Belgium (and Amsterdam) - Day 3

Dru here, all caffeinated from an after dinner espresso, and eager to get caught up on our days. I am sure Ben will have something to add as well.

So, the day started with us waking up early to allow plenty of time to walk to the train station, buy tickets, find the platform, and be on our way to Amsterdam. Needless to say, we stopped for pastries, could not find the ticket sellers, got stuck in a long line for international travel, and missed our train. Luckily, there was another in an hour and we consoled ourselves with cappuccino and croissants. No worries.

Three hours later, we arrive in Amsterdam amid many, many other tourists. We make our way to the tourist office (getting only marginally lost), secure hotel reservations, and head out to see the city. We attempted to go to the Old Church (Oulde Kerk) on the way to the hotel but ended up at the New Church (Niew Kerk) instead. Still beautiful, but apparently something about the latitudes and longitudes up here are throwing off our normally decent sense of direction.

We stopped at a cafe for a quick lunch, which turned into quite a long lunch - we ordered sandwiches with smoked salmon (a club with salmon, basil, tomatoes - very tasty combo!) but the restaurant was out of smoked salmon. They declined to tell us this until half an hour later, when our waiter assured us that someone had gone out to buy more. This would have been fine, but there were a few highly annoying American families on either side of us, with bratty children and loud voices. (Ben note: "NOOOOO. You're ruining it Bobby!!! Just tear it off!!!! WAAAAAAA!") It is fairly obvious why Europeans find Americans odious.

We spent a few hours at the Van Gogh museum, which is a wonderful collection of 200 of Van Gogh's paintings arranged chronologically. It is fascinating to learn facts (he only became a painter after failing at being a banker) and see the progression of his talents. Truly a treat.

A short nap in an adjoining park and we were ready to find some beer. Obviously. Here is Ben enjoying a Duvel canal-side. Ahh, Amsterdam!

For dinner, we found a little square with several food offerings. We decided to go with tapas (again? yes! The menu had Gallician Octopus which had been sold out the night before). It was a beautiful night and we really wanted to sit outside, however, two men were in front of us. They were quite jovial and invited us to join them, so we decided to make some new friends. Now, we never did exactly get their names, but somehow the two of them and the delightful threesome next to us had a fantastic, hilarious, and leisurely dinner over the next three hours. The two were an English man and his Dutch/ Indonesian son-in-law who worked together selling flowers in Holland. These two were a trip - already three sheets to the wind, cracking jokes, impersonating everyone from Jean Claude Van Damme to Jim Carey, and prone to breaking into song together - sometimes the same song, sometimes ... not.

The tapas were wonderful, crusty bread, the aforementioned octopus (comparable to what I had in Spain), grilled squid bites with a ton of garlic, and albondigas (meat balls for you non-Spanish speakers) in a spiced sauce with peas. A rioja to drink and crema catalana for dessert. Oh, and all served by a waiter who looked and sounded like Hank Azaria in the Birdcage. All together, a very enjoyable meal - the likes of which can probably only happen in Amsterdam.

Ben's Note: Our new buddies also made friends with the waiter--he insisted on calling him "amigo!" and on requesting a new "tennedor" every time he dropped his fork, which was often. The waiter was very clear on the point that he was Castillian, not Catalan, so he couldn't pronounce half the stuff on the menu. But it was still tasty.

As we were paying our check, the winds started to pick up ominously. Within minutes, there was a torrential downpour, thunder so loud it made the church bells ring, and alarmingly close lightning. We were completely soaked after the 5 minute run back to the hotel. (oh, and I forgot to mention the ridiculous stairs that one has to climb to make it to the 4th floor). The storms continued as we tried to sleep, bringing cooler weather for the days to come.

Tomorrow: a Dutch history lesson, noodles, noodles, and more noodles!