London Day One
London Day Two
London Day Three
London Day Four
Overnight Ferry London - Amsterdam
Amsterdam Day One
Amsterdam Day Two
Lufthansa Amsterdam-Frankfurt/Senator's Lounge Frankfurt/Lufthansa Frankfurt - Dulles
It was our last day before heading back to the states and I think that our constant on the go travel had finally caught up with Kels and myself. We woke up a bit later than we had been (8:30 am :p) and headed out to find a quick place to grab breakfast. Luckily we found an amazing place right off of the Dam Square area. The bakery had all kinds of pastries and doughnuts with lots of frosting. I.e. the only kind of doughnut. Kelsey got a doughnut of some kind and I got a delicious banana muffin. Both were really good and only around €2 each.
From Dam Square we got aboard the number 13 tram and took it three stop to the Westermark stop and then took an immediate right on Prinsengracht street/canal. Two blocks down the street on the right hand side is the famous hiding annex of Anne Frank.
The old storehouse building and hiding place for the 8 individuals during World War II has been preserved and turned into a museum. Entrance to the museum €9.50 each, but is worth it to see the small hiding environment that is detailed in Anne Frank's famous diary. The museum does a great job of weaving stories from her journal to make you feel like you are in the moment. This was my second time through the museum/house and I learned new things I had missed last time, it is worth every penny.
From the Anne Frank house we decided to walk through the next neighborhood which is a trendy area aways from the cookie-cutter tourists areas. There were dozens of vintage clothing shops and trendy boutiques that Kelsey had no trouble finding...I swear it's like she had a shopping radar in her head. :)
After walking around and grabbing a quick lunch at a restaurant in the area (nothing remarkable I am sad to report) we headed back toward our hotel to pick up a riverboat for a cruise around Amsterdam on the canals.
The tour we choose was operated by the "Rondvaart" company and was located at the intersection of Rokin and Oude Turfmarkt streets. The tour lasted about an hour and cost €9 each. The tour is conducted in English, Dutch, French, Italian and Russian which is always funny to hear as the narrator gets to each language and you hear a laugh or gasp as everyone else wonders what they are missing. But the tour takes you through some of the main canals and explains how the canal system works, points out most of the landmarks and also points out some of the unique features of Amsterdam architecture For instance, you will notice that on most houses and buildings in Amsterdam there will be a hook on the very top of the roof gable. This is used as a furniture lift because houses are so skinny that they can't get things up the narrow stairs and instead have to lift and go through windows. Buildings used to be taxed by how wide they were, so people just simply build skinny and up to avoid taxes. You will also notice that buildings will lean a bit into the street to help make it easier to lift furniture.
From the boat dock we took a short walk over to a neighborhood called "The Nine Streets" which is a three by three block area of trendy shops and restaurants. Once again Kelsey's shopping radar went off and we were able to fully investigate every store on the nine streets. I can report back that if you love shopping, you will be very very happy. If you do not like shopping, you will do well to just keep quiet and go along with your partner who does to avoid consequences.
After shopping till we dropped we headed back toward our hotel and decided to grab something for dinner. One of the dishes we had seen advertised everywhere was Dutch pancakes, and as a pancake lover (See Our Denver Adventure) I knew we had to find a place to tuck into some pancakes.
We found our pancake shop right off of Dam Square and they literally had EVERY type of pancake you could imagine. You could go the sweet or savory route so the world is literally your pancake oyster (I think they had oysters even...but don't quote me on that). Kelsey decided to order a pancake with cheese, bacon and apples. I went the even more savory route with cheese, tomatoes and ham.
The easiest way to describe a Dutch pancake is it's HUGE, it fills up a whole dinner plate. It is between a crepe and an American style pancake in thickness and the batter is more savory than sweet. The pancake is cooked so that the outside crust is nice and crispy. You can put any number of topping on top, but the most common is Stroop which is a thick golden brown syrup that is less sweet than maple syrup and is the perfect companion to a savory pancake.
 |
| Kelsey's Pancake |
 |
| My Pancake |
No comments:
Post a Comment