Amster-Hot-Damn: Days VI-VIII

It has been over a month since we have been back and I have still to finish posting about the trip. Enough is enough. Here is the last few days. I am sure I have forgotten some things but here are the highlights. Sunday morning started a bit late but since we didn't have anywhere particular to go it didn't really matter. The first order of the day was to find some brunch. We ended up for the Broodje Bert - a rather tiny place that was named after Bert of Sesame Street fame and had breakfasts named for Bert and Ernie. We had some excellent open faced sandwiches with real fresh-squeezed orange juice which was fantastic.

We then headed to the area know as Spui (which is pronounced "Spow") for the art market which happens every Sunday (seen in a photo by Laura taken during the Friday Bookmarket). The street was lined with stalls of artists selling all types of art objects of varying quality. Not too much was too my liking but it was interesting nonetheless.

We had some excellent ice cream at the Australian Homemade Ice-cream shop and then went to the Bloemenmarkt. The flower market was very impressive. It consisted of stalls covering one side of a very large block (apparently the stalls are actually floating on the canal, although we didn't notice it at the time) and had on offer more varieties of tulip bulbs than I even knew existed. They also had a wide variety of other bulbs that I really had no idea about but it was amazing. We wandered through every shop looking for the best deal on export quality bulbs and looking at the cheesy touristy crap. There was an impressive rare prints and map shop along this road which had some fantastic early maps of Canada which, unfortunately, were way out of my price range.

We wandered to the Leidsplein to go to the VVV (the tourism office) to book a tour for Monday and then went to the half-price ticket place to see if there was anything of interest to do that evening. Nothing struck our fancy so we sat down for a drink in the square to watch the street entertainers - which included a group of guys doing Capoeira and a rather old, mostly naked guy who climbed a rope and did acrobatics and balancing trick - while we planned our next move. We found a listing for a blues club close by so we went by to see what was happening on that night. It turned out to be an open-mic night (with free cover before 11) which sounded good so with our evening entertainment settled upon we went looking for food. There are quite a number of places to eat and we had a difficult time deciding on a place. Actually, we wanted to go to a Javanese place but the patio packed so we kept walking looking for someplace else. After walking around the block we ended up at the Javanese place, Bojo, again and ended up eating in the dining room, where we had some excellent Indonesian food (I forget exactly what we had [chicken, rice, other stuff?] but it was quite unusual, very good, had huge portions, and was affordable).

After dinner we headed back to the hostel for a bit before going to the Bourbon Street Jazz and Blues Club. Here, we were entertained by the owner, who was quite cheeky making fun of the patrons and inventing songs about them, who played classic blues songs and other covers (such as some Jimi Hendrix) but in a very original way. He was joined by an excellent harmonica player and a few people from the audience got up on stage and were by and large very good (except for one kid who was kinda boring). We headed back to the hostel for what we thought would be a normal night with the only interruptions being the high kids coming back from the coffee shops. That turned out not to be the case. Laura had been feeling rather punky for a few days and at the blues club felt she couldn't get comfortable. A few hours after we went to bed she woke me up as she was in quite a bit of pain and thought it might be wise to see someone about it. After a very frustrating and ultimately fruitless series of attempts to get a hold of the insurance company back in Canada we decided to just get to a doctor. The staff at the Pig were excellent - outlining the options of the (very very expensive) doctor and the nearest hospital. Upon their advice we hopped in a taxi and got to experience the Dutch Health System firsthand. Things were very quiet at the OLVG (apparently voted the best hospital in the Netherlands) which was great as Laura was seen pretty much immediately. The doctor confirmed what Laura thought - a kidney infection - and after scolding her for not coming in sooner and threatening to admit her for treatment, did some tests and then let her go with a prescription and strict instructions to come back if things got worse. After taking some antibiotics we got back into the cab and headed back to the hospital to get some sleep. We tried to sleep as long as possible, something not made easy by all the racket made by the other tenants, but when we got up about noon Laura felt much better. I nipped out early to cancel our Grand Holland Tour (thankfully refundable with only a small surcharge) so we planned another day in the city...starting, of course, with a tasty meal.

