Days 0-1, E-ville to Amsterdam

Days 0-1: E-ville to Amsterdam

Weather:  Cool in E-ville, very nice in Amsterdam, thunderstorm in the evening

Quotes of the Day:  Is Uber evil?

 

Amsterdam is loaded with electric cars, many Teslas

Leave mid-morning for SFO, using Uber, and of course, this being the Bay Area, there’s traffic. Our driver even gets off 101 below Candlestick (remember Candlestick?) to try and speed up the trip. Doesn’t work. Such is the modern app world when drivers will try and save a few minutes. Easy KLM flight to Amsterdam, we’re upstairs in biz class. Some sleep, some decent meals, and 11+ hours later we’re outside waiting for Uber at “B” exit. Of course the only way you can tell where “B” is turns out to be by standing outside looking back at the terminal. Find the driver, and during the ride in manage to arrange using him for tomorrow’s journey to The Hague and Voorlinden Museum. We’ll see how that goes…$30 to ride in to town.

Rest of day is doing our best to fight off jet lag. We’re staying at the Pulitzer (not winning a Pulitzer, that’s something else) in a lovely suite. We walk around trying to re-orient ourselves from our last stay and the best THB can say is we are using up daylight hours as we traverse both sides of Prinsengracht looking for a very nice jewelry galererie, Rob Koudijs.

Lunch spot

Open face avocado and tuna sandwiches: huge portion

Lots of looking, no purchases, then lunch at a spot Rob recommends with very nice open faced sandwiches and lemonades ($27). How does Rob know to send us to an excellent local bakery? Even though we’re both feeling very full, we manage to share ice cream at another nearby place we remember: hazelnut and chocolate are a great combo.

Back to hotel to unpack, shower, and take a brief rest up, and we decide to tram out to some local “biennial” sculpture show. 

The 5 tram finally shows up and is so packed THB and DB give up and take a cab out to Amsterdam Sud ($25) and walk around a very mediocre series of work, all by Dutch artists (we don't make it to the few pieces by foreigners, fatigue is setting in quickly). 

Dinner of small plates, a local brewski and a glass of wine at Brooks (reco’d by the Artzuid folks) is quiet and very pleasant, $49. This time the 5 tram is not so crowded (though plenty of people), $8 for two of us, and we’re back in room and THB is asleep at 7:30.

Most people eat out on sidewalk of busy street, we dine inside with a hint of air conditioning

Affligem Double Draft

Grilled octopus and a few really good sliced potatoes

the 5, reasonably crowded going back to town at 7pm

KLM biz class give-aways; we think they are a) bulky and b) loaded with alcohol and c) collectibles (numbered)