Day: 15
Countries: 4 Cities:
7
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Favorite city…
Day 15
Sunday 3 January 2016
Just realized I've typed every entry so far under the year
2015. Whoops. Guess the tradition lives on, transitioning from incorrectly
dating worksheets in grade school to incorrectly dating journal. Alas. This
whole New Year thing shall take some getting used to…At any rate, I have a
whole year left still to get it right…
Anyway.
Current status:
Sitting at a short counter in the small second floor loft of
a tiny, Dutch, corner cafe called Small Talk Coffee Corner; sipping on a frothy
cappuccino sprinkled with these delicious little sugar rocks (discovered they
were sugar and not salt after careful and thorough investigation, namely, the
oh so reliable taste test); listening to the clunking of dishes coming out of
the dishwasher from down below and the clinking of silverware being put away in
their rightful places, all to the background tunes of your favorite American
boogie dance hits (We're “staying alive” here in Amsterdam on this beautiful
Sunday afternoon…).
~
Updated status: sitting across from Gracie at a table with a
single red candle and a hanging lamp over head, one of those colored glass dome
ones like grandma and grandpa used to have in their den by the davenport (not
their living room by their couch, like most people might call it… J); in a little Italian
restaurant off the beaten path in Jordaan in Amsterdam, called Cafe Koevet; with
soft Frank Sinatra-esque music basking us in its soft tunes; with four other
people in total in the restaurant—a Dutch speaking couple at the table kitty-korner
(or, as Gracie would say, katty-korner) from us and two workers who welcomed us
in; a dark interior highlighted by white napkins and silver silverware and
glowing red candles under the muted light; and a menu that promises this will
be a wonderful meal, hopefully the icing on the cake of a wonderfully filling
and delightful day J
~
Update number 3:
It was. It was the most delicious icing for the most
delectable of days. And that's enough of that metaphor…
~
Recap:
We had quite the full and wonderful day. Starting right away
again, at 7 am. Or more accurately, like 715 or 718 or so. Anyway. We got ready
and headed out into the rainy dreary dark. I swear it felt like 6 am and was
almost as dark as when we'd come back the night before…
And it's quiet. I mean for 8-9 am on a Saturday or Sunday
morning I would have thought there'd be more people out and about. But only a
few bikes were dinging their way down the sidewalk. The rest were all parked.
We made the 2.5 mi trek to our breakfast recommendation for
the day (brought to us by those girls we met at dinner Christmas Eve—really
glad we ran into them). Omelegg. So good. New best breakfast of the trip and
we've had a couple pretty fantastic breakfasts. Fresh made omelettes. Home
baked bread. Fresh squeezed Appel juice. The best juice I've ever drank (?
drunk? drinken? [[okay, I know for sure it’s not the last one but the drank vs.
drunk war continues to wage…will have to ask my Greek students who are grammar
pros compared to me…). Anyway. The juice
was like liquid apple pie. So good. Glad we went.
And then we walked back towards the Van Gogh Museum in Museum
Square about a half mile back. Got there just in time for our pre-purchased
tickets’ time stamp. Skipped the line and walked in, checked our coats, and
then started checking out the museum. Very nice museum. Well put together. Told
a story of his life, with highlights from the letters he would write to his
brother with whom he was very close.
Though we’d learned about Van Gogh in art class every grade
since grade one (and had an age-appropriate art project to match), there were
some things I didn't realize—like how mentally sick he was, that he shot
himself in the chest, that he did almost all his work in the span of 10 years,
that in the last year of his life he painted almost a painting a day, that his
sister-in-law and later his nephew was largely responsible for spreading his
work. And other things like that. Or that he drew almost as much as he painted.
And he was so disciplined, basically teaching himself how to paint and paint
well. And then practice practice practicing…
It was a neat museum. But we were so tired. And standing and
looking at art just makes you even more tired. And we needed a little break. To
just sit down. Oh and it was kinda crazy. They had these little sitting boxes
made out of two by fours where people could sit if they got overstimulated by
the art. Apparently, there’s some legitimate syndrome where people actually get
dizzy and overwhelmed from looking at too much art for too long in too
concentrated of a setting/dose.
Next, we went over to the Modern Art Museum to check out
their gift shop next because a painter Gracie's mom really likes has some work
there. Then we crossed the street and found the little corner cafe where I
started this entry. And then we walked down the street to the other corner of Museum
Square where the Rhijks Museum is. In front of it is the Iamsterdam sign so we
stopped there for a quick selfie before heading into the museum.
It's a very nice museum. Quite the collection of Dutch
artwork from the medieval ages and then from the 17th century on. And some
insanely huge paintings and other paintings with great detail. But again, we
were tired. Took a break on one of the couches. Skimmed over a painting here or
there. But it was a good trip.
Then we walked along the canal a couple blocks and stopped
for desert in this cute little cake shop Taart de m'n Tante. Delicious! Then we walked to the Heineken experience
which was right there. Which was a pretty fun at your own pace walk through
interactive tour.
After we were ready for an actual dinner and we were
thinking maybe Italian. So we started walking back toward the area we were in
the first night, Ledseiplen (which sounds to me like led Zeppelin in a Dutch
accent). But the restaurants there looked too bright and touristy and mediocre.
So we kept walking and then stopped by a corner tour ticket office to mooch off
their wifi and look up Italian restaurants near us. Gracie found one randomly
off some little blog that was about a mile away so we walked there. That's
where this entry continued. And it ended with gnocchi alla sorentina which was
hot and fresh and delicious and amazing. Rivals real Italian food. And we had
this amazing bread with fancy olive oil decorated with balsamic. So good.
And then we walked in the rain diagonally toward our air
bnb. We stopped at this little corner organic local market and picked up some
snacks. And then we came back to our place. Just past 8. Burning the midnight
oil here. Caught up with people from
home. Then we attempted repacking and
reorganizing all our stuff and amazingly and surprisingly enough managed to fit
it all into our two bags each. Which is really good.
We just finished the movie we fell asleep during the other
night and now just relaxing and catching up here before calling it a night.
Early start tomorrow for our travel day to Dublin. Will have to navigate the
tram to the train to the plane to the however we will get to the center of
Dublin. Anyway. Goodnight for now.
Amsterdam, you are wonderful. Today was so fun and I'd
recommend everything we did to anyone. Amsterdam, I think you are my favorite
place so far. Goodnight.
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