Day 12: Amsterdam
QOTD: What’s
the name of that cheese???
sorry, we misplaced it...it will remain a mystery
Weather: Overcast with hints
of rain and temps in the 70s, then a torrential downpour around 3:30, just when
THB and DB are heading out again
Dept of Corrections: The cards left by our house exchangers are good for “Rembrandt” museums
only, there’s another card that’s good for 300+; we don’t have that one.
Dept of Comparisons: Amsterdam and Berlin share at least one thing: a ton of bike riders.
Yesterday, we saw two young women with wrist casts on. That’s something we
noticed in Berlin as well. THB’s hypothesis: under all these bike riders there
must be some broken bones. Here, they whiz through intersections, from at least
two and sometimes 3 directions, dodging cars and people and other bikers.
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| out front on cobblestones at 6am |
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| locked to the rail? |
Breakfast: the usual along with some yogurt.
Hustle up a few blocks to catch the tram line that takes us to Amstel
18, the home of Jan Six 10th (11th and 12th are living elsewhere for
the time being) to take an hour long tour of a small portion of the collection
(there are 56 rooms, we visit 5 or 6).
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| Rembrandt the statue |
A great tour, led by Laura, in English. No pictures allowed in the house, of course. Lots of personalized anecdotes about the art and family.
There is a threesome of two men
and a women, another couple in our demographic (and from US), and an Alc Baldwn type,
his new wife and a 6 year old. Okay, it wasn’t really AB, just a German and spouse
parading as him and spouse: obnoxious, and willing to let their kid basically
move around at will, including trying to lift up fragile items.. Afterwards, DB
and THB independently came to same conclusion: shocking! To reciprocate a level
of generosity (no charge, they still live there, etc.) by letting a kid run
wild in a “museum” (let alone house)…and to ask idiotic questions…amazingly
inconsiderate.
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| Spouse signing out, with AB and child |
We do get to see on Rembrandt oil and several sketches up close and
personal (at least the kid didn’t rub her fingers over the drawings).
Afterwards, it is just a short walk to the Museum of Bags and Purses
($13pp) for a walk through their collection, which is extensive, spread over
3.5 floors.
A famous old theater that now shows movies:
From there we go to lunch at Gartine…nope: it’s closed until August 5.
Instead, we go to lunch at Lust…nope: it’s been replaced by Tom’s, a clothing
store. Finally, we go to lunch at Walem: open faced tuna sandwich and a small
strawberry ice tea for THB, fish with smoked mussels and sun* (*must not be
from Iceland) dried tomatoes and couscous for DB, $30.
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| Closed |
A visit to Frozen Fountain, a very good design shop featuring items by
Droog (if you know Droog then you know we’re in a highly creative and
innovative store).
A stop to pick up some bread an apple turnover, $5, and some espresso
beans (they have to grind them for us), $8, and then finally back to
Herengracht 70 (aka H70) to rest up.
Our appointment with the Carla Koch gallery is for 4pm. At 3:30 off we
go to Centraal Station to catch the #26 tram. It’s raining. Then it’s pouring.
Then it is coming down really hard. Then it is starting to flood. At this point
we’re in front of CS and the trams are swarming all over, the #26 is of course
the furthest away. Up and on, two stops from CS we hop off amidst a bevy of 7 –
10 story highrises. The Gallery is in one about 4 buildings down, it may be
raining slightly less, hard to tell under our umbrellas.
It turns out to be Carla’s condo, she sold off the old gallery space
(not far from H70) a number of years ago and bought the condo, which has a
large entryway perfect for installing her old display cabinets. She carries 7
or so ceramicists in depth, one of whom is Kayoko Hoshino. We visited the
Hoshinos in Japan last year, she Is half the husband/wife pair doing work we
admired (along with E&J, pieces were bought including plates by the Hoshino’s
son).
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| We saw the Hoshinos last year in Japan and E&J bought one of her pieces |
While we admire several pieces, so far no purchases.
