Amsterdam Week 1 - May 2015

"We" for this part of the trip includes Barb and John, our daughter Katie and her niece, our granddaughter, Tyler. We got to Terminal 2 at MSP (aka HHH Terminal) 4 hours early as instructed by Icelandair – we decided to try Icelandair partly because their cost was lower than anybody else's and partly because we were intrigued with their offer of a several-days layover in Iceland on our way home. (That's a separate Trip Log if you want to read about that part!) At that time there were no lines so we zipped through everything and then proceeded to sit around for a long time. At least Southwest Airlines entertained us a bit with their announcements like "Michael Smith, please report to gate H8 immediately. We love you, but if you aren't here in 2 minutes, we WILL leave you!"

The plane arrived, and then departed, about a half an hour late which wasn't too bad. Of course, none of us got much rest as there is no good position for sleeping on a plane in coach class! We arrived in Reykjavik that same half hour late but didn't have to go through customs or pick up baggage – just a quick passport control. So, we made the second flight with time to spare.

We arrived at Schiphol Airport (AMS) at 12:45 PM local time. I carelessly left my jacket outside of a restroom and didn't notice until we were all the way through customs. The kind people let me go back and get it but it took almost an hour to first get the supervisor approval then hike all the way down to the end of concourse C and back. Again. We had to wait in a long line to get a train ticket to Amsterdam Central. The machines would not take our credit cards, even the ones with chips, and they only accept coins, not paper money. We had plenty of Euros, but no coins. Note to self: save some Euro coins for another time!

The picture to the left above is an enormous bike garage just outside of Central Station. Yes, "everyone" in Amsterdam rides a bike and so parking is necessary. On the right is the first canal picture I took as we were walking to the B&B - the Singel. Both the bikes and the canals became very familiar sights during our time here.

It was a beautiful afternoon and an easy walk to the Maes B&B office on Herenstraat from Central Station. We arrived there shortly after 3 PM. Vlad took us down the street to our apartment (center building at left), showed us around, gave us hints and tips and installed the Digital Concierge for us on our phones to help us find the best eateries and main sites. We actually didn't use it much since Amsterdam is very easy to navigate.

[Note: It appears that the apartment we rented is no longer available due to enforcement of city codes? I don't know exactly what the issues are or whether there is some possibility of reopening in the future; I think it may be related to the city's "short stay" laws, intended to free up some much-in-demand apartment space for residents rather than tourists. I am sad that others may not be able to have the same experience that we did. Partly because of those new rules, the B&B is also closed now and the owners have moved to South Africa!]

Our apartment, on the second and third floors, is very nice but the warnings about the narrow stairs were not exaggerations. They are indeed very steep and narrow - as the picture clearly shows! It's part of the experience, though, of living in a canal house for a week. When originally built, the homes were taxed by width so they all were as narrow as practical.

Take another look at the picture of our apartment above. First, notice the various types of gables on the buildings - there is a huge variety of architecture styles even among houses built at roughly the same time. And next, see the hooks at the top of each? (You may have to click to enlarge the picture to see them.) Those are on virtually all of the old canal buildings. Look at the picture of the stairs again - think you could get furniture up those? So they use pulleys to pull large items up the outside of the buildings and move furniture in and out through the windows.

The kitchen (pictured below) is delightful and fully equipped. It also has some basic staples like dish soap, coffee, tea, spices. Off of the kitchen (up the stairs) is a nice little terrace with a picnic table. The bathrooms are relatively new (Ikea?) and it's very nice to have 2 of them. The living room is comfortable and well-furnished, though we didn't use the TV at all. There were plenty of outlets and we have about 10 adapters among us so we're good for electronics. The only lack is storage space in the bedrooms. We have a couple of shelves and some hangers but not nearly enough for two people so we ended up living out of our suitcases for that first week. Katie and Tyler's room has twin beds and only a small dresser.

After we got a little bit settled, we hiked a few more blocks to one of the nearby Albert Heijn grocery stores where we were pleasantly surprised to find most of the prices quite reasonable. The people were all very helpful and pleasant - even when we got into the wrong line. There was a credit card line but it only takes Maestro so we had to transfer back to the "cash" line.

That first night we had eat-in suppers that we had just bought, some took showers and we all crashed around 6 PM. I slept for 2 hours then woke up and it was still light. The birds were very noisy about getting themselves to bed! I got back up, took my shower, had a second helping of my microwave macaroni and marinara sauce, drank a couple more glasses of water to work on rehydrating. I read some email and Facebook and went back to bed about 10 PM. The object was to sleep the rest of the night and get onto Amsterdam time!

