We awoke to Day 4 after fitful sleeping due to the wrath of nature that rained down on Amsterdam (perhaps storms of biblical proportions on a modern day Gomorrah?). In any event, we were sleepy and the weather had cooled off considerably. We headed down to have continental breakfast included in the hotel price. Of note, they had single serving Nutella for your toast, or for my toast as was the case.
We headed out to catch the tram to the Rijksmuseum, which although undergoing reconstruction, had a portion of its fantastic collection on display. Among many fascinating and beautiful objects d'arts were a huge model ship, dollhouses, amazing silver and pottery pieces, and paintings from the region. This means some absolutely stunning still lifes, Hals, Ver Meers, and Rembrants. I was saying to Ben that I remember reading about these artists in my art history texts and thinking how exotic and far these museums were in the world - and here I am getting the opportunity to actually see them in person. I can't describe the feeling, Here is a picture of the outside of the museum, and as you can see it is misty, gloomy, and gross outside.We attempted to go to FOAM, the "fotographie" something of Amsterdam, but alas, it was closed between exhibits. There was however, a small but wonderful exhibit they had set up across the street in the city archives. The FOAM folks had brought 4 photographers from New York to "see" Amsterdam through their eyes, and this exhibit was the result. All four had a distinct and very different take on what could have been cliche themes - water, people, night - but truly elevated their vision to capture the Amsterdam hidden from everyday visitors, evoking stillness, loneliness, and mystery in a city that is superficially none of those.
Art nerdiness aside, we had had about enough of the cold mist that turned into a gusty downpour every time we ventured outside. We were cold, wet, and cranky ... but nothing that a big steaming plate of noodles couldn't fix! We ducked into a chain we were familiar with from London - Wagamama. As you can see, I was certainly happy with my ramen!We decided to call it a day and hopped back on the return train to Brussels. We arrived to find sunshine and made it back "home". Before dinner, we decided to get a beer at a place right near our apartment called Bier Circus - turns out they had food too, and we sat down for dinner. I'll let Ben take over, as this is his realm of beer and pig parts:
Bier Circus
Ben: mmmmm...pig parts. Bier Circus had no hop clowns or malt acrobats, but it did have an extensive menu of Belgian beers. By extensive, I mean that the food menu was three pages and the beer list was about 30 pages. Each beer had lengthy descriptions in Dutch, which were no help at all. Dru says that her descriptions were in French...still no help. We each started with a selection picked mainly on the strength of its name: Celtic Angel for Dru and Kwak for me. See the previous beer post for a picture of the exciting glassware that came with Kwak (quack!).
For dinner, Dru selected meatballs with a pear and apple sauce. I had a "pig's knuckle" with a mustard cream sauce and we shared a basket of frites. Both of these dishes, and just about everything on the menu had some variety of beer in the recipe. The meatballs were "very good" but Dru is tired of typing for now, so that's all we will say. The pig knuckle on the other hand...wow. Imagine the lower leg of a pig, covered in mustard sauce, with token vegetables.
As you can see, that is exactly what I got...ankle on the right, leg bones on the left, whole thing about the size of my head.I (somehow) have never experienced this particular part of the porcine anatomy, though *most* other parts have passed my lips. The meat is similar in color and texture to a ham, but much more tender and succulent, without the injected salty/smoky flavor that a store-bought ham has. The sauce was peppery and creamy and a perfect complement.
With dinner, we had two more beers: V Cense for Dru and Belgoo Luppo for me.
For desert, we elected to go with a chocolate mousse made with Chimay beer, a stout from Hofbrouwerijke, and espresso.Tomorrow: more beer! And the day after that (tomorrow for us) is a visit to Bruges. To quote Dru: Is this country great or what?
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