The rain has let up, and thus we have an easy time back on the #26 to CS
where THB realizes we are getting near the bottom range allowed on the
Chipkaart, so we head into the station to add-on; back in the same line as
before, waiting while others figure out the system (one guy leaves the line to
go rushing to the ATM), adding another 10E each. Our fear: if you get below
10E, they don’t work. Why? Not sure…and not sure if that’s right.
Tram ride is actually a transfer since the add-fare takes less than 30
minutes and catch the #5 out to Princes Irenestraat.
Dinner at Restaurant A’s (now THB thinks Gausss without the G is better
pronunciation). We’re early as we didn’t have enough time to go back to H70 and
then turn around. There’s a large seating area outside of rest stop or park
picnic type tables, totally empty due to rain (now light). Inside, there is a
bar in the middle and then communal tables for 6-10 radiating out like spokes.
There are three wait-staff, and our primary waitress is young and vivacious and
maybe smoked two joints before the night started or maybe not, what does THB
know!
Our choices appear to be 3, 4, or 5 courses, with wine pairings
available. We start with a glass of bubbly (Cremont?) that is quite nice and
opt for the 5 course meal with pairings, which subsequently gets adjusted to 3
for DB and 4+1 for THB, with wine pairings (see note later).
This is a biological restaurant, meaning as best THB knows as organic,
complete with they raise their own pigs and chickens (though source outside as
well). Either the owner or the chef or both have some relationship to Chez
Panisse, and the food says they do!
They bring some great home-made bread and olive oil, then a pre-course
that is way more than the usual little bite of something: prosciutto (maybe one
of their own pigs?), white asparagus, tiny mushrooms, green olives, and some
puree. Terrific!
That is followed by two appetizers: bruschetta salad with fresh mozzarella
(THB would call it burrata) and grilled langoustine with a carrot puree. We’re
getting nervous, and leave some of the bruschetta (not that much). Although
there are two appetizers, enough for four, THB thinks this counted as one
course.
Wines, all great: south of France white similar to a very crisp
sauvignon blanc; German pinot noir, Burgundy white (better than CA chardonnay),
Bordeaux red (mix of cab sauvignon and merlot), and THB turns down the dessert
wine.
Next course we do split, and it is a real oddity: squid (poached?),
ox-tail stew, and barley, served in one bowl. Unbelievable! Guess it was good
they didn’t bring us two.
Main course: THB gets rare, thin sliced rump steak and DB gets plaice
with the bones in, and a ton of veggies with each. This is where THB gets the red
Bordeaux and DB gets the white Burgundy. And, DB got a full glass of the French
white too with the oxtail/squid.
And, the most unusual cheese course comes next, a portion just for THB
that also would serve the entire table: two slices of walnut dark bread toast,
a pile of fig jam and two huge slaps of Dutch “mistake” cheese. The cheese is
very soft, cow’s milk, and only 2 months old. Terrific: sour, smooth, sweet,
velvety, stinky, and tremendous with the toast and jam. THB eats the whole
thing!
For dessert, DB has lemon meringue pie and THB has prune ice cream and a
small cappuccino. It’s not really ice cream, more like a slightly whipped
sorbet.
The total for this tremendously well-prepared meal: $200. We can’t quite
figure it out: they have charged for a 3 and 4 course meal (THB had 5 for sure)
and one less wine for DB though she had the same number of glasses THB did.
Of course, they don’t take AMEX (actually, THB is surprised). They do
take VISA, without a pin. We decide on a
big tip, in cash: $30. The practice here is to leave a few extra euros and some
of the bills tell you what 6% equals based on the total bill. As we are
leaving, THB jumps the wall and goes over to the outside kitchen to thank the
chef for a great meal (there appear to be only two people in the kitchen, so
this place is running on a staff of 5?).
Tram back and then a walk to H70 that, very unexpectedly, takes us
through a portion of the red light district: 6 or 7 windows outlined in red neon
with very full figured women (who could be anywhere from 20-45 in age). Not many
people around, the stroll past about 45 seconds.
Other pics from around town:
Other pics from around town:
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| Chair free (it's a Monday garbage pick-up day) |
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| Big local chain |
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