Europe '15: Part 2 - Eten & Drinken

Hello again.  You made it back.  Thank you.

Part two of this thrilling installment takes place in windy Amsterdam.  I flew out from London on Tuesday afternoon.  I am here with my mom and aunt- we met up there and were all on the same flight from Heathrow.  There was a moment of stress as they nearly missed the flight due to delays coming from Vancouver, but we all made it!

Amsterdam has been very windy and cold.  It started 5,000ft in the air as we were descending into the city, getting tossed around everywhere.  Apparently there was a bloody tornado in Germany on Tuesday (!!), so I guess we are feeling the effects of that.  Tuesday was a bit of a waste of a day – by the time we arrived and got to the apartment we are staying at, it was 5:30.

We have rented an Air BnB in the Jordaan district of the city.  We really struggled finding a hotel with 3 beds, so this ended up being the better option.  Although still expensive, it was cheaper than the hotels we were looking at, and it’s a pretty big open space at the top of a traditional Amsterdam house.  Not only that, but its in a lovely area around many restaurants, brown bars, shops, etc.

 

I have been a bit of a klutz while here, and it started on Tuesday night right after we arrived.  We were still familiarizing ourselves with the apartment, and I had a bit of a run in with a wooden 3D moose head that hangs above the bedside table in my room.  Its supposed to be art I guess and has a kind of trippy quality about it.  I find it hard to gauge how big it is.  So I went to bend down and pick something up from the table and basically slammed my head right into his wooden nose that was jutting out farther than I estimated.  The result was a huge bump and a bruise on my forehead.

Tuesday night we wondered around Jordaan and found a spot for dinner.  It was a holiday here (liberation day) so the restaurants were quite busy.  But we managed to find a nice Italian place and had a good little meal.  Most of the restaurants in this area are quite compact (small bar style), so we were lucky to find somewhere.  Very cool area though – lots of great looking places.

Wednesday morning proved even colder and windier than Tuesday.  I know its Europe and it can be cold, but its May.  May!  I was really hoping it would at least be ‘jeans and t-shirt’ weather and not ‘jeans, t-shirt, sweater, leather jacket and glove’ weather.  Oh well, I think Paris is supposed to be nicer next week. 

Anyway, we were up earlish and walked down to the Museum Quarter, aiming to get there as they opened.  Of course, we got lost (in the cold) which caused a bit of frustration.  I then had klutzy moment number 2 as I walked across some tiles which I quickly discovered were covered in a soapy or oily substance.  Queue the dramatic-arms-flailing-slip-sliding-slow-motion falling down scene.  For a moment I thought I was going to be able to maintain my balance, but no luck.  Over I went (in my white jeans) onto the dirty pavement.  The only saving grace was that it was a quiet street and there was no one around but my mom and aunt, who were gracious enough not to laugh.

When we finally made it to the Museum Quarter, we then had some trouble getting the museum tickets we wanted and the queues to get in everywhere were huge.  So, I decided to appease myself with a delicious, (two-million calorie??) hot waffle and Nutella.  Who says emotional eating doesn't work?  I was in a significantly better mood after my waffle.

We visited 3 museums that day– the van Gogh museum, the Stedelijk museum and the Rijksmuseum.  They were all good, but (surprisingly) by favourite of the bunch was the Stedelijk, which houses modernism and modern art.  Movements such as cubism, abstract, and de Stiji were the focus, which suited me, as this is my favourite type of art.  It was a good collection of Picassos, Kandinsky, Matisse, and so on.

The van Gogh museum was also very good – its quite remarkable how many paintings he painted in such a short time frame.  He only took up painting at 27 and was dead by 37, but still managed to create over 2,000 pieces.  By the end of his life, he was painting one a day.  His famous “Starry night” isnt there (its in New York apparently) but some of his other famous self portraits, sunflowers, the potato eaters, etc. were there.  It was a pretty impressive collection.

The Rijksmuseum was good, but by that point we were a bit weary and rushed through it.  I actually liked the old building just as much as the paintings in it.  The famous one in there is Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, which is an interesting painting.

Now, before you go thinking “wow, Siobhan sounds very cultured,” you should know that, as an interlude to all this museum-ing, we stopped at the Bols “museum.”  I use the word museum lightly for this one, as really it’s a 5 minute display followed by cocktails and shots for 14 euros.  You pay your money at the door, walk around a crummy “history of the cocktail” exhibit for 5 minutes and then use your free vouchers to have 1 cocktail and 2 shots.  Someone left us extra vouchers as well, so we ended up with not only our cocktails, but about 8 shots. We were a bit wobbly as we walked into the Rijksmuseum.

We had a very very good meal at another little restaurant in Jordaan.  A Spanish place.  This time we learnt our lesson and made a reservation. 

Thursday was largely devoted to eating and drinking (“eten & drinken” in Dutch).  We had a food tour booked which ran from 11-3.  We are all big food and wine fans, so we love doing tours of the local places to eat and drink.  The tour was mostly in Jordaan, and we tried various different local favourites, including famous apple pie, Indonesia/Suriname food, sausages, herring, fried fish, and licorice.  We then jumped on a lovely old boat and did a canal tour.  The boat is one of the oldest in the city and once took Winston Churchill around once.  It was very ornate and well maintained.  On the boat we had meatballs, bitterballen and dutch cheese, along with some local beer and Prosecco.  At the end, we had amazing little fluffy pancakes called poffertjes, which I think were my favourite of the whole day.

