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.
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?
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