rowan.depomerai

I speak with a certainty known only to the deluded when I say I am sure you will recall my post of March last year entitled Custard and Canal Boats. In it, I told you about my trip to Lisbon, the wonderful desserts I ate there, and the strange discovery of a bus disguised as a canal boat. Well, just over a week ago now, I visited Amsterdam, where I indulged in pancakes (more than once!) and took a trip on a real life canal boat, so I figured it was time for a quick update…

The real purpose of the trip, which I took with my friend Sarah, was to go to a gig in the Hague featuring John Mayer. However I think I’ll save that for another post later in the week, and instead tell you about the rest of the trip. It did not begin well. I completely forgot about the 100ml liquid restriction on planes these days, and so had to throw away half my toiletries before we even left. Ah well, a quick Squeezyjet flight and an accidental-first-class train ride later, we arrived in the delightful city of Amsterdam. A tram got us to our very lovely hotel, resplendent in its orange carpet and heated mirrors. We ventured back into town for some food, which was more difficult to find than we had imagined. Not because food is hard to come by, but because most places had a wait of over half an hour for a table and we were hungry. So we followed our guide book’s advice and tried the cuisine of the local Indonesian community. Ushered away from the trendy but full main restaurant into an upstairs room which they may well have imported all the way from Indonesia on the back of a truck, we began to fear for our lives. The stern waiter didn’t seem to understand the concept of service with a smile, and we certainly didn’t understand the rather complex menu. However, we navigated our way to a mediocre Indonesian beer and awaited our meal. The room did not collapse, nor did a crazed murderer jump out from behind the door marked ‘private’. Instead, an incredible array of food arrived, from noodles and rice to satay chicken, braised beef in soy, fried coconut and pickled vegetables. All in all an excellent meal.

Saturday was our culture day. We started with pancakes (yum!) and continued to the fascinating Amsterdam Historic Museum, where I particularly enjoyed the hands-on exhibit about church bells. After grabbing a quick organic lunch from a converted tram shed, we popped by the wonderful Homomonument, a tribute to all persecuted gay men and women, including in the Second World War.  A canal tour followed, which was a lovely way to see the city, though I was a bit disappointed that the canal boat was just that, and not a bus in disguise. (You look confused… seriously, go back and read this post and you’ll understand). The latter part of the day was spent with a visit to the Dutch masters at the Rijksmuseum. The museum was partly closed for refurbishment, which paradoxically made it rather more enjoyable in my opinion. A restricted display of their finest pieces was available, making the best bits available in a sensible amount of time (a couple of hours) whereas I feel the full museum would be overwhelming. Rembrandt’s Night Watch is indeed rather impressive, as were a number of the other art works. Recommended.

The evening was spent lazing in the beautiful Vondelpark near our hotel, where we were overwhelmed by the colour orange. The Netherlands’ national colour is orange you see, and they were playing in Euro 2008 that evening. Sadly they lost, but it was a fun atmosphere nonetheless.

Before returning home on Monday, we fit in some more pancakes, some beautiful photos at the flower market and a visit to the Rembrandt House museum, a fascinating exhibition of the painter’s Amsterdam mansion. I spent the day looking somewhat beetroot-like after forgetting the sun cream at Sunday’s gig, and have subsequently endured a week of abuse at work for my colour changing (and latterly flaking) skin. More detail than you wanted? Thought so.

I’ll post some pictures soon, and update you on the John Mayer gig in the Netherlands, as well as this weekend’s Bon Jovi gig in Twickenham, both of which were excellent. Then there’s the Jason Mraz gig I’m going to tonight… I have been busy! Plus there’s the inevitable 3G iPhone post to come in early July. I can see you salivating in anticipation already…

This entry was posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 8:15 am and is filed under Personal Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.