One of the things I love about these kinds of tours is observing the other people in the tour group.  Other than us, this tour was mostly American and Canadian couples and most people were fairly normal.  However, there was one solo woman from Singapore, who was a real piece of work.  She was large and clumsy and consistently pushed everyone out of the way to take pictures of all the food.  At one point, she rushed in to take a picture of some cheese and knocked her full glass of Prosecco all over the table.  She also had the same conversation with everyone, “Have you been to Singapore?  Did you have the chilli crab? Did you love the food?”  Entertaining.

At the end of the tour, feeling very full, we decided to do what anyone would do- drink more wine.  The sun was making a brief and fleeting appearance, so suddenly everyone was out and about.  All of a sudden, every restaurant and café had put tables out on the street and people were flocking.  I’m starting to believe the sun and warmth is such a rarity here that even a glimpse of a warm day calls for celebration.  It was like a different city.

We wondered around a bit more in the afternoon, looking at some traditional houses, and a little museum, but ultimately were too full to do much.  A saving grace with all this eating is the amount of walking we have been doing.  I am wearing my fitbit and we’ve been doing 20,000+ steps per day.  Anyone who has ever step counted knows that that is a lot.  On a good day in Sydney, if I walk to and from work and go to the gym, I might hit 12,000.  So 21,000 is a massive day.

One thing we've noticed is that lots of people here are really not shy and leave their curtains wide open for any passerby to see in.  Because the houses are literally right on the street, you sometimes walk by and look in and see a whole family having dinner or watching TV.  It’s a bit odd.  At first we found it kind of strange looking into people’s homes while they are there, but our food tour guide said that everyone does it and it’s the Calvinism attitude of “I have nothing to hide” that a lot of Dutch people follow.  Apparently there is often a naked man in one of the windows where they walk by on the tour.  The day we did it, he was in the window, but was clothed, which was a good thing because he was not exactly young or fit.

Thursday evening we lucked out and found a fantastic little wine bar.  We weren't especially hungry, so really just wanted wine and nibbles.  The place we found (once again in Jordaan) was excellent.  Olives, cheese, hot baked bread with olive oil and bruschetta.  It was really excellent. 

Friday and Saturday were largely the same – more museums, excessive eating and lots of wine.  On Friday we were to the Dutch resistance museum in the old Jewish quarter, which was excellent.  We really enjoyed it.  We also went to some old houses (Rembrandt’s house and an old socialites house from the 1800s) which are interesting to walk around and see. 

I met up with my friend, Bart, on Friday night for a few drinks in Jordaan.  It wasn't too late a night as he was sick, but it was nice to see him and catch up.  I mentioned in my last blog that Emma and Jeff were friends from Perth, and Bart is as well.  So I've seen 3 Perth friends in the last week, which is nice!

Saturday morning we went to Anne Frank’s house.  My mom knew that you could avoid the crazy line ups (which we saw Thursday stretching down the street, around the corner and down the neighbouring block) by reserving a spot online in advance for $0.50.  You have to do this months in advance as the spots are limited, but the result was that we were given a time to arrive, and completely bypassed the line.

I've been to the Anne Frank house before when I was 13 and I remembered bits of it, so I was looking forward to it.  But it ended up being quite a disappointment.  We remember there being furniture in the house 15 years ago, but now its just the empty rooms with a few descriptions on the walls.  Its also insanely busy.  We avoided the massive queue outside, but inside because it is so small, you end up walking around in a big slow moving line.  Would have been pretty pissed off if we waited for hours just to see some empty rooms.  Anyway, we once again appeased ourselves with food – this time going for those big dutch Pancakes. 

Afterwards we went to some more old houses which are now a museum.  What was interesting about these ones was that there was a church in the attic.  Catholicism was banned here in the Netherlands for a few hundred years back in the day, so the Catholics built hidden churches so they could continue practicing their religion.  The attics of 3 houses were combined (by knocking down walls) and made into a large hidden church.  It was pretty unexpected – downstairs just looks like average old houses, until you go upstairs and there is a huge cathedral. 

Of course, this is in the area which is now the red light district, so afterwards we wandered through to get to the shopping area.  Without meaning to, we ended up walking through some of the streets where the prostitutes stand in the windows on display.  Its kind of like they are in a vending machine.  Its all very strange.  The rest of the area was so dumpy.  It was, “Coffee Shops,” pizza joints, and sex stores, along with a lot of really grubby looking tourists. 

Speaking of tourists, there seems to be a million bucks and hens parties here for the weekend from the UK, France and Germany.   They all book canal rides on boats which serve alcohol and ride around yelling and being noisy.  I guess it would be a fun place to come for a weekend, if you lived in Western Europe.

Saturday night we went for traditional rijsttafel, which is Indonesian food.  You get about 15 little courses and rice, and man was it good.  Satay chicken, young mango salsa, prawns in chilli, fried chicken in chilli, beef rendang, cucumber salad, chicken dumplings, etc etc.  I’m not normally a huge Indonesian food fan, but this was excellent.  I think what I liked is that you get so much variety there is bound to be at least a few things you really like. 

We are on the train to Paris now.  We are travelling first class, because, well, why not.  It was only marginally more expensive than the next level ticket and we get a meal with wine, free wifi, etc.  Overall, I really enjoyed Amsterdam – found it to be a good mix of culture, eten & drinken.  Its also quite a pleasant place to just get lost as the city is beautiful. 

One last post from Paris next weekend.

SH