Saturday May 16

I think we all had a restless night as we are trying to get past the jet lag. But we were up early this morning and went to the Noordermarkt just a few blocks from us, shortly after 9 AM. It was cool and raining, but just lightly. What a fun market – lots of food of all kinds, crafts, old books, clothes, etc. We bought fresh fish, some veggies and white asparagus that John fixed with butter lemon sauce for supper tonight. (Yum.) Ty got a print for a friend; Katie bought some fresh ravioli and fixings for cooking later in the week.

We dropped off our purchases at the apartment and split up. Katie and Barb grabbed some lunch here while John and Tyler went to find some lunch out and we planned to meet at the Meeting Point for the 360 Amsterdam Free Tour at 1 PM. After lunch, Katie and I bought museum cards (for everyone) at Nieuwe Kerk and then went through the World Press Photo exhibition that was currently on display. The church itself was interesting but the press photos were quite gripping. If you enlarge (click) the left picture of the exterior of the church, you can see that the "clock" at the top is actually a sundial!

Maybe this is a good point to share praises for the Museumkaart. It cost 60€ but paid for itself within about 3 days and is good for a full year! It allowed us to stop in at various small museums without feeling like we were wasting an admission fee if we only stayed a short time. A person could visit a major museum for a few hours then come back another time to see more. For many (with the notable exception of the Anne Frank House) of the major museums it also eliminated standing in long lines. I know each person's needs are different, but if I get a chance to visit Amsterdam again for longer than a couple of days, I will definitely want a Museumkaart again.

Our tour guide was Jarno (with the big orange umbrella) who spoke excellent English and took us all around town. We started right there at Dam Square then moved on to see the widest bridge (while we took pictures, he got some cheese samples from Reypenaer - a well-known cheese store and tasting room nearby - and distributed them to us) and the narrowest house; we learned lots of history, went to Begijnhof and through the red light district. It was a good overview of lots of things – a bit too much history for me but then, what did I expect? I can look at canals and old buildings on my own; what a guide adds is the historical context! The rain stopped and sun came out by 2 PM but it was still cool and windy.

Pictures below include one of the narrowest houses in the city - the one-window-wide red house in the center of the first picture; Katie and Tyler on Torensluis (the widest bridge in Amsterdam, it goes over the Singel and has a gruesome history of a prison below it); Jarno talking to us about Multatuli (pen name for writer Eduard Douwes Dekker who exposed abuses of Dutch colonialism);  finally, the statue of Belle in the Red Light district, honoring sex workers all over the world.

As our walk continued, we went through Begijnhof (a walled, 14th century community of Catholic women), saw much "street art" and began to learn about the gable plaques. The collection pictured on the right below was outside of the Amsterdam museum. They are also known as "stone tablets" and date from the time that there were no addresses or house numbers - you located a person or business by their plaques. We saw many interesting ones still mounted all over the city.

By the time we got home (around 4 PM) we were all very tired out. A pretty full first day. John cooked supper with some of the fish and other fresh items we bought this morning. I cleaned up while the others went out seeking dessert and they brought back chocolate and coconut gelato for me! Oh yeah, that's worth cleaning up for!

Though my wireless carrier assures me that I have free data and texting here, I can't get any data signal so we have to rely on WiFi and texts (that part does work and, true to their word, I did not incur any charges). This is probably fine as long as nobody gets too lost or loses their phones!

Sunday May 17

Today is Keukenhof day! Keukenhof is a huge site: 32 hectares of flowers, several buildings housing indoor displays, unique artwork and wonderful events; also ponds, other water features, a windmill, entertainment, a petting zoo and "tulipmania." I didn't know about Keukenhof when we chose the dates for this trip but it turns out that today is the LAST day of the season. So, we lucked out that we had one day to sort of recuperate from the long trip and now we head off to our flower adventure.

What a perfect day for gardens! We have a 10-15 minute walk to Central station (picture at right); then a train to Schiphol (9.20€ for a day return ticket at the counter); 10€ for round trip bus, and 16€ admission. There were combo tickets available that would have saved a little bit but, even though I read about them, the best plan wasn't perfectly clear to me ahead of time. Doing it individually was really fine. At Schiphol the Keukenhof Express bus is at Arrivals 4, near Starbucks. A little ticket "wagon" is to the left then the buses come in on the right and leave every 5 minutes or so - there's never a wait.

