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.

Three Canadians (and one Dutch) invade Zermatt

Let's continue our little adventures with Chris and Bob, shall we?

Our two visitors spent the next 2 days exploring Paris and really enjoyed it. On Wednesday, we took them to "The Boomerang", one of our favourite restaurants just outside Basel. Linda and Rolf, the cook and owners, served us a fantastic piece of Aussie beef which, even by Canadian standards, must be rated with a very high note.

The next day was Zermatt invasion day. Well.... OK. So, we didn't exactly invade Zermatt, but we sure did our share at one of the local bars.

We had quite a bit of traffic on the way, but Robert was fascinated by the snowy peaks as we drove closer and closer to the Alps. He was also surprised to hear that we were going to drive onto a train that would take us from Kandersteg to Goppenstein through the Lötschberg tunnel.

While waiting for the train, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery, took one of my favourite shots of Robert and Christiane and watched a paraglider elegantly surfing the thermals.

The train ride took about fifteen minutes and after another 45 minutes, we parked our car in Täsch where a taxi took us the entrance of Zermatt. From there, an electro-car took us to our hotel. The weather was great, so we decided to unpack and explore the a bit since were too late to take the cable car all the way up anyway. Not to mention that we were thirsty!

As we walked through the village, we soon found a lovely outdoor lounging area where we sat down in the sun and enjoyed a few beers and bruschettas.

Does that look comfy, or what?

I think Chris also enjoyed it.

Oh, but wait. That's not all! We even saw a goat parade. Yep, right through "downtown" Zermatt. Taking them to graze in a pasture up in the Alps, perhaps? BTW, the goat leading the pack almost ran over OX while he took the pictures. So, never try to stop a goat when it wants to go feed, okay? They don't care much for cameras, or cameramen, for that matter.

Once the sun started disappearing behind the mountain and the temperatures became cooler, we decided to move on and found a small pub called the "Hexenbar" (the witches bar). A real cosy place to chill out with dim lights and decorated with witches in form of dolls or then painings all over the pub. And now, guess where it got its name from... Bingo! Anyhow, it was early and still pretty quiet when we got there.... but not for long! The Canadutch RULE!

We ordered a first round of drinks and started taking pictures of Bob and Chris. All of a sudden, the waitress, Cindy, jumped in."Wait! You can't take a picture in here without one of the witches", she said with a smirk.

She ran to a corner of the pub and grabbed a battery operated witch with flashing eyes and handed it over to Christiane for the picture.


She didn't stop at that, though. Seeing that we were having so much fun, Cindy asked us whether she should get us a few requisites from the storage room for our "photo shoot". Of course, we agreed, and within a minute, she came back with sorcerers' hats, broomsticks, and a set of pink'n white bunny ears and a bow tie. And this is what came out of it.

I admit.....

Although we both tried very hard, OX and I didn't actually soar throught the skies with this broomstick, but we sure as hell had a fun time trying. (BTW, this is probably my absolute fave picture of OX and me!)

Bob thought that biting it and adding horns to it would bring him to fly. NOT! Maybe he was just drinking the wrong "magic potion"?

Group photo time, ...but we still can't fly! Oh, well. What the heck! Maybe the bunny ears just didn't fit in?

This is our waitress, Cindy, with the boys.

A few drinks later, Cindy introduced us to Mark, a very funny, literally wee man - about 1.55 m/5' tall - that made us laugh tears. What an entertainer! He was performing right across the street, so we decided to have a simple meal consisting of chicken wings, ribs and such (not typically Swiss, I know), and just enjoy his show. It was worth it and we had a great time there.

After dinner, we decided to go for a short walk through the quiet town and then returned to the Hexenbar for a nightcap. Unfortunately, Cindy had finished her shift and left already, but Ellie, her replacement, made sure that we didn’t lack of anything and so we enjoyed a last drink before returning to our hotel for a good nights' sleep.

So. People. Hear me! If you're ever planning to visit Zermatt one day, make sure to go to the Hexenbar. Don't expect the personnel there to entertain you as soon as you set foot in the bar, but if they see that someone wants to have fun, they will go out of their way to make sure you have an unforgettable evening*. So here's a BIG thank you to Cindy and Ellie for making this evening a very memorable one.

More from Zermatt, coming up soon…

*With us will be even more fun! **Hint?? Hint???**