Anne Frank House, The Jordaan, Amsterdam Market, More Indonesian Food

Anne Frank House, The Jordaan, Amsterdam Market, More Indonesian Food

We woke up bright and early this morning excited to see more of Amsterdam. We had breakfast at the hotel where they put out a buffet of high quality fruit, smoked meats, cheeses, and breads. They also had one of Andrew’s favorites “De Ruijter” chocolate sprinkles. They are a Dutch invention. Basically they take an un-toasted slice of white bread, brush a bunch of butter on it, and layer on the chocolate sprinkles. We actually have some of the sprinkles at home as a special treat so we saw it and knew just what to do. It was tasty. We also had some smoked salmon for breakfast as well. I guess that is popular here as we have been eating lots of it morning, noon, and night. As soon as we left the hotel we headed for a fun neighborhood called The Jordaan. The concierge recommended it to us because it is a quaint neighborhood with lots of good photo opportunities because the canal houses are so picturesque in that area. As we walked along, we stumbled upon the Anne Frank House as they were opening. Since the line was pretty short, we decided to go in and we were really glad we did. You basically get to see the house as it was in 1944 (but without the furniture) when the Franks were hiding there from the Nazis. It really gives you perspective about how close they were living and leaves you with sadness that Anne never got to see her diary published as she always wished. The message of the museum is of tolerance and it gives you an appreciation for what a wonderful and wise young girl Anne was. It is an incredibly special place that we were lucky to be able to visit. As we exited the building, we saw hundreds of people standing on the block. Apparently we were lucky to arrive early in the morning, because by 10:30, the line was around two corners of the building. It was insane! Next we headed on to The Jordaan. As we started our neighborhood tour, we saw an amazing farmer’s market where people were selling all kinds of organic produce, flowers, meats, and cheeses. Of course we snapped a few pictures there which you can see below. We then continued on and saw all kinds of beautiful houses along the canals and got a feel for the area. It was amazing. We also stopped in a few shops including this really cool one called Kitsch Kitchen featuring Dutch oil cloth which is a vinyl-like material that is printed in really unique patterns and bright colors. We bought a few souvenirs there and finished our walk.

It was now lunchtime so we dropped off our goods at the hotel and looked around for something to eat. We found this great little lunch spot called Goodies which looked crowded with locals so we tried it. We ended up having a really nice lunch. I had a smoked salmon and egg bagel sandwich (see…there they go again with the smoked fish) and Andrew had a smoked chicken sandwich. Fun atmosphere, decent food, and friendly service…all at a low price. What more can you ask for? After lunch we headed back to the hotel to pack our bags and move to the new location. Our new place is just as nice as the last one except the service isn’t quite as good, but that’s okay because I paid less than half the price. With anything else, you get what you pay for. It’s definitely not bad, the people just aren’t overly helpful. When we checked in and the receptionist showed us for our room, she forgot to bring the key with her and she was looking at us like we had it. Haha, we were laughing. Especially since it is quite a hike to get to our room from the front desk. Apparently this hotel used to be a college and is really beautiful inside and out.

After check-in we explored the room and the hotel and then took a quick nap before heading out to another Indonesian restaurant. This one was called Restaurant Blauw and the food was just as amazing as last nights, without the fiery inferno experience. We ate goat satay, another version of rendeng, and shrimp in a coconut sauce. This place also gave us tons of little dishes to go with the main courses like they do at home in Korean restaurants. My favorite was the sweet coconut shavings with peanuts. We had a good laugh at the French tourists at the next table who had obviously never eaten Indonesian food before. Their eyes kept getting bigger and bigger with every dish that came out. They looked scared of everything. Haha, having just left Paris and being on the short end of the stick (and the victims of a little bit of snootyness) because we didn’t speak French very well, it was nice to feel like they were the ones who couldn’t speak the language. See what it feels like? Just kidding…it’s not like we speak Dutch either, but pretty much everyone here speaks perfect English and is more than happy to talk to you. They don’t speak very much French here from what we can tell. At the beginning of the meal, Andrew asked if they had cendol. The waitress said they did, but when we got the dessert menus we didn’t see it. We asked the waiter and he said that it was on the secret menu that no one knows about. We ordered it and Andrew was a very happy camper. It was a slightly different take on traditional cendol with melons and cendol flavored ice cream, but we loved it anyway. Makes me wonder what else is on that secret menu. Hmmm… We finished every last bit and hailed a cab to take us back to the hotel as we haven’t yet figured out the tram system. Maybe tomorrow. Oh and all throughout the day the weather has been rainy with patches of sun and has been unpredictable, as I write this I can hear the rain against our windows. Hopefully tomorrow will bring more sunshine. Au revior, Chelsie and Andrew

California-style rain

Anne Frank Huis Entrance

Andrew at the Frank residence

For those wondering, there are narrow-one-way streets on each side of the canals.

Us in Amsterdam

Biker in Amsterdam

Walker in Amsterdam

Beautifully back-lit array of fruits and veg

Some kind of math fractal cauliflower. Yay math!

Andrew at Goodies

Chelsie getting the goods at Goodies

Our room at The College Hotel

The Entrance. Vespa for rent.

The College Hotel under the moon

Chelsie at Restaurant Blauw

Delicious (head-on) tiger prawns. YUM!!

INDO FOOD!!!

Cendol, a tasty Indonesian treat

1 Comment

  1. The salmon looks so awesome! and the food all looks so whole and fresh! Thanks for showing us the narrow alley for the cars to get out! Mystery solved!
    Love you both and have a safe trip to eat Belguim Waffles? Is that next? Please eat at least one for me. LOL Love and miss you, Bill and MOM.

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