The cover photo shows the official SUV of Amsterdam. So far the highest number of children we have viewed being ferried in this vehicle was three!
Today we started with Joel finding a nearby Starbucks that was not out of Chai Latte for Bonnie. With that happy beginning we got about our first adventure of the day, a food tour of the Jordaan section of Amsterdam. Brilliant scheduling! We walked a half hour from the hotel, found our group at a cafe built in 1642 with a past as a secret entry point to the “secret” Catholic Church across the canal….they dug a tunnel under a canal to go to their Catholic Church after The Netherlands became an official Protestant nation. This may fit the definition of holier than thou…just saying. But anyway, back to the food, we started with coffee and apple pie. You may think hay apple pie is American, this was Dutch Apple Pie! The crust was more cake like and the apple filling was drier and not as sweet, dessert for breakfast again.
We walked from the cafe through the old neighborhood where some buildings still have the old way of identifying what was located in the building. Over the door were depictions of the type of shop or business housed below. We saw a butcher, a baker, a pharmacy and one we couldn’t identify, maybe you can spot it.
The butcher
The baker
The Pharmacy
We sampled cheese, and we learned that the correct pronunciation of Gouda is Hoda, just like the woman on the Today show, the things you learn by traveling. Next was a little bakery for a popular Dutch treat Stroopwaffle. Two warm thin cookies made in a waffle iron sandwiching gooey caramel.
Next was a highlight for two reasons, herring, cured lightly in salt, and to get fortified to eat lightly cured fish they gave us vodka distilled from tulip bulbs….I kid you not and that was some smooth vodka and after I finished Bonnie’s shot glass the herring with onion and pickles went down well also.
We next tried some dishes from the former Dutch colony of Suriname. With a mix of Indian, Chinese, Indonesian and African influences.
We finished at another small cafe with poffertjes, a small puffy pancake coated in sugar and butter, and a Dutch liquor Jenever which means Juniper. So basically pancakes and gin. But served in a cute tulip glass that is traditionally filled to nearly overflowing so one has to stoop over the glass and take the first sip without moving the cute little tulip glass. Dutch drinking games, with pancakes!
After the end of the tour we hauled it across town for our 3:30 appointment to get in to The Van Gough Museum. No photos were allowed, except for specific selfie areas, so
After dinner, yes after all of that tour food we were hungry…we walked back to the hotel through Vondelpark, where Bonnie was looking at houses and gardens. At the end of the day another 20,000 steps on the Fitbit.
