Daniel made the decision to time his visit to the USA at the same time as a visit from my sister in Amsterdam. It’s not that he didn’t want to be here when Margaret was here, he actually loves her very much. But he thought I would enjoy the company while he was gone and he would sigh less get some business done. Smart man.
Margaret arrived last Sunday and I guess when you have been sleep deprived since your first child was born in 1998, you adjust to jet lag very well. She got off the plane at 8:30 in the morning and by noon we were in the center of Amsterdam, having stopped off at our house, gotten a shower and breakfast, and unpacked all the goodies she brought us that made her suitcase 10 pounds overweight. We walked all over Amsterdam that day, and every day since then.
So here are a few things we’ve been up to…
We Used Multiple Forms Of Transportation
Bikes, Bike Taxis, Walking, Trains, Trams and Boats…. we are an equal opportunity transportation user. And so far we haven’t messed up. Granted, it’s not a hard city to navigate but it still takes some patience to figure it all out and pay attention.
We have especially mastered the train from our house in Halfweg, including the check in and out process, which car we can sit in, where we will arrive in Amsterdam and where to go from there, either by foot or continuing by public transport. We are feeling quite accomplished. Haley even rode home by herself and helped a fellow tourist at the station.
We Ate…A Lot
Amsterdam is not lacking in cafes and food. Before Margaret arrived we had already scoped out some good places to take her so it was easy to get back there for another test. Day 1 was frites with frite sauce, then she had some yummy sammiches from a cafe, croquettes and stroopwaffles too. So far the fries are the biggest hit. Today we went to a bakery that serves one thing. ONE thing. They serve a chocolate cookie with white chocolate filling. The first time we tried to go there we got there at 5pm and they had run out of cookies. They ran out of the ONE thing they make?! What is this Tom Foolery? The next time we put that errand at the beginning of our day and we got a cookie fresh out of the oven. Now we know why they focus on just this cookie. They do it well. Very well.
One thing we have not done is drink a lot. For one we don’t really drink alcohol but more than that, Amsterdam doesn’t seem to think we are very thirsty. They serve us the smallest bottles of water/pop/iced tea in the world but we are too cheap to order more. So we go thirsty and bring water from home. One exception: coffee.
We Lied…A Little
Dear Amsterdam: You need more bathrooms.
It became a bit of a game to find bathrooms when the need arose. Older bodies do not have as much uh… warning… so when we needed a bathroom we needed it NOW. I became very good at finding the nearest place that might have decent bathrooms and inventing a reason to go in there. One time at a hotel we were “checking out a room for my mother visiting next month”. That wasn’t so much of a lie. She really is coming next month, but she doesn’t need a hotel room. Meanwhile while I’m actually looking at a room (not sure why I could not have just pretended and hung out by the elevator, but I felt like the role of Room Seeker needed my full commitment), Mar and the girls sneaked into the bathroom.
Another time we needed said facilities, we went back to a stupidly expensive cafe where we had two bowls of soup for $34 lunch. We pretended to have left behind a green scarf and decided to look for it in the bathroom. We all had to look. Again, committing to the part, I allowed our waitress to ask the other wait staff if they had seen it. I hope I looked surprised when she didn’t find it. Then Zoe, who also was learning how to lie committed to the part said that she found it in her bag. Unfortunately Zoe didn’t know that I already described the scarf as green when she was using the bathroom and she pulls out a white t-shirt. I played it off as my 10-year old being wrong and we quickly left. Thanks but no thanks, Zoe. Clearly we should have rehearsed.
Another time we pretended to be fascinated by Amsterdam City Archives. We faked that we were on a research project. This project was not too untrue, we were just researching the nearest bathroom. By now we’ve become so good at looking like we belong that no one asked us and we were able to take care of business un-bothered.
We Went To Museums
There is no shortage of museums in Amsterdam. We think of them not so much as a “must do fully” but more of a “must check out briefly”. We went to the Rijksmusem and went directly to the room with Rembrandt, learned a little more about his work, then we split. Thankfully we had museum cards that got us in for free so we didn’t feel like we needed to get our money’s worth. Next it was Van Gogh’s Museum and we found that one quite interesting and well done. Good bathrooms there.
Today we did the Museum of Bags and Purses, which was really a great experience. It was 3 floors of purses since the 16th century until the current day. For these purse lovers, it was fabulous. Mar believes she’s discovered her life’s work. It’ll take several years of collecting but she’s up for the task.
We aren’t done with museums, though. We still have more to do. Tomorrow is all about cheese and sex. Those are two separate museums, you’ll be glad to know.
We Checked Out The Back Of The Stores
Souvenir stores are fun to explore. They have lots of colorful shirts and tulips and all kinds of bags and magnets. But venture further back in the store and things get…interesting. We thought it’d be fun to embarrass the kids so we hauled out our cameras and snapped away while being Vanna White with the merchandise.
But Wait There’s More
We are not done yet! We still have lots more to do. We have a few more days exploring Amsterdam and perhaps a local spa, and then we’ll pick up a rental car and hit the wide open road and see what trouble we can dig up. We’ll keep you abreast of the situation.
