Amsterdam for the past two days and boarding the boat tomorrow!

I know I haven't been keeping up with posting every day - no good excuses other than flying to Amsterdam and enjoying this amazing city. I'm going to bore some of you with this posting because we went to the flower garden and the botanical garden here and have lots of flower and butterfly photos. Just hang in there cause we'll be back with churches and castles in a few days. Oh, and windmills.

Our first night found us in Da Pilsiner Club. This bat is 125 years old and really this narrow. While having a local beer, we asked the bartender about Jenever (essentially Dutch gin and really strong). When it is poured it should create a sort of dome above the glass so that you can't pick it up without spilling it. You have to go down to the glass and sip enough off so you can pick it up. Here's Ernie taking his first taste of Jenever.

Next morning we went into the old town to go to the Pannekuchen restaurant for breakfast. We were quite surprised to find out that it didn't open until noon and that these aren't considered breakfast items. So we wandered to a great French patisserie a few doors down and had a bread pudding with meat as our savory item and a scone with jam and clotted cream afterwards. Great way to start the day. We figured we would get the pancake the next morning.

As we were walking around, couldn't help but notice the crooked buildings. See how the third one in this group is leaning forward. We always though it wa because most of Amsterdam is built on reclaimed land and there are pilings that they are built on - just assumed the pilings were rotting. We found out on the canal tour we took the next day that these building were built with a forward tilt purposely. There is a heavy timber with a hook on the front top of most of these old buildings so goods can be raised and brought in through windows or doors on the floors above. Well, the tilt was so the items being hauled up would not hit the house!

We're now at the flower market!

This is a gloriosa. We actually saw some growing in the botanical gardens in the tropical greenhouse.

 

These are for Joelle!

 

 

Finally found a pair of shoes that fit Ernie!

The folks in Amsterdam are a funny lot ------ they don't eat pancakes or creeps for breakfast, instead they eat pickled herring and onions. Well Ernie said he was going to try it. I didn't think anything of it since we eat pickled herring at Christmas. So Ernie and I tried it and decided we did it and didn't have to have it again. Their herring is not quite as "pickled" as we are used to and the texture was a bit on the soft side. Another adventure down.

 

Check out this pink limo.

I saw this and thought they spelled pot wrong and then realized it was a money exchange store

Surprisingly, Indonesian food is very popular here. One of the restaurants we went to was Tempo Doeloe and famous for their rice table. It is quite an adventure! You are brought a bowl of seasoned white rice and one of yellow rice with toasted coconut. They then bring around 30 ramekins with a different sorts of toppings for the rice. There is an order to how you eat them going from mild to "oh my gosh I'm dying from this bite."

This is Ernie after he took a bite of the last dish. And he only took a little little piece with a lot of rice. It was painful!

We were having breakfast at the hotel the next morning and thir little girl was sitting across the patio from us. She was so cute with the jam all over her. She was just precious!

Went to the Van Gogh Musuem and spent a couple of hours there enjoying the art works there. He was such a prolific painter in only ten short years. Ernie and I both agreed that we entered with a liking for his work but came out a real fan of his work. Afterwards we took a canal tour. What a great way to spend the day.

We are going under one of the bridges. Most have only inches of clearance

 

This ship is part of their naval museum

 

The next three photos are of NEMO (their science museum). Really interesting architecture. Check out the park on the rooftop.

 

Just one of many houseboats on the canals

This house really is listing. It is one of the older ones that was built on wooden pilings. Newer homes are now built on cement pilings.

 

This is just a small amount of the traffic on the canals on a Sunday afternoon

 

After the canal tour, we went for Pannekuchen at this famous upstairs pancake house in the old town. We knew it was upstairs but had no idea what the stairs we like and how tiny the restaurant was. It had seating for 12 people. Yes, 12 people. The first photo is of the main dining room. Next photo is the side dining room. Then the kitchen followed by a shot of the owner and Ernie. Note that Ernie's head is brushing the ceiling. Then there are the pics of Ernie coming down the stairs.

 

 

 

 

 

In spite of the difficulties of getting up and put of this place, if you are ever in Amsterdam, you must go and have the bacon and apple pancake and then put the syrup on it. Superb!

This is a wollemi pine and it is one of the unique items in the botanical garden here. For a long time the wollemi pine was only known from prehistoric fossils until, in 1994, a park danger discovered a group of 60 living specimens in the Blue Mountains about 60 miles from Sydney Australia. With only a small number of specimens alive, this species is very vulnerable to extinction. The offspring of this small group of trees has been spread around the world, mainly to botanical gardens, to protect the. From extinction.

This is welwitschia mirabilis and is an ancient plant species. It is the last remaining species of a group of plants that forms the missing link between cryptogams (plants that do not reproduce by seeds) and the flowering plants. This only grows in one place on earth, on the 50 mile coast line of the dry Namib desert.

 

This is a glass wing butterfly and you really can see through the wings

 

 

 

So after the museum, canal tour and the botanical garden, we were in need of a beverage and wound up at the oldest cafe in Amsterdam (1726) for a few beers.

 

As I said in earlier posts, Ernie's moustache always gets attention. This young man was playing in the lane where we were having our beers and her was so curious about the his moustache. He kept walking back and forth by us and staring at Ernie. He finally got up the courage to get close to Ernie. He didn't speak English but he kept touching his face under his nose and saying something to Ernie. Ernie smiled and I guess the kid took it as an OK to touch his moustache and soul patch. It was so funny to watch him as he realized it was real. He came back several times to touch the moustache and even brought his brother back and insisted he touch Ernie's moustache. The older men sitting across from us in the lane drinking their beers got such a kick out of watching these boys.

 

 

Another great day and time to head back to the hotel. Pack in the morning and take out luggage to the ship. We can get in our room around 3 pm so we'll just have to bum around the old town one more time.

Sleep tight!

 

 

Posted with Blogsy