It was a bright, sunny day with a high around 58°F but it felt warmer in the sun. We even managed to get a bit sunburned because it's been so rainy we didn't think about sunblock! We were there 5 hours and I think we saw it all but quickly. I took hundreds of pictures! Because we are here so late in the season, the crocuses were gone but there were still plenty of tulips, lots of displays: interesting arrangements and things to do with flowers. Lots of photo ops (Tyler at left taking advantage of one of them to play artist) all over the park, but pictures couldn't capture the riotous colors and scents. There was assorted entertainment, a playground and small "farm" for kids; fountains, ponds, swans, ducks, coots; Japanese garden, windmill I could climb up inside of; numerous snack or lunch places. Toilets were plentiful and easy to find. Just an amazing experience. The pictures tell the story! I will include a few here for the flavor, but there are loads more at the Keukenhof link!

First row: surprisingly good entertainment, the Japanese Garden and my favorite tulip of all: the Ice Cream tulip. The second row of pictures includes one of the many fountains (with a rainbow); a jackdaw who swooped down right in front of me and snapped off a tulip, then sat on the limb above and ate the blossom; a portion of one of the exhibits in a pavilion and the windmill that was built in 1892 then donated in 1957 by the Holland-American line. I walked up inside of it to the observation level - fun to watch the blades going around from the inside. The last 2 rows of pictures, aside from Barb and John posing, are just examples of the many, many displays of flowers all over the park!

We got back to the apartment around 5 PM and went next door to Tasca Bellota, "tapas and wine," for supper. Our cost was 80€ for an assortment of tapas, some salads, potatoes, sangria and dessert. It was very good and the people were efficient and friendly. It was fun to use some of our minimal Spanish that was still way more familiar than Dutch! Some of the things we tried out were skewered chicken, lamb albondigas (a little spicy but I could eat them without trauma), dates with bacon; John had some seafood (calamari and scallops); Katie also had dates stuffed w/ goat cheese and potatoes with garlic sauce. It was VERY good and recommend it highly!

Monday May 18

We had made reservations for the Escape Hunt at 10 AM Monday [note: The Escape Hunt adventure that we enjoyed has now changed franchises. It is in the same location on Van Diemenstraat but is now Escape World and has even more rooms to choose from.] We had picked the "Harbour" (17th century trading vessel owner found dead in the harbour) but when we got there, after talking with the staff, they convinced us that "Who Killed the Painter?" would be a better experience for us. They said it was a little harder but a nicer room.

The room was a takeoff on Van Gogh's "The Bedroom" painting. (The picture of the painting at the right is actually part of the "fence" around the new addition being built at the Van Gogh museum!) It took all kinds of riddles and sleuthing to find the secrets to get to the final key to get us out; some were very clever. The "guardian" watched the process over webcams and called us on the room phone a few times with clues like "there is a secret compartment in xxx" to get us back on the right track of what to look for. (I thought they were just being kind since they talked us into a harder room, but in the Trip Advisor reviews I noted that several others said they also appreciated the extra clues.) In the end she even gave us one extra minute because she could see that we had figured out the last secret, we just needed an extra minute to get the last lock opened, grab the room key and run back to the door to open the room. For the 4 of us in 3 generations we thought it was a great balance - it was definitely challenging but not impossible, and we all participated. Since we have never done anything like that before, I can't compare it to other experiences but we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Since we weren't in a hurry going back, we took our time walking among many houseboats and enjoying the scenery: an old manual drawbridge, houseboats and a floating playground. Katie fixed lunch – yummy fresh ravioli (beet, sundried tomato) with Béchamel sauce and some chips and homemade guacamole.

After lunch, since we were in "Van Gogh" mood, we headed down to the Van Gogh museum – in the rain. Fortunately, with the museum cards, we didn't have to stand outside and our line was very short. Two hours was enough for us in there. I think we all were interested in both the artwork and the history, but it is a small museum and didn't take long to see it all. They do not allow photos except for one photo-op place (right). One humorous display (at least I assume it was intended as a joke!) included several big crates stenciled "Stendhal Syndrome" - presumably people who need a time-out from their intense art viewing can climb in the crates to decompress. (I had only recently heard of Stendhal Syndrome in one of Alexander McCall-Smith's Scotland Street novels so I was happy that I "got" the joke.)

