In Amsterdam

Day 2

Up for breakfast-- following the theme of the Dutchies and their desserts, they have an AWESOME breakfast system… I remember this from visiting Jenny and Kuin as well as from working at the hostel there back in 1998… Stacks and stacks of a variety of breads, with a variety of toppings, and we can mix and match however we want. Toppings included platters of meat, of course, as well as cheeses, nutella and chocolate sauce, jams, butter, and sprinkles… It's a fun game to play as we choose which toppings on which bread. I love this German bread that isn't really bread at all-- it's just flattened seeds and nuts… and it's a really dark brown… but I've liked ever since discovering it back then. (I just can't really think of it as "bread.")

AND there were waffles… also of course… from a store all wrapped up… so I grabbed a couple to eat during the day… b/c I'm all frugal and stuff… ;)

Everybody on the bus, and off to a cheese and clog factory. With a humongous old Dutchy gave us his spiel about the family business… wearing clogs and traditional clothing and playing up for the tourists, of course. Playing up, mind, not kissing up… He was quite nation-proud… and willing to disparage the UK, US, Germany, France, even Canada-- anywhere that wasn't as amazing as the Dutch… According to him they even invented something that was laughable… I'm not remembering now what it was… Probably the ability to make cheese or beer or something… :)

Don't get me wrong, though, he was a dry wit and this was all very funny! I enjoyed the show as he made a clog right there and then, and showed us where all the cheese was curing (right word?). YUM!! Have I mentioned the delicious cheese?!

And then there was the gift shop-- and even someone as frugal as me is still only human… :) So-- many Euros of cheese and keychains later… I get back on the bus with everyone else to head into the city… The bus driver has been doing this route for 20+ years, and he really knew everything… so he gave a bit of a bus tour driving us into town… the tour guide was a rookie, though oh-so sweet… and she told us all the bits she knew, too.

There was a canal tour, which is the kind of touristy thing I never do, so clearly I had to this time around… and was well timed, as the sky was threatening to open up and pour rain on us all, but at least the boat was covered! Score one for the tourists!! I took a picture or two… :)

After the tour, we were on free time… The bus would leave at 6 pm, but we were perfectly able to make our own way back to the hotel if we wanted to stay later… (and *we did*).

Things I wanted to do in my free day: get back to the old internet cafe I visited almost daily when I was in Amsterdam for a month (the month of April, no less) back in 98… Get a selfie at the Iamsterdam sign that wasn't THERE in 98… go to the Anne Frank house, that I had avoided in 98 as it seemed too depressing (it's no less depressing now, btw, but I have more guilt and shame to encourage me)… and hit up a coffee shop (REALLY coffee this time!) that was supposed to be the best in Amsterdam called Screaming Beans…

These are all the things I was able to do… I might have thought about other things, but there wasn't any time. Straight off the boat tour, our guide decided she really wanted to see the Anne Frank house, and I thought I'd tag along as then I'm hitting up one of my main things on my list and in a group for once. However, it was during high rush time, and we waited in line for 2 hours just to get inside the museum. AND I had only brought a light jacket (I don't know wtf I was thinking… I froze all weekend!) and of course it POURED. Eventually I bought a parka as my umbrella was useless in that wind… But same wind made parka similarly useless, really.

Only good thing about that line, with the big group of us holding places-- we could all wander off and come back… So one of my wanderings was to Screaming Beans… Where I was thinking I would sit in the cafe and enjoy my delicious coffee, instead I got it to go and drank it with the gang in line. In the rain… It was still yummy!! AND warm on my hands! And there was oh-so much bonding in the massive queue!

That was the most crowded museum I have *ever* been to! And this is counting London's Natural History Museum, British Museum, all these places that I actually just turn around and leave normally. But I stayed through this one… when will I ever do this again?! Answer: never… And it was stop and go all the way through the museum itself… And I got exactly the same feeling of growly anger as I do when in stop and go traffic in my car. I would have given ANYTHING not to be right behind the people I was behind-- ditto for the people behind me. I don't know if everyone is rude or what, but everyone felt the need to bump me, lean into me, step on my feet, kids liked to bump/hit/whatever my leg… I was doing zen breathing exercises to not completely lose my shit! Totally the wrong emotion for the Anne Frank house, I'm sure… BUT-- it's very well set up… though I believe it is almost always THAT crowded. She's one of the most famous authors in the world… Who of us didn't read her diary in school?! So I'm still glad I went… and weirdly grateful for all the annoyances. It kept me from getting all blubbery as I can do sometimes-- and if anything would make a person blubbery, it's the death of millions of children-- and oh-so many others!

Out of the museum finally, and the day was almost done. It was at least 5pm… The tour guide was heading back to the bus for the rendezvous, and I headed the other way for the Iamsterdam sign… AND the sun came out-- Ahhhhhhhhh!!

I took a picture or two (hundred) and then worked my way back up the city to the Nieumarkt where this Cafe in de Waag was that I keep mentioning. Still JUST like I remembered it. Like something straight out of Beowulf. Old and stone/brick with round turrets and wide open nothing inside. Huge iron chandeliers with real candles… I LOVE this place. In the photo with the people sitting at tables, those were all computer stations before… :) And thankfully, they still had computer access--now in the form of Wifi… I sat at the bar, as that's the easiest for not worrying about reservations and such… And got dinner (the only thing I could eat was a carrot ginger soup--he assured me it was veggie stock) and a genever (I liked the Hoppe brand at the hotel better) with a beer chaser (yum!). The bartender also had heard stories of the internet cafe here, but had never seen it himself. Probably wasn't alive then… Sheesh!! But he did say that when it opened it was such a big deal the prime minister came and logged online and such… So I'm not the only one that liked the place back then… :)

I actually stayed there for a while--it was just so nostalgic, and also warm, and also with Wifi!

Around 8:30 pm, I headed back to the hotel… where the open bar greeted me again… And all the people I'd been standing in line with for most of the day greeted me, too. We closed the place out just chewing the fat (this is a dangerous saying to throw around about a country that probably WOULD chew animal fat given the chance)… and finally dragged our bums to bed for another early morning… So bid farewell to Amsterdam… It was not NEARLY enough time… But at least I made it… I'd have absolutely hated to have missed it this time around… I didn't give myself nearly enough time in May to see everything. But this little trip helped!

And Amsterdam IS one of my favorite towns in Europe! And there's something weird that happens to me whenever I'm there: I get ridiculously proud of my Dutchy heritage and strut around and tell anyone who asks (or sometimes doesn't) that I'm Dutch on my mom's side… And of course everyone responds: clearly, I can tell, you are obviously somewhat Dutch… It's like another word for tall… :) But there's the other Dutch stuff that is cool as a tourist: not overly judgmental about stuff, good with money, amazing engineers, green because they want to be AND have to be… There is a ton that's cool there!! :) (This is why on just about all the visits to Europe from now on--I'll have to make time in there somewhere for visits to Amsterdam--or at least somewhere in the Netherlands--and Dublin… B/c believe me, I'll be bizarrely proud of my Irish heritage in about a month when I'm in Dublin! I can't wait to hear how people will "be able to tell" that I'm Irish: bright red cheeks? Big round face? What is "Irish"? I'm not exactly a red head…)

Perhaps never enjoyed a boiling hot shower more-- and it was a lovely shower… Something I cannot take for granted at the evil flat of evilness in London… And it had the half-shower glass wall like my place back in Rolla has… which is AWESOME and cool looking, imo...

And, head hits pillow, and...