Woo hoo! Charles and I spent last weekend in Amsterdam. It was originally intended as just a little weekend getaway, but then also became an opportunity for us to start doing some shopping for the baby.
(Yes, I said "start" doing some shopping. Because I'm now seven months along and, aside from numerous books, we had yet to make any purchases related to the baby. It's true we've received some great outfits, bibs, board books and a few hand-me-downs from friends and family, but we haven't exactly put a dent in the list of "must-haves" yet. But I digress -- the trip to Amsterdam was a good opportunity to start shopping, as well as do a little sightseeing, eat some good food and get the heck out of Drenthe!)
Friday afternoon we checked into the Hotel Aalders. Located around the corner from the Rijksmuseum, VanGogh Museum and Concertgebouw, I would definitely recommend this place. It's clean, well-maintained, relatively inexpensive, in a quiet part of town and is still extremely accessible to the city. We took the tram out to the first store, BabyAnco, and picked out a car seat we liked (but didn't buy that day) and bought a few onesies and a hat. Yay for first purchases!
The second store, XSmall, was a little boutique. They had some really cute clothes, but they were pretty pricey. We should have bought the little orange, "Made in Holland" t-shirt we found, but we didn't. (Why didn't we? Because I'm cheap. Maybe next time.)
We got a fairly early reservation at Lucius and had a nice dinner next to the saltwater tank. Charles had the oyster sampler and Dover sole. I had the lobster bisque, sea bass (catch of the day) and vanilla ice cream with warm cherries. It was good enough that we'll probably go back.
Saturday morning we took the tram out to Thomas Green to stock up on Cadbury drinking chocolate, Walker's shortbread, A&W root beer, vanilla extract and other assorted British and American goodies. (For future reference, Kraft Cheesy Pasta is NOT the same as Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and rather tastes like armpits. But Cadbury Mini Cream Eggs are the shizzle!) We went back to BabyAnco, bought the car seat and dropped off all our loot at the hotel.
On our way out we decided to stop at Coster Diamonds. There are a handful of these diamond polishing companies around Amsterdam that advertise free tours, but we'd never gone in one before. A very very (very!) brief and rudimentary description of the diamond polishing process and the whole group of us was ushered up to the "showroom" (read: store). The "tour guide" was Korean, so she spent at least a half hour showing us all around the display cases trying to sell us jewelry and pushing rings onto my fingers. I admit - I quite enjoy having diamond rings pushed onto my fingers! But we told her we would think about it and return on Sunday.
We picked up some more Martelli pasta at Caulil's and went in search of Japanese Pancake World for lunch. Owned by a German guy (who does the cooking) and his Japanese wife, this was a great introduction to a part of Japanese cuisine I'd never encountered before. I admit that I ordered my pancake without mayonnaise because I assumed it wasn't authentic and was offered to please a Dutch palate that so cherishes mayo. But when the owner said it wouldn't be authentic without the mayonnaise - well, I told him I'd eat whatever he recommended. Tasty! And also huge - I couldn't finish mine. But I happily sucked down my little green tea milkshake.
We spent the rest of the afternoon basically wandering around the Jordaan under the pretense of looking for a nice journal (more on that later), but really it was mostly just to enjoy the fact that the sky was blue and it wasn't raining! We even bumped into another American friend and coworker who lives in the city -- the second time that's happened!
We went back to the hotel in the late afternoon so that I could take a nap. And then, after a drink near the Concertgebouw, took the tram out to the arena station in search of VandeMarkt where we had 8:30 dinner reservations. Our guidebook said that the owner goes to the market every morning and, based on what looks good that day, comes up with an exceptional fixed-price menu. Sounded good to us! We had a map, so we knew where we were. But we didn't really know where the restaurant was and spent about 20-30 minutes wandering around looking for it. We finally called at 8:50 for directions - and THE CHEF/OWNER CAME AND PICKED US UP IN HIS CAR. I admit it made me a teeny, tiny bit nervous that he would do that. Was it a really dangerous neighborhood? Was business really slow on a Saturday night and should that have been a warning to us? No, he just knew that his restaurant was really difficult to find, and he had five minutes to help us find it. And for us it was totally worth it.
Dinner was EXCELLENT. We started with an amuse-bouche - bites of smoked beef rolled with gorgonzola and goat cheese with a little balsamic vinegar. So good! I had the hot starter of scallops in a Thai green curry, and Charles had the cold starter of duck pate. Our entrees were filets of sea bass, and for dessert I had the chocolate torte with mousse and Charles had the creme brulee. SO GOOD. We are definitely going back there and taking with us anyone who ever comes to visit!!
Sunday morning we picked up the car from the Park & Ride lot out at Olympic Stadium, checked out of the hotel and loaded up our luggage and purchases, kept our free, lucky parking spot near the hotel and headed over to the VanGogh Museum. It was nice to walk around - I hadn't been there since our first visit to Amsterdam in '96 - and I even picked up a new poster of his Amandelbloesen to decorate the bare walls of my office.
Lunch was at Bagels & Beans and then we hit the road. We got home with daylight to spare and temperatures warm enough to do some weeding in the garden!