We went to Thai and Co (left) for supper that evening - we found it a very good place. Only about 2 blocks north of our apartment; we enjoyed yummy food, nice people and very reasonable prices: total around 80€ for all 4 of us. Our entrees, which were all good, were Phad Thai chicken, chicken and veggies with rice and oyster sauce, chicken with red curry sauce; a chicken and eggplant dish.

Tuesday May 19

We started at the Anne Frank House (picture at left is the actual house, the entrance is a bit further down the street and no photos allowed inside) at 8:20 AM today. I found some available "time guaranteed" reservations online yesterday so I grabbed them! Right now they are opening by reservation at 8 AM, while the "regular" public opening is still at 9 AM. I don't know whether they will continue that policy or not. Typically the "walk in" line - even if you already have tickets or a museum card - is 1-3 hours long (sample at right - the entrance is about 2 blocks from where I took the picture), so the limited reserved entry times are ordinarily booked months ahead. But we really lucked out with that new "early bird" deal - it was fast and easy and only 50 cents above the cost of the tickets. If you are planning to visit the Anne Frank House, I would make reservations online just as soon as you know what dates you will be there. If they are all booked, keep going back to the ticket site - they do release additional times periodically.

The displays are very well done and it was quite moving. There is a scale model of what the apartment looked like while Anne and her family were living there but the rooms themselves were emptied out at the request of the survivors. We were able to walk through them, however, and see some posters and writing on the walls that dates to that time period, and there were several excellent videos.

We put a (purchased) quiche in the oven for brunch when we got back around 9:30AM; we ate and then walked down to the Rijksmuseum. We passed the "famous" bench at Leidsegracht 4 from the Fault in Our Stars movie - that called for another photo op. The original bench was apparently stolen shortly after the movie was made, but it has been replaced. Notice the padlocks? We ran into them on various bridges and benches - they seem to be the Amsterdam equivalent of couples carving initials on trees.

The museum is 4 floors that are organized by time period. I saw just about everything between 1600 and 1800 (floors 1 and 2) but also managed to at least walk through the ground and third floors as well. Besides the Dutch masters' paintings, I enjoyed some of the sculpture, a fashion exhibition from the 1920's, a collection of "drinking games" from the 1600's, a model of an ocean-going ship with holographic images showing the men at work, and some very detailed doll houses. They didn't have any restrictions on photos so I took a lot - here are just a few examples; there are lots more in the Amsterdam Week 1 "photos only" section.

At the left is Rembrandt's "Night Watchman," one of the most popular exhibits of the museum. The swan in the middle was my pick for "best of the museum" I think. "Threatened Swan" by Jan Asselijn around 1650 - it was the first painting purchased for the museum. On the right is Vermeer's "The Milkmaid."

At left, above, is a scale model of a trading vessel - the "people" you can see are animated holographic images. In the center is one of the dollhouses, this one is from the 18th century and is a model of an existing house. Finally, the far right is one of many self-portraits by Vincent Van Gogh.

We met for lunch at the café after 2 hours. It was a very nice, sit-down, served meal; not a large menu, but it included a variety of sandwiches, soups, salads and was very quick and reasonably priced. Then we spent another 1.5 hours in the museum before meeting again. The sun was shining this afternoon so, when we finished indoors, we went out back and visited the garden and then the Museumplein.

The picture at right shows the Rijksmuseum from the back, the reflecting pool and its mouse sculptures by NY artist KAWS, with the iconic Iamsterdam sign, in red and white, behind the pool. On the left of the pool, there was a whole series of "Miffy" statues, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the first Miffy book (a popular children's series) by Dick Bruna. Each was unique, decorated by an invited artist - this is the one Katie picked as her "friend." In October, they were auctioned off at the Rijksmuseum as a fundraiser, generating 500,000€ for UNICEF. What a neat idea. We strolled back to the apartment leisurely and were happy to take pictures with blue sky!

Leaving the museumplein area we walk down Spiegelgracht (pictured left); the center picture is a common site - parking for both bikes and cars all along the canals; on the right is one of my favorite corners we passed often: looking across Herengracht into very narrow Beulingstraat. I love the buildings on each side of that intersection!

John, Katie and Tyler had reservations at Max's tonight for Indonesian Rijsttafel. I was afraid that it would all be too spicy for me (I am a wimp about spicy food) and the consensus afterwards was that I was right! So I stayed in and had an omelet with turkey breast and leftover béchamel sauce with a side of fruit and yogurt - and gelato from the Assaggio on Prinsenstraat for dessert! The others came back very full and with rave reviews for Max's Rijsttafel.

