yes, I went to a movie in the morning. It was half the price and the theater was almost empty. I did have to snarf down my fries in the lobby as the very nice ticket guy could smell them through my backpack, but he wasn't a jerk about it which was nice.

I saw Midnight in Paris which is the new Woody Allen film. I'm not a Woody Allen fan and can't stand Owen Wilson, but Paris, ah Paris so of course I wanted to see it. It was lovely and cheesy with literary and artistic jokes and funny puns. Basically a movie made for me.

After the movie I went to Singel 404 for lunch...well, I attempted to, but it was so busy I decided to puts around. I found an English bookstore (I must have a radar for these things) and browsed until about 2PM. By now I was super hungry. There was one other girl in front of me at Singel 404 but I ended up waiting 20 minutes to get a stool at the windowsill. An additional 20 minutes passed before my meal showed up. My homemade lemonade was gross...I don't know how they managed to make it taste like Tang without any sugar. BUT my open-faced sandwich...oh my goodness!!! It was the size of my plate (what is it with Amsterdam restaurants and plate-sized meals?) It was a slice, okay, more like the entire side of a loaf of brown bread. On top was a layer of thinly sliced ham, then grilled bell peppers and zucchini topped with loads of Brie cheese and baked in the oven. Heavenly!!! And super cheap at only 6 euros.

After late lunch I cycled to the Nemo, a science museum for kids. I scanned my Museumkaart and went in...to an empty museum. Weird. I wandered around hanging wires and buckets and finally asked someone and they went, "Oh, the museum is closed on Mondays. How did you get in?" Anyway, I decided to take a different route home since it was so beautiful out. I thought I'd go back to the forest/bog area and cycle around. Somehow I got completely turned around and ended up in a Western suburb. After about an hour of random cycling I found my way to my apartment, exhausted and definitely ready to rest. I skyped with Matti and Jose and then called it a night.

Tuesday I was determined not to get lost again! I wanted to stop at the Flower Market in the morning before it got hit by all the tourists. Unfortunately, due to the time of year the Flower Market is actually the Bulb Market as no flowers are really in bloom. So I hopped on my bike and headed to the Hermitage Museum.

Riding through a busy square I officially earned my first Amsterdam scar. I hit a pole, one of those annoying little ones that are used to control traffic so crazy cyclists like me don't cut through traffic My front wheel made it through, but the rest of me and Sylvia bounced off and crashed. Other than scaring a tourist half to death and getting an egg-shaped nob on my right knee, I was fine and kept going. With an ice pack tonight I should be good.

Despite all my best efforts I did get lost on the way to the Hermitage, even passed the place but didn't recognize it. After back-tracking I finally made it and enjoyed their exhibit of Ruben and Van Dyck paintings. I then cycled back to the Nemo and had a blast. They had so many fun interactive exhibits. AND I was very proud to find out that I was one of the few museum guests to correctly identify a witness in a crime (you had to watch a video, walk halfway across the museum, see a line up of people and choose the right person). Scientifically eye-witness accounts aren't all that accurate usually (cue Corner Gas episode where Wanda gives Karen's speech on the faultiness of eye witness accounts...and no one realizes it's Wanda).

Afterwards I toodled over to the library and finished the book I started "The Housekeeper and the Professor". Then I stopped at Vapiano and had a crazy pasta dish with creamy pesto, ham and chocolate chips (it was actually good!). Then I stopped in the Van Gosh museum again (I forgot to mention I was there on Saturday night as well but got tired and only saw half the museum). That's the joy of the Museumkaart. You can go back as many times as you want. They had great exhibits on how they're attempting to restore Van Gogh's famous Bedroom painting. He evidently used painted that had a chemical that fades very quickly over time so although the walls of the room now look light blue, they used to be pale violet. Lots of cool scientific stuff. They even had iPads that you could use to "X-ray" paintings to see the paintings underneath that he had scraped away to save money on canvas.

