Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Next stop: Amsterdam - Day 1

Friday, July 11: We were up bright and early, and off to the suburbs of Amsterdam we drove with our two Canadian friends to Harry and Brenda's. We made the trip in roughly 6 hours. Not bad.

Once there, we unpacked a few things, had a quick welcome drink and took the train to Amsterdam Central Station. And what better way to introduce our guests to Amsterdam's sights than a one hour boat tour through the canals.

Discovering a city sure can make you hungry. If you go to Holland, there are a few musts in the food sector that you should try and one of them is FEBO. Yes, it's fast food, but this place is kinda special. The only things you get directly from the counter are fries and drinks. Hamburgers, frikandel, cheese dumplings and other hot deep fried goodies are always freshly filled up in automatiek machines (vending machines). They make for a solid base if you're planning to go out and have a few beers, so make sure you have plenty of Euro coins ;) Chris and Bob tried a few typical dutch and indonesian specialties, but I think that the kroket was their favourite. Isn't this shot great? OX was trying to feed Chris, but she still hadn't finished chewing down her last bite.

Bob was fascinated by the fact that the public urinals could be planted right in the middle of Leidseplein. Honestly, Amsterdam is the only place I've ever seen them.



Before going for dinner, we spent some time on the Museumplein and took a few pictures of Bob and Chris - as well as a few unkown others - in the big letters spelling "I Amsterdam".

We then took a shortcut through a nearby park where "the big kids" began to play. When I grow up, I wanna be ... Rambo?




............................But, beware................


................The Rambettes are out there. Life in the jungle is tough.
You win some, you loose some.










We finally made it to Café Loetje (pronounced Loot-yuh), the restaurant that Brenda and Harry had picked out for us. While waiting to be seated (no reservations), we had an aperitif at the bar and soon made a new friend. He was so funny.

The food was great and the service very friendly. I strongly recommend the beef. I had the biefstuk Bali and it was excellent! They have a website, but it's only in Dutch, so I thought a link to reviews would also be welcome.


After dinner, we made a quick stop at Harry's "office". Chris originally thought that we were going to a real office and was surprised to end up at Heuvel, a typical cozy Amsterdam café/bar.





Last but not least, we took them through the red light district; a must for every tourist! On the way, we passed this magnificent building called: In de Waag, built in 1488 in which used merchants met and was later to become to be a meeting place for the different guilds. Today, it serves as a restaurant.

All that in one day!

I've got one more post about our travels with Chris and Bob, then we'll get to our vacation in Egypt. I'll be putting up all of the picts from this series up on picasa in my next post.

18 comments:

Shelli said...

I LOVE "I Amsterdam". That is so cool. I would like to climb on that myself.

Xmichra said...

the pics are amaxing as usual! That In de Waag place looks cool. Dinner was good there?

Unknown said...

Oh you guys look like you had a blast! And waay too much laughing going on... I mean who wouldn't want to join in on the fun??? ;-)

CanadianSwiss said...

Shelli: Isn't it? :) I've been so often to A'dam but never saw it before.

Xmichra: I wish we had been there for dinner, too, but one can't eat ALL the time ;)

ET: Is there such a thing as "too much laughing"? LOL.

Anonymous said...

gooooood to read about you and to see you......miss you.....

swenglishexpat said...

You seem to have had a fabulous time this summer. Wonderful, funny and beautiful photos. I hope to have more time to read a little more when I return to your blog. Till then...

Michael Lehet said...

Oh I'm so looking forward to Amsterdam next year for my B-day, we just bought our tickets last week so it's all coming together. Thanks for the teaser!

Shammickite said...

YoungerSon and the Bride spent some time in Amsterdam a couple of years ago when they were "doing Europe"... they loved it. Looks like you had a blast, as usual. I really like that big I Amsterdam climbing toy!!!

CanadianSwiss said...

Swissmiss: Any plans to come to Switzerland in the near future?? :)

Swenglish: We sure have, and it doesn't seem to be coming to a stop just yet either! We now have OX's parent visiting.

Michael: Wouldn't it be fun to meet up there? If I recall correctly, your B'day's in September. A very nice time to go!

Ex-Sham: It's a great place to visit. I'm sure we'd find you up on those letters in no time :)

Ginnie Hart said...

Do you know that I FINALLY finished my picture albums from Australia's trip (4 months ago)! So, dear CS, I think you're really doing well. :)

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Jay said...

Your pictures are so lively!
I love the big letters.
I want to come, to see, to travel and enjoy.

Rob7534 said...

Wow! Love the pics, looks like you guys know how to have FUN!

By the way, you're looking as lovely as ever!

vailian said...

Amsterdam rocks! as they say.
But seriously, how did you get all the nice formatting? I can't for the life of me get the pictures to go in the right places in the text. Have you got a secret?

CanadianSwiss said...

Ginnie: I know YOU understand. Thank you, my friend :)

Claire: I will come by :)

Jay: You're most welcome anytime to come over, see and enjoy with us.

Rob: So nice to have you over again and than you for the compliment! xox

Vailian: Secret? No, not really, but I have worked 8 years in the creation of printing material. Maybe that helped :)

The Big Bear said...

Hi CS, looks like you had a lot of fun. Great pictures! I'll be in Amsterdam again from 6. to 7. October for a training at Schiphol. I won't have the chance to enjoy the city - as usual.

Michael Lehet said...

I can't wait to go to Amsterdam next year for my birthday...we're going to be there April 17th-27th. Would be so lovely to meet you in person.

I could just imagine those urinals in a downtown square here in Chicago, they would never get used. -- The funniest thing about that picture though is that it has "international symbol" for MAN on the side of them.....too funny!

Anonymous said...

Very, very pretty.Especially the In de Waag. And yet I have to ask: no coffeeshop? :D