Wednesday May 20

Another beautiful sunny day, perfect for walking around the city to see some of the small museums our museumkaarts gave us free admission to! We started at the FOAM photography museum this AM. Some was just odd modern art with photos; other parts included interesting history of various techniques in manual photography. We were not allowed to take pictures there so don't have anything interesting to share.

Then just down the street we visited the Geelvinck- Hinlopen House. This is an old 1600's canal house with original (and some restored) furnishings (see library at the right), a beautiful garden (pictured at left) and coach house for the coachman and his family. Across the Keizersgracht canal was the Van Loon House. The house was built in 1672 but was totally remodeled in the mid-late 1700's in the Louis XV style. Besides the main house, there is a small cafe in the coach house beyond the garden. The pictures below are the bird room and the sheep room (named for images on the wallpaper) and the kitchen in the lower portion of the house.

We had lunch nearby at Café de Bazel in the de Bazel Conference Center building. It was a delightful modern environment (quite a contrast with the old canal houses) and they had upscale sandwiches, soups, scones, quiches and desserts. Very nice. Then, not being much of a shopper, I went to walk along the Amstel River for a while, and the others went to the Albert Cuyp market where I met them later. I passed Thorbeckeplein and had to make a try at getting the "seven bridges" picture down Reguliersgracht. I tried several times and never managed to be able to see more than 3 or 4 - those don't even show up on the picture! Then I walked along the Amstel and enjoyed the many houseboats and finally found a point where I could get the Amstelsluizen (the locks) and the Magere Brug (the "skinny bridge" - old manual white drawbridge) in the same picture - with a bonus of the Opera House and the Zuiderkerk tower in the background! The second row of pictures includes some scenes from the Albert Cuyp Market.

Since there was still some afternoon left and it was such a nice day, we took a canal tour with Amsterdam Canal Tours, docked just in front of the Heineken Experience. We started out on Singelgracht (left) and passed many houseboats on the Keizersgracht (right). The Blau Brug ("Blue Bridge" below left) is named for the original blue, wooden bridge that was built in 1600; the "new" bridge we passed under was built in 1884. The middle picture is as we passed under the train tacks into the IJ (the bay north of Central Station) and on the right is as we were returning to the dock along the Singelgracht.

As advertised, they do indeed have personal audio in many different languages. So the good part was that we just had to listen to the English version, the bad part was that the tape was old and sappy. The attempts at humor were poor and it badly needs to be updated to include things like the EYE (more on that attraction when we visit it next week). We went right by it but there was no comment at all - I think because the narrative pre-dates it! I've heard that a good captain can completely change the canal boat experience. That may be true: ours contributed nothing. I don't think he even welcomed us aboard. So, while the boat ride was pleasant, as a "tour" it wasn't very impressive.

This evening we went to DeRieger bar/restaurant for supper – it's about a block from the Anne Frank Huis and had been recommended as a good place for traditional Dutch food. We were glad we got there early because it really filled up by 7-7:30PM. It was a nice place but got very loud when it was full and we found it very slow, too. Our server was pleasant and helpful and the food was very good, but also fairly expensive. They do take credit cards but add a 2% surcharge. I had ossobuco (left); John and Katie had the featured catch: sea bass (right); Tyler had ravioli and a salad. John tried a couple of different beers and Katie enjoyed the wine.

Thursday May 21

We started this morning going through Begijnhof again. We walked through quickly during our walking tour but wanted to have more time to look around. We found the oldest wood house - Houten Huys from 1528 (#34) - pictured at left, and the collection of plaques next to it. The picture on the right is a very common scene in Amsterdam - some parking places are reserved for electric cars and many of them are for "rent." You sign up with a company (if you enlarge it, you can see the car on the right says "CAR2GO.COM" at the bottom of the hatch); when you need a car you call them and they tell you where the nearest one to you is parked, and give you the code to open it - keys are inside and away you go. Then you drop it off near your destination.

We walked through the Flower Market along Singel. There aren't too many fresh flowers right now; we saw mostly souvenirs, bulbs and seeds. In the pictures below, you can see John walking by some of the stalls and displays of houseplants and blooming cactus plants.

The heron at the left is not a hood ornament! Sharp-eyed Tyler saw him in a parking area as we walked along - apparently he was tired of the canals and thought he'd move onto land and see what he could scout! As we walked over an old pedestrian drawbridge, John and Tyler stopped to check out all of the padlocks that had been left there! This is an interesting custom that we noticed at numerous places around town (like the Fault in Our Stars bench earlier in the week). They are known as Love Locks and tend to appear on bridges, gates, fences and the like.