By now it was super dark even though it was only 5:45PM so I joined the pack that was cycling through Vondelpark. It was so fun. Most parks are closed once the sun goes down but Vondelpark was full of bicycles and joggers, each little red or white dots weaving through the trees. What a great way to end the day!

Day 2: Amsterdam

Daylight saving time, how I love you! I got a whole extra hour of sleep. Okay, I might of had I not woken up panicked that I had forgotten it was daylight savings and that my phone's alarm would go off an hour early.

Anyway, woke up and started my cycle to church! The Crossroads international church is a block or two from the international school so it seemed like good practice. Wow...Sylvia is definitely not a bike made for comfort. Thankfully I was cycling directly south for 6 km so no worries about getting lost.

Made it to church just on time. They meet in Amstelveen college and the auditorium functions as the sanctuary. Unlike most churches that use auditoriums they had a circular set up. So in the middle of the court, a little stage was set up, just big enough for the worship band to be in a circle. All the chairs were in the circular pattern facing the middle. There was a massive amount of chairs and people filling them but it felt so intimate because of the set up.

After church I cycled past the school for future reference and then had a brilliant idea that I would cycle to the Amstel river from where I was. My tourguide book's maps only reached so far south but showed the road I was on and a road next to it. What it left out was the 30 bazillion other little roads around the area. Needless to say, I got completely lost in the middle of a forest/bog area.

After trudging through the cool forest/bog area (note to self come back with a map!), I found a main street that got me to another main street that eventually led to Amstelpark. According to Frommer's (thanks for your crappy maps!), Amstelpark is a small quiet park.
Awww...look at that quiet bridge...

Yeah, turns out that Amstelpark is a huge park for kids with several play areas, two restaurants, a train, a petting zoo of ponies, sheep and goats along with lots of confusing paths and canals. I managed to find an exit toward the river but it was one of those revolving gate things and I managed to wedge Sylvia and myself in this bright blue and yellow gate contraption. Thankfully just as a jogger was coming to my rescue yelling in Dutch, I managed to free myself and hop on my bike nonchalantly as if I always get stuck in children's park turnstiles.

I FINALLY found the Amstel River and enjoyed a leisurely cycle up north toward the center of town. I saw several crew teams rowing down the river as well as looking in all the houseboats that line the riverbank. Much to my surprise I ended up right near the Rembrandthuis so I locked up my bike and went in (thank you Museumkaart!!!)

The place was really cool with reconstructions of his house. We know exactly what was in his house because in 16something he went bankrupt and they made a list of every single item in his house and where it was located. My favorite room was the kitchen with its huge hearth and box bed. The box bed is super short. According to the audioguide, people slept half sitting up because they were afraid if they lay down they'd die in the night. This was what I heard when I was in Finland too so I guess it was a common thought of the day. That and they were much shorter too. The top of the doorway came to the top of my forehead and the sink was down by my hips.

After lounging around in the lounge listening to a museum guard talk about all the stupid stuff people do as guests (someone once asked her, "So who painted this stuff?"  "Rembrandt"  "Really?"), I was feeling peckish. I cycled around the canal ring to The Pancake Bakery! I ordered freshly squeezed orange juice and a bacon pancake. Oh my Lord...

It filled the entire plate and tasted exactly how I had imagined...pancake, salty bacon, sweet syrup...I inhaled it which was good because they were busy and needed my table. 

By the time I was outside it was spritzing which I love so I toodled down to Leidseplein and looked up movie times for Midnight in Paris. Thankfully before purchasing a ticket I remembered that I was supposed to Skype my parents that night and also that a matinee would be half the price. So I walked through a few shops, picked up some French fries with mayo for the road and headed back through Vondelpark in the almost pitch dark (and it was only 5:45PM!) back to the apartment. Yet again, daylight savings time, what would I do without you?

Day 1:Amsterdam

So I haven't blogged in forever, but that's mostly because I've spent an awful lot of my holidays with other people. But for this holiday too much is going on that I do not want to forget.

