Our Itinerary (November 5 - 6, 2012)
Monday, November 5
Thanks to a very early flight out of Rome we arrived in Amsterdam early enough in the day that we were able to have two full days there.
We took the train from the airport to the main train station in Amsterdam and from there, took a cab to Maes B&B. We stayed in the heart of the Jordaan, which is right in the thick of endless boutique, antique, and one-of-a-kind shops. There are also a ton of restaurants offering any kind of cuisine you could ask for - Thai, Indian, Dutch, Italian, French, Indonesian, Japanese, etc.
Maes was an extraordinarily positive experience. In fact, when we return to Amsterdam (that's how much we loved it - we're already planning a trip back) we will stay there again. Maes is in a canal house from 1740. It was completely renovated by the owners, Ken and Vlad. It's a beautiful home with, as you might imagine, very steep staircases. All of the canal houses have similar steep staircases.
Our room (the Garden Suite) was particularly unique in the sense that we had a toilet off our bedroom but we had to climb especially steep and twisting steps to get to our shower. It was certainly an experience! I thought I might slip and break my neck a few times, which is why I'd probably request a different room next time.
Ken and Vlad, Vlad, in particular, were very hospitable but their concierge, Jason, was outstanding. His smile was infectious and his demeanor, very accommodating and genuinely kind. We really enjoyed interacting with him.
Once we dropped our bags off we started to explore. Evan is always the map-keeper whenever we travel. I coordinate the flights, B&Bs, and activities but he's in charge of getting us from point A to B. Always. Interestingly, Amsterdam had Evan stumped. I've never seen him get side-tracked and disoriented as much as he did there.
We started out at the Noordermarkt flea market, which was very close to our B&B. They sold everything from fabric to jewelry to vintage clothing to food. I saw a knit-poncho with a cat design that I considered getting but then decided I'd never actually wear it. Then it started to rain (what a surprise) so we grabbed some hot chocolate and coffee to warm up.
The great thing about Amsterdam is that all you have to do is wait a few minutes and the weather improves. It rained off and on the rest of the day but we also had a few hours of beautiful sunshine.
We did a very roundabout walk, which led us to the Westerkirk, a Protestant church very close to the Anne Frank House.
We also walked through the busier side of town - Chinatown and the Red Light District where the greatest concentration of "coffee shops" is located. I found the ladies in their racy lingerie standing in front of their peekaboo doors, laughable. I guess I find it hard to believe that someone would go to those lengths. From what I could see, the selection was less than stellar. We didn't return to this part of town after our initial observations. We much preferred the quaint charm of the Jordaan so we chose to spend the majority of our time there.
A lot of the coffee shops on this side of town gave off a sinister vibe. Apparently, they can't outwardly advertise that they sell marijuana products and they're not to openly talk about it unless a customer expresses an interest in buying. It just didn't seem very tourist-friendly. That being said, we weren't really interested in partaking we just wanted to learn more about the coffee shop culture.
Some canal swans:
We were quite tired as we'd been up since 2:00am so we didn't have the energy to go far for dinner. We took the lazy way out and went to Kularb Manee Thai Restaurant almost immediately next-door to our B&B.
It was a very pleasant, if slightly expensive meal. We started out with chicken satay and then shared an order of chicken fried rice and spicy stir-fried beef. Our service was good but for what I assumed to be a Thai waitress, she was a little stiff.
Afterwards, we decided we still had room for dessert (they also have savory dishes) so we walked just a couple of blocks to a place we had passed earlier in the day - The Pancake Bakery. A cute little anecdote - Evan got turned around again and we couldn't quite find the place. We were talking about it when a Dutch couple on bikes stopped and asked if they could help. The guy pulled out his iPhone and found the street name and then directed us there. That just wouldn't happen in the U.S. I mean, they sought us out to see if they could help. I'm not sure I've ever encountered such open and genuine people in our travels together. And I'm not just talking about these individuals. I think friendliness is an epidemic in Holland!
The Pancake Bakery is the cutest little place in the basement of a canal house. It's very cozy and probably would've been relaxing too if we hadn't been seated behind four American girls talking as loudly as humanly possible. But I digress. We ordered two delicious hot chocolates followed by a banana and nutella pancake for Evan and an "Autumn Special" for me. I so wish we had brought the camera with us but alas, we didn't. The Autumn Special was amazing. I had a scoop of cinnamon ice cream accompanied by whipped cream sprinkled with Belgian chocolate flakes, a baked pear with cranberry compote and if that wasn't enough, Dutch mini-pancakes. I don't usually mix fruit with my desserts but this combination was to die for. I could eat it again and again. And again.
Tuesday, November 6
We got up and had a lovely breakfast of the usual kind in Europe - bread, cheese, meat, cereal, some sweet treats, and something unique to Holland - little Dutch pancakes. I wouldn't even be bringing up the breakfast except that we shared the table with an Italian couple. It really bothered me that the Italian man was a blatant male chauvinist. He barely included his girlfriend in conversation (she didn't speak any English) and he spoke exclusively to Evan, ignoring anything I interjected with or contributed. *rage*
Anyway, we finished breakfast rather quickly because we had a 10:00am appointment at the Anne Frank House. I specifically bought e-tickets because I knew 1) it was a popular tourist attraction and 2) the line for tickets would be long.