Our actual destination was Rembrandt Huis - those were just things we passed on the way. The Rembrandt House Museum was another interesting old house where Rembrandt lived and worked in the mid 1600's. It has been re-furnished according to some of his sketches and etchings from the time. They have demonstrations and workshops throughout the day if one wants to take the time to delve a bit more into his work. Most of the paintings on display (see the entryway photo below) are by his students or friends, as was the case when he lived there.

   

We walked through the Waterlooplein flea market (left) and the Nieuwemarkt. Pictured at right is the Wagg, or "weigh house" that used to be a city gateway. It is estimated that its use as a gate dates back to about 1425, then it became a weigh house in 1617. The ground floor now houses a cafe and restaurant in Nieuwemarkt.

Our next actual stop this morning was at Oude Kerk . It stands in the middle of the Red Light District, was originally built around 1300 and is said to be the oldest building in Amsterdam. It is currently under renovation (maybe that's an ongoing state) so a lot of things have been removed but we saw Saskia's (Rembrandt's wife) grave, the organs, paintings on the ceiling, and beautiful stained glass.

 

Finally, we walked back to the Dam for a souvenir picture of the 1956 National Monument commemorating those who died in WWII (see Katie, Tyler and John way on the right) and to visit the Royal Palace for a quick tour before lunch. This was originally a "Town Hall" opening its doors in 1655. In the early 1800's it was declared a Royal Palace by Louis Napoleon and restyled in the French fashion of the time. In 1813 it was returned to the city and is now used for various official state occasions.

This was the only place we visited where they took away our purses – we could take pictures without flash but had to check our purses. They have free audio tours that were interesting to listen to but we were hungry, so just got the gist of each room and admired some of the 51 chandeliers. The Citizens' Hall is shown at the left, with an elaborately painted ceiling and marble walls with numerous carvings and statues; the center picture is one of the Chambers that is open for public viewing and on the right a view of the Dam Square out one of the Palace windows.

I came back to the apartment for lunch; the others ate at a sandwich shop before setting off for shopping. Katie and Tyler went clothes shopping - primarily to outfit Tyler (a recent college graduate) for the new job that she starts next week. Apparently H&M was a rich source of appropriate office clothes! John went looking for a liquor store which he remembered seeing on our walking tour.

Late in the afternoon, we walked down to Westerkerk to climb the tower (left) and take pictures. Well, guess what – you can only go up the tower with a tour and they were all booked that afternoon. So I will have to do it next week and take good pictures! We did hunt up the Homomonument that is right there behind the church - it is composed of three different pink granite triangles, unveiled in 1987 and originally designed to commemorate all gays and lesbians who lost their lives in WWII. Now it is considered as a memorial to all of those oppressed and persecuted because of their sexuality. One triangle reaches out into Keizersgracht Canal and points towards the National War Memorial; one, engraved with a line of poetry by the Dutch Jewish gay poet Jacob Israël de Haan (from his poem To a Young Fisherman) that translates to "Such an endless desire for friendship" points towards the house of Anne Frank; and the third (Katie and Tyler are sitting on it below) points towards the headquarters of COC Nederland, the Dutch gay rights group founded in 1946. The 3 triangles themselves are corners of a larger triangle if they could be viewed from above.

Our last supper with Katie and Tyler was a special treat at Seasons, almost next door to us. They have a fantastic on-line early bird "2 for 1" special that made it affordable. We all liked the "Chouffe" gnome and I think Katie snagged the bottle as a souvenir. It is from a Belgian brewery that is very popular in the area. (They make several varieties of beer but this is the one they have here - what they call a blonde, light beer.)

I think it was the best meal we had! For starters we had berry spinach salad with avocado (at the left below), scallops three ways and stuffed figs. Our main dishes included spicy garlic shrimp (center below); ham, potatoes, white asparagus (a Dutch specialty); courgette flowers (squash blossoms) stuffed with goat cheese, with white asparagus, potatoes and basil butter; and chicken tikka masala with naan (on the right below). It was as good as it looks and I highly recommend it - especially if you can plan to eat a little early one evening and take advantage of their special!

       

Katie and Tyler are leaving tomorrow morning - the down side of being young is that you have to go back to work! We retired folks will be extending our stay, but moving out of the apartment and into the B&B a few doors down the street for the coming week. So join us at the "Week 2" link if you'd like to continue.