Saturday--Day 1:
Got out of the apartment at about 9:45 and just started walking towards the museum quarter which is a 20 minute walk. Stopped at an underground grocery store and picked up the essentials: water bottle, ham/cheese filled croissants and caramel waffles! Since my plan for the day was fairly vague, I wandered past the Van Gogh Museum and decided I should probably pick up my Museumkaart. This thing is magic! For 44 euros, I have a year's worth of unlimited museum access to most of the museums in Holland! Woohoo!

The line at the Van Gogh museum was long so I went in the Rijksmuseum because the line was nonexistent. While I was there, I thought might as well go through this museum. They had some cool artifacts from Dutch colonial times and one super intricate doll house that you needed a ladder to see the top floors. The paintings on the second floor are the main attractions since 90% of the museums collection is being rented out. Only 13 rooms of this massive museum are open due to construction so I got to see a few Rembrandts and one Vermeer and then a bunch of other Dutch artists I don't know.

From there I decided it was time to get my bike so I attempted to find the bike shop and ended up wandering through most of downtown. By the time I got to the Central Station I was on plan B, find bike stand #2 and surprise, surprise, found myself in front of the Central Library. This place is gorgeous, I'll have to take pictures next time. I found a smallish book I wanted to read, settled down into a cozy corner and read for about an hour before deciding I should be out doing something else.

Later this week I want to visit Fifteen, which is Jamie Oliver's restaurant in Amsterdam. It's way out on a dock but close to the library so I found the location for future reference. Bike stand #2 was disappointing so I decided to give my bike place one more try (I also looked up the address again at the library). .And whala! I found it! Not only that I got the last bike they had AND since I was renting it for so long I got a discount. Thirty euros for 7 days, not too shabby!
Oh and this is Sylvia

On my new-found wheels I headed out for a late lunch at BurgerMeester. I had two mini hamburgers, the regular with all the toppings and the goat's cheese burger with caramelized apples and pickles. Yummy!

On the cycle home I buzzed through Vondelpark which I will definitely have to get better pictures of. I didn't even post the pictures because it is quite hard to take nice pictures on a moving bike. I stopped at the grocery store again to pick up more essentials: baguette, honey-flavoured goat's cheese, salted butter and strawberry jam and headed back to the apartment for the evening. 

I missed a bunch of excitement while I was gone. My host sold the couch and transported it across town by lowering it with pulleys and 4 friends out the window and down 3 stories and then used a wheelbarrow bike to bike it 7 km to its new home. Crazy. I guess it saves on a moving van. 

Day 10: Bruges

Yet another lovely breakfast but this one a bit sad as Kerry and Gretchen were heading out that morning to Amsterdam and we said goodbye. Tried Pascal’s homemade jams (he didn’t make them but had a friend who did) and they were AMAZING! Grabbed a few things ad headed to the train station to catch a train to Bruges, a little Flemish town known for its cute, small town atmosphere and nearby canals and windmills. My plan using the Use IT map was to grab a cheap rental bike and bike out to the North Sea. The tours to do so cost almost 30 euros and a rental bike only cost 6 so doing it myself seemed like a good idea.

 

The map said to cycle toward Damme and then turn left and follow the canal. After Dame an hour and the sea. Easy. Also wrong. Sadly, there was a storm brewing out in the North Sea so there was quite a strong headwind as I cycled toward Damme which is a teeny, tiny town.  From there the directions didn’t match reality. The canal went two different directions and I guessed the cycling towards the source of the wind was where the sea was. I was correct, but the map’s assertion that it would take an hour was completely wrong. With the headwind, it was slow going and the terrain (path carved into the grass surrounded by trees…and random sheep) was adventurous going. (Come to find out later that the other side of the canal had a paved road…sigh)

Due to the treelined nature of the path, you couldn’t really see how much farther until I would reach my destination. I’d come to a road and hope that the sea was just up to the next road…and the next. When the canal widened and I started seeing signs for a town in front of me…another 10 km away. I gave up and turned around, this time finding the paved road. Much easier going with the tailwind and the smooth surface.