Fortunately, we were able to go right in. I have to say, it's probably one of if not the most moving memorials to the Holocaust victims I've ever seen. It's really difficult to comprehend how many people died during WWII. You can hear the number and think, wow, that's huge but there's something far more powerful about bearing witness to the plight of individuals. By walking through the house and experiencing, if only momentarily, Anne Frank's "prison" for more than two years, I felt I was able to grasp how brutal their existence must have been.
The actual rooms were quite nice and even spacious considering they were living in the attic. What makes it a horror is knowing that they could never go outside, couldn't even peek through the curtains all while being acutely aware of what would happen to them if they were caught.
I wasn't expecting the exhibit to be so extensive but they've really done a great job using all sorts of different mediums - pictures, video testimonies, letters, 3-D models of the Annex, etc. The Annex is completely stripped of any of the furniture that was there while they were occupying it, which is why there's a 3-D model showing where all of the furniture would've been. Otto Frank wanted the real space to remain empty. There are, however, still remnants of magazine pictures that Anne glued to the walls of her bedroom.
Needless to say, it's a must-see. If you're only going to one museum, it should be this one.
We had originally planned on going to the Van Gogh Museum but decided against it because of our limited time in Amsterdam. We were so in love with the city already that we knew we'd be back and we wanted to make the most of our free time during our short visit.
After the Anne Frank House we walked along the Singel Canal looking for De Poezenboot, a cat rescue on a houseboat. We were able to find it after asking for some help but then realized we arrived before operational hours. In the meantime, we went looking in some shops, we bought some Gouda cheese for our parents, and then stopped in one of the special coffee shops, La Grotte, that actually served lunch.
This place had a completely different vibe than the others we saw because both non-marijuana users and marijuana users alike were in there eating and drinking. It wasn't intimidating at all and the staff was quite friendly. We were hungry anyway so we went in and got some cheeseburgers. I've had better but it was decent fare.
When we finished lunch we back-tracked to De Poezenboot. What a fun place. It's a no-kill rescue and for a small space, they certainly make the most of it. I'd guess that there are anywhere from 30-40 cats. Some are loose in the houseboat and others, the ones up for adoption, are in cages. The loose ones are cats with behavioral problems or health issues that make them unadoptable.
Afterwards, we kept walking and window-shopping. There are some seriously unique shops in the Jordaan. We stumbled upon one our first day called The Otherist. Really cool stuff.
In our wanderings, we happened on a Reypenaer Cheese Tasting Room. We spontaneously joined in on the fun and tried some good and also, pungent cheeses! Every cheese was paired with a wine - red, white, and even port. It was a different and relatively inexpensive way to pass the time.
We also stopped and chatted with a nice, new business owner in a shop called Mimi. She sold her own handmade jewelry as well as other knick-knacks. We got to talking about cats and she mentioned that there was a cat museum right there in town. I think Evan was mostly impressed that her shop was located across the street from Grey Area, one of the more renown coffee shops with American celebrity potheads.
We couldn't leave Amsterdam without having Indonesian (my requirements) so we followed the recommendation of our B&B management and went to Long Pura. I had already planned on ordering a rice table for us since it would offer us a taste of many different dishes. I know they say that ordering a rice table brands us as tourists but with the exception of nasi goreng, I never ate that much Indonesian food when we lived in Jakarta. I was barely a teenager so I wasn't exactly adventurous with my food choices. As an adult, I feel much more open to trying new things.
Anyway, out of three suggested rice tables we settled on the second. I also ordered us a separate appetizer of krupuk (a prawn cracker) with peanut sauce. I ate a lot of krupuk with nasi goreng back in the day. The krupuk was great, as was the peanut sauce. If I compared it to the Thai version the night before, I actually preferred the Indonesian one. It was thicker and had more texture.
After the krupuk we each had a bowl of chicken noodle soup. It was very subtle, light, and flavorful.
Next up was an amazing presentation of mild, sweet, and spicy dishes.
There wasn't anything I didn't like but I had my preferences. Once we moved from the milder dishes to the spicy ones, we were mostly tasting versus inhaling the food. The spicy stuff was really spicy. My lips were on fire!
We ended the meal with a wonderful cold-temperature dessert (that helped my lips). I don't even know what it was - an Indonesian pancake (?) with a sweet, textured filling and coconut ice cream. It was delicious.
All in all, it was a great evening. The service was excellent, the decor was traditional and I thought, warm and soothing, and the food was amazing. My only complaint is that it's an expensive outing.
...
We had such a pleasant break in Amsterdam. I felt completely at ease. We loved the people, the shopping, the walking, the food choices. We also really liked how the Amsterdammers live out in the open. The canal houses are devoid of window treatments in the common living areas. You can see people eating, working, just doing everyday stuff. It makes everyone seem like a close-knit community.
Honestly, within a couple of minutes we felt embraced by the city and within hours we were already talking about when we could come back. We've been to some amazing places but this is probably the first time we've gone somewhere and had an immediate reaction of - we must return as soon as possible!
We saw a lot in our two days but in other ways, we only scratched the surface. I already have a running list of things to do on our next visit.
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