(no subject)

[ghost_light]

Greetings from Amsterdam! 

We started off for breakfast next door, but right after we ordered they discovered they had 200 people coming for lunch and the kitchen told everyone else to fuck off, but the waiter said we could get croisants from the shop across the street and eat them there.

 

We  did that, then I suggested we walk down to Barney's Uptown for proper food, because I do everything Boom Chicago* tells me. 

 

LonelyDumptruck  had  the scrambled egg intense roulade, a pancake roll-up with eggs, bacon, cheese, olives, sudried tomatoes and pinenuts, and I got an Irish breakfast, eggs, smoked bacon, sausage, potato cakes, a  tomato, beans and toast. Too much food!

This drove past us on the way to the Anne Frank Huis.  I am not kidding.

 

There was a large group of  Muslim women in line for the Anne Frank Huis, so we had a short wait to get in.  The annex was larger than I imagined it would be.  Otto Frank asked that all the rooms remain unfurnished, as all the furnishings were removed when they were arrested, but in 1999 someone dressed all the rooms for photos that hung with quotations from Anne's diary and descriptions.

 

After that we wandered towards the Leidseplein (which is a little like Times Square, but smaller and  with a Hard Rock Cafe) and the museums.  It was an amazing day, around 70 and not a cloud in the sky.  On the way I found an artist who designs t-shirts and I spent too much on one.  We also stepped off the tourist-go-round and had beers in the square outside Boom Chicago.

 

When we got there, the buskers were a trumpet, fiddle and guitar trio playing Putting on the Ritz and when we left it was a caporia demonstration.

 

We walked to and then all through the Van Gough museum.  I had a piece of crud in my shoe that became a blister on the sole of my foot, but I wouldn't let that stand between me and some art.

 

While I was reading up on Alton Brown ending Good Eats, the predictive link faries suggested I look at a page about the best street food in Amsterdam.  This led to me making a reservation at the one restaurant on this list, Nam Kee, which was noted for oysters in a black bean sauce.  I thought it was going to be a fancy place from that, but it turned out to be a small, popular, very authentic place.  They had dishes like chicken bowels and pork stomach on the menu.  We got six gorgeous oysters. 
LonelyDumptruck also ordered an oyster dish served in a clay pot and I got fried noodles with prawns.  Mine was well-cooked but disappointing, I had the same dish at a new Asian fusion place in Anchorage a few months ago, but

 

LonelyDumptruck 's was great.

How do you like them oysters/

 

After dinner we stopped at a rugby bar so

 

LonelyDumptruck could get some genever and I could continue my tour of witte beers.  We missed the last canal tour of the night, so it was back to bars and people watching for us.  LonelyDumptruck spotted an old guy wearing pants (thank Zod), a jacket, vest and nothing else.

 

For those of you reading this long,  here is a cookie.

 

These are the stairs to our room.

 

And now,  good night Amsterdam.  Good night train station.  Good night canals.  Good night bar next door.  Good night coffeehouses.  Good night Argentinan steak houses.  Good night stoners.  Good night cheese.  Good night everyone.

 

Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.

Comments

[alicephilippa.livejournal.com]

HArd to tell from the photo, but I think those stairs are similar in steepness to mine, that I haul (sometimes literally) myself up several times a day.

And, mmmm cookies!

[jenny_evergreen]

Eek stairs!

Hello, Amsterdam!

[harrietbrown.livejournal.com]

Wonderful! I hope you guys have a blast and post pictures every day!!!

[molly-grue.livejournal.com]

Did you go to a "cafe"? Is it true that they closed them all down?

[emploding.livejournal.com]

I'll be in Amsterdam next year, you must report back all the cool things to do and see :D

[layrenelement.livejournal.com]

I do love Alton Brown. We've recently been going through the Good Eats episodes on DVD here at our house. Hubby and I even got tickets to see his 10th anniversary taping in Atlanta when that came out, we're such big fans, lol.

Anyway, what a great idea to scour for recommendations that way! Sorry your dish was disappointing though.

I've never been a fan of oysters, myself. It looks too much like slime for me to want to eat it, lol.

Sounds like you're having a great trip! :D

[impetusofadream.livejournal.com]

Those stairs look...intimidating. Dunno if I could make it up them more than once a day.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

I'm so pleased that it was a short wait for the house. When i tried to go, there was a huge queue, and i decided that it would be unbearable to go in after being in such a crowd.
How do they regulate the number of people in the house at one time?
It's rather sad that Otto Frank's wishes haven't been respected, but perhaps people go there who haven't read the diary?
I still have the shorter version that was all that was available in the late 1950s/early 60s as well as the later less edited version

[shasplim.livejournal.com]

You gotta love a town that places large, clear labels around itself -- "AMSTERDAM" -- for when its visitors get too drunk and/or high to remember where they are.

[raechel]

SO AWESOME! I wish I could have gone before leaving Germany (had a ticket to go but it was canceled bc not enough people signed up)

[toadflax234.livejournal.com]

Great pics.

I see what you mean about those stairs. It was similar in Leiden, when we were there a few years back.