Come to find out that I was only about 8km from the sea, but it definitely was not intended to be an hour’s trip. More like two. Later looking at the map, I was terribly proud of myself for cycling so much and in a headwind too!

Returning to Bruges exhausted I picked up some grocery store chocolate to tie me over until I found a pommes stand. It was a letdown from Maison Antoine, but I think anything else in the world will be. I attempted to take pictures of the beautiful center of Bruges but was almost run over by tour groups, horse-drawn carriages and buses all at the same time. I cycled the perimeter of the town instead and then returned the bike to walk the center of town. Found a lovely Danish design store to browse and wandered around Bruges until the crowds got to me.

 Bruges really is small so hordes of tourist make it very difficult to even walk down the street. I can see the definite advantage of staying in Bruges, getting up early to do something, cycling in the afternoon and enjoying the evening when everyone has left. I hopped back on the train and returned to Brussels. It took a while to find a good restaurant still open so I opted for pasta and dropped exhausted into bed. 

Day 9: Brussels, books and friends

The best part about staying at a B&B is the second B…breakfast! I headed down to the posh basement kitchen were Pascal had laid out a gorgeous breakfast…breads, cheeses, meats, jams and other bread spreads, yogurt and fresh juices, tea or coffee in your own pot…perfect. There was already a couple down there when I arrived and it did not take long to figure out they were American too. As we chitchatted, the connections were funny. The husband Kerry had been born in Duluth but lived most of his life in East LA…eerily similar to my own Owatonna to San Diego story. Kerry also works for Southwest Airlines and who doesn't love Southwest? Gretchen, the wife, was so sweet asking lots of questions and telling me all about their trip to Bruges right before arriving in Brussels. We sat a full hour chatting about all sorts of things and as they were leaving, Gretchen asked if I was doing anything that night. As I had no real plans, they invited me out to dinner. Pascal recommended an authentic Belgian bistro  and our dinner date was set.

My agenda for the day was books…lots and lots of books. First of all, the Cook and Book bookstore. I had seen it featured on a design blog and absolutely loved it. Seeing it person was wonderful and made me wish I could read French. Each room had a theme based on the genre of books sold there . So comic books had super heroes and villains flying off the walls. The travel section had a huge trailer in the middle. In addition, the whole place is also a restaurant so there are a few tables in each room that also follow the theme. The travel section tables had a 1950’s dinner feel with tomato cans as light fixtures. The music section had a grand piano and the art and design section had a room within a room, made of different colored plastic. Crossing the courtyard, I came to the French fiction section which had black walls and books suspended from the ceiling. Next to it was the cooking section which not only had a little Fiat in it, but also the glass encased kitchen of the restaurant. While you were looking at cookbooks, you could glance up and watch the chef prepare someone’s lunch. The last room was the English book section which had an old British library feeling with dark wood, conversation red leather couches and lampshades adorned with the Union Jack.

After browsing through the whole place, I walked across the street to the big suburban mall and enjoyed putsing around. I picked up yet another meal at Ekki and some grocery store chocolate including the famous Gallier brand for 1 euro a bar! I accidentally picked up the white chocolate pistachio (I don’t like white chocolate) but it ended up being my favorite chocolate from the whole trip.

To continue the book theme, I metroed back into the center of town to go to Pele-Mele, Brussels’ huge used book store. Although almost the entire store is in French, there is a wall of English books in the back and is FULL of great finds! I got 6 great, almost brand-new books for 14 euros! A steal! Arms full of books, I managed to get back to the B&B, change for dinner and meet Gretchen and Kerry at the Belgian bistro near the Palais du Justice. Looking at the map, you don’t see it, but Brussels is built on hills so you have to take a huge elevator down from the Palais to the center of town.

I met up with Kerry and Gretchen and we had some traditional Belgian cuisine. I had a starter salad of shrimps, cucumber and salad that had been compressed into a tight circle with a wonderful sauce. It was so filling! I also tried the local cherry beer called Kriek which was ten times better than actual beer and had almost no alcohol content. Kerry had fish and asparagus and Gretchen had a fancy French meatloaf. Meeting them had been so natural, as if we already knew each other and dinner was a delight. We shared bites of everything family-style, complimented the chef and to my astonishment, Kerry and Gretchen paid. I felt so blessed just to make new friends so this was unexpected. We wandered around to find some ice cream and had a traditional Belgian cookie flavor before metroing back to the B&B. 

Day 8: Brussels!

Monday morning I packed up, said goodbye for probably the last time to that particular little apartment (sad , really, since it was kind of “my” place in Paris) and headed off to Gare du Nord to catch my train to Belgium. In one of the stranger train buying episodes of my life, this easy 1 and ½ hour train ride cost me 

more than my 5 and ½ hour train ride from Germany to Paris. Probably because it’s a popular route.

Hopped on the train which was comfy and sped off through the French countryside into Belgium. We arrived in one of Brussels three train stations and then I and the entire train load of passengers attempted to exit using only one escalator. Turns out the one station my train stops at is under extensive renovation. I easily found the metro and lucky for me, my B&B is near an incredibly good metro stop. Brussels has two circle lines that go around the whole city and come back to itself. This was very convenient but also very confusing because both directions are named very similar things. It took awhile to figure out which direction would take me directly to the center and which direction would take me through the suburbs and then the center.

The area where my B&B was located was very nice, with old art deco architecture. I arrived and Pascal, the owner was waiting for me. He carried my suitcase up three flights of stairs and let me settle into my room. It was gorgeous! High ceilings, rustic wooden floors, muted colors and big windows facing the garden. The room was so huge I felt like I could ballroom dance in it.

After chatting with Pascal to get a general idea of Brussels, I headed out for the most important tourist attraction first…French fries! Or probably should say pommes! Maison Antoine is the mecca of all Belgian pommes vendors and is definitely an attraction since you have to make your way to the EU quartier and the follow specific directions to get there. This is not the kind of place you just happen upon.  After waiting in line for 45 minutes, I finally received my own paper cone full of double-fried pommes with mayo dipping sauce. I sat in the shade on a park bench and ate the whole thing. It was glorious!  The outside of each fry was crunchy but the inside was soft and warm.

Since I didn’t really have a plan for the rest of the day, I wander through the EU quartier all the way back to the center of town.  Unfortunately, the map that Pascal gave me was super useful to him, but difficult if you didn’t speak both French AND Dutch. Many of the streets had both French AND Dutch names and so when comparing the map to the street sign, it would be confusing as the map would have a French name but the street sign would be in Dutch. Oh well.

I did the touristy Brussels thing which took all of 30 minutes since the big buildings in Brussels are either right next to each other or completely covered in scaffolding for renovation.  I had heard of a “young people’s” tourism board that gave out free maps, but when I found it, it was closed…in the middle of the day . The energy from the pommes was wearing out so I went to find a great “fish and chips” place all the guidebooks recommend…only to discover that too was closed but due to the Easter Monday holiday.

Walking back to the center of town, I hunted for a good, cheap eat for dinner but everything was either way too expensive, way too much food or just too touristy. Finally I found a place called Ekki that sold fresh, but pre-packaged salads, wraps and sandwiches. I grabbed a salad and warm pita sandwich and sat on a planter in the grand market square to eat. There was a string quartet busking and they were quite good. Dinner and music in a leafy setting? Perfect!


My first evening was made complete by the discovery of grocery store chocolate. Belgian grocery store chocolate is FAR superior to any other fancy chocolate in a special store you can get in Germany or the US. I got pistachio and dark chocolate filling and enjoyed my chocolate feast in my lovely B&B room before calling it a night.