Derrell decided he needed new shoes and a different (smaller) pair of jeans. It was a gorgeous day and once the shops opened, the streets were swarmed with people. Did I mention that this was a holiday weekend?
Amazingly, the shoe and pants were purchased and we didn’t collapse from the pressure of the crowds.
Had a fine lunch at a Balinesian-Indonesian restaurant, sitting outside in the sun and watching the people go by.
So far we’ve stayed out of trouble, but that we knew that wouldn’t last for long. When in Amsterdam, do as the Romans do.. which is what the Amsterdamians do… We puchased (yes legally), some Columbian mushrooms. Thinking that might be a fine thing to do while wandering around the streets tomorrow.
Back to tourist watching. Just as in Brussels and Brugges, you can’t tell the tourists from the locals. I guess we have the Amsterdam local look, we were stopped twice by people thinking they could get directions from us. It must have been the new shoes.
The canals don’t smell here. They started a program to let 700,000 gallons of water flow through the canals each day to get rid of the stench. The city is extremely eco-friendly. There are bicycles everywhere and bike lanes. What a concept! If only Santa Cruz would put in actual bike lanes?! There is a downside as a pedestrian. You have to watch for trams, electric buses, taxis, a minor amount of cars, scooters, and erratically moving bicyclists. It can make crossing a busy intersection an adrenalin adventure.
They have one of the most heart stopping food obsessions here that I’ve ever seen. French fries, served with mayonaise are everywhere. In street stalls and on almost every restaurant menu. Our goal became eating at a restaurant that did not have french fries anywhere on the menu.
Our hotel is quite a haul from the main downtown. On one of our journeys to-from the hotel we stopped at an Irish pub (okay, it was the only place to sit down on the route.. I’m not really trying to search out places that serve Guiness instead of the lagers from hell that the serve here… really). We met Tiger the orange cat, who kept us entertained for our visit.
We stopped for dinner, but ended up with Tapas. Okay, Derrell didn’t end up with anything, but I got a great plate of pickled herring (never had that before, and probably won’t order it again until I forget what it tastes like.. but it certainly was something new to try) and some unidentifiable fried fish (good but non-descript after the lovely pickled herring). Okay, maybe three beers impairs your eating judgement. We sat outside the tapas bar and eavesdropped on a young-republican-Netherlander picking