Had an Espresso, Cortado, Croissant and a slice of fig cheesecake that was too cute to pass up. Coffee was great but was the best croissant we've ever had.
After that we started walking to the Rijksmuseum and went through a long market on the way. Food stalls and cichey Amsterdam souvenirs/tshirts, weed logo caps.
The museum had a couple gardens nearby that we went to first. We had some time to kill before our entrance time at 11. Eventually went in and started walking.
Its a pretty long time to get through all the exhibits. They span from about 1500's to early 1900s and span the works from the Durch Golden Age of painting. Several Rembrandts, a Van Gough self portrait. Its 3 floors of exhibits.
The special exhibit turned out to be really cool, it was large scale model ships for ship designers to demonstrate their creations. A large section was various guns and rifles from 1500s forward. One very very long rifle was 3 meters long and was used to blast pellets across entire flocks of birds apparently.
We had to stop for breaks a few times, standing is hard and it was probably 4 hours of museum action. Had lunch there which was pretty good. Alex had smoked trout with rye and Sarah had a sandwich/soup set. Salsify soup (which apparently is a type of root) tasted kind of like clammy chowder with less clam with a bit of artichoke. Sandwich was gouda horseradish.
We left and took the metro for the first time. Really easy, we have 3 day passes (shouldve got 4 day but you can buy on the train). Scan the card and go to your stop. Google maps tells you the train number and they run all over the city. We crashed for another 3 hours or so, I fell asleep watching a "sport" on the bbc id never heard of called Snooker. Its basically pool with some goofy rules i was generally able to figure out. Apparently though later we missed out, a protestor at the snooker world champ on live tv climbed up on the billiard table and dumped orange chalk all over it. At any rate 90% of the crowd in snooker is bald white brits guys and 10% looks to be their wives they dragged along. Seemed similar to darts and bowling. Unrelated but sometime youtube the darts anthem. Its the song of the sounds like a lot of drunks yelling together.
Anyway we woke up around dinner and headed out for dinner to the Foodhallen. Its basically a higher quality food court. Beer and cocktails and different country foods. It was jam packed and we finally got a counterspace after getting our first round of food and waiting on some folks. We tried a bitterballen sample set, 6 types: beef stock, green curry, goat cheese, "old" cheese, beef, and truffle and parsnip. Amazingly the hotel roomservice bitterballen we had yesterday were the winners, didnt care for these as much. Split a small coppa di parma pizza, and got a couple small dessert tarts. Overall was fine but filling. Headed back to the train and to the hotel. Popped our freebie airline champagne and thats where were at now.
Dang, a real life Monet. That's fucking baller. Airline Champagne and dessert is the perfect way to start the trip
ReplyDeleteYeah pretty cool seeing Monet. He mustve done the self portrait before he cut off his nose.
DeleteMum here. Curious about the streets: Are most of them brick? I noticed the tracks and so many patterns (white dashed lines, black and white squares, etc). Any idea what those indicate? Lots of bikes! Doesn't look like they lock them up?? Love the tulips and the homes (floating, I assume) along the river...All so cool. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteThe bikes are locked. Red lanes are bikes, white stripes is pedestrian crossing, pretty simple overall. There are traffic lights just for bikes withe green and red bike symbols.
DeleteBlack and white squares is just where the train is coming so you dont get run over.