10/3 and 10/4

[ghost_light]

Mornings kept getting earlier, but at least getting to Amsterdam was quick and painless. Good ol' Jet2.com had a fleet of people working at check-in, though, so there was no wait at all.
Our hotel wouldn't let us check-in until 2, but they would let us leave our bags so we could go adventure. The original plan was to go out, then take a nap around 3 and try to stay up as long as we could since we'd have to be up at 3:30 or so to head to the airport, but we never got around to the nap.

We started out to get a hop-on hop-off pass for the canal tours, or at least a tram pass, then decided to get breakfast at Barney's Uptown instead. Then I got the bright idea of trying one of the other places Boom Chicago suggested, but we didn't have the guide. That began the Epic Quest - Go Retrieve the Map to Find the Location of the Epic Breakfast!
Yeah, that didn't happen so much. We made it about halfway to Boom Chicago but the force was weak with us. We found a great little Dutch place to eat instead. LonelyDumptruck got an omelet that was served over slices of bread. I got eggs, bacon and cheese, which ended up being 3 fried eggs cooked so the bacon was fused in the whites laid over 3 slices of bread and covered in melted cheese. Best meal of the whole trip, hands down.

After breakfast we rolled down to the theatre to grab a guide and then over to the Heineken Experience. I just couldn't resist - I wanted to see all the dolls singing "It's a Good Beer After All" (You're welcome, Kornopolous). Seriously, it wasn't that bad, but it was great marketing fun. My parents used to take me on the Budweiser Brewery tour when I was a kid. The Heineken Experience included a 4-D tour where they had you stand on moving platforms so they could turn you into a Heineken and give you the experience of dropping into the tank, sprayed us with water and shook us down the bottling line. We also got to personalize bottles, so we got one for Jay and one for Lori-O.

We started heading back to the hotel after the tour, but I got distracted by a conveyor belt sushi place. I have always wanted to try that and it ended up being some nice little nibbles. They put the time on top of every container, plus we could see what the chef was making and nabbed the tuna as soon as he was done making it.

By the time we got back to the place with the hop-on hop-off canal tours there were only two boats left so it wasn't worth the price. We got a regular one hour tour instead and then rushed down to Boom Chicago to try to catch the show. Unfortunately, I either misread it or their own guide was wrong, there was no Monday night show. Instead we stopped at one of the cafes in the square for beers and bitter ballen. I had seen those on menus all over town, but had no idea what they were. They tasted like little fried balls of gravy. The waiter I asked told me that he couldn't explain what they were in English. LonelyDumptruck was told they were a ragout of veal with some kind of thickener. Dead on delicious.

From there we just wandered back to our hotel and enjoyed the night. We did a bunch of last-minute gift shopping and stopped off for a drink at a place where I was stopped by a woman wanting to entertain us by reading my fortune with numerology. Turns out my honesty is my weakness and I should think and listen before opening my mouth, Thoughts, anyone? We also sat outside at a bar in the Red Light District (our hotel was right nearby, which was very handy) just to see how many customers the girl in the window got in the time it took us to finish our drinks (One, and she waved him off).

We finished up the night getting shawarma that was everything the donner kebabs from Wednesday wishes they could have been and then napped for a couple hours before catching the train to the airport. Our flight was delayed on the runway for half-an-hour with no explanation, but we had enough time between flights that the only consequence was that I didn't have enough time to grab another Diet Coke. The airport guards in Frankfurt let you put your drinks through the xray machine without saying a word, then invite you to either chug them or throw them out afterward. I threw mine out.

We got home with no hitched other than that and Geolinguist's birthday present being stolen by customs. Stupid rules.

The power must have blinked while we were gone. All the clocks needed to be reset and the heat was off, so we went out to lunch at Snow City Cafe and I picked up my script for the Opera before we settled in for a quick nap. I planned to go to rehearsal, but I ended up sleeping until 7 and I am headed back to bed now. Good night, world,