A wonderful breakfast was had at the Pannenkoekenhuis Upstairs (photo credit) which was a really really tiny place up a really really steep set of stairs. Our timing was excellent (as it would be for our dinner) and we were able to get a seat – other groups were not so luck and we people were turned away when we were there. The pancake house was essentially just a small split level room. There was a table and the kitchen in the upper part, where the stairs came out, and a dining area on the lower level where there were three tables. There were all kinds of teapots handing from the ceiling which made the already low ceilings lower but were rather funky. The place was staffed by one guy (I assume the owner) who played waiter, cook, and all-round snarky commentator. The food was outstanding. I had the special which was a crepe (well, it was a little thicker than a French crepe, but not as fluffy as North American pancakes – and it was the size of a dinner-plate) strawberry, rhubarb and crème. Laura went with the less adventurous (I think the guy called her boring) but also excellent bacon, tomato and cheese. Upon seeing my choice Laura had some Pancake envy and we decided it would be a good idea to share. And it was a good idea with the savoury and the sweet and the pancakey goodness. Fortified we headed off to see some sights.

Being Monday, a lot of the museums were closed but I seemed to recall hearing about an anatomical museum in Amsterdam. I found a listing for the Museum Vrolik, attached to the AMC (Academic Medical Centre) but the street it was on wasn’t listed on our map. We went to the tourist office and the guy there found it and it was located in the suburbs so we had to take the metro out of the city. On the way to the train station we stopped at a number of bookstores (I found some great deals at an art book store) and other shops and just took our time wandering. We ended up at the second Dutch hospital of the day – although at this one no one got poked or prodded and we didn’t score any drugs – and easily found the museum. The small museum was being renovated but it was open while exhibits were being set up and shifted around. I was hoping to see more anatomical art/history of medicine stuff and we got a whole lot of body parts & misshapen foetuses in jars. It was rather creepy at times but worth the trip just to see it and to see a bit of the non-touristy parts of Netherlands.

After we got back from the museum we hit up the supermarket near Dam Square to get some waffles and some breakfast items for our trip home (which turned out to be a great idea). For dinner we thought we would use the money we saved from the tour and treat ourselves. Not sure if we would be able to get a table we headed to the Franco-Dutch restaurant De Belhamel. As with the pancake place our timing was excellent. We managed to get a table without a reservation (albeit inside not on the canal) just before closing. The décor was utter outstanding Art Nouveau and the food was fantastic. I had a salmon and veal saltimbocca (I wasn’t sure what it would be but it turned out to be a sort of pastry roll which was extremely good - it is Italian for "jumps in the mouth") with red snapper with asparagus for starters and Laura had red pepper tomato soup with crispy bacon and herb creme fraiche to begin and then duck with mushrooms and potatoes. After the fabulous meal we made our way back to the Pig, hung out in the Happy Room for a bit, and got ready for our insanely early flight the next day.

We got up early and were at the train station at 4am to get the train to the airport. Although we thought we left in a good amount of time a slight hold up at the ticket machine meant that we got to watch the train pull out of the station while we cursed. Thankfully we had plenty of time to get to the airport (more than we even realized at the time) so we waited the forty minutes at the station wishing we were still asleep. We got to the airport eventually, checked in, bought an outrageously-priced coffee and had some excellent salami and cheese sandwiches from the stuff we bought the day before. We proceeded to the gate to find out our flight was delayed due to fog in Amsterdam. The plane actually had to land in Frankfurt to refuel and wait for the fog to burn off. We read and dozed while waiting. It kinda sucked but we had our sandwiches and really nothing else to do except get home in time for work the following day. We had a rather uneventful flight once the plane made it to Amsterdam, got to watch a few movies (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Fever Pitch, which was alright, Ocean’s Twelve, which I slept through).

So that’s it. A pretty long recap, I know, but it was a pretty busy trip. The conference was good, the weather great (perhaps even a little too warm – I didn’t pack enough t-shirts ‘cause everyone told me it would be 20degrees), the city was certainly interesting and I got to see a lot of cool stuff. I don’t think I would rush back to Amsterdam, although I would like to see other parts of the Netherlands, but I am very glad that I got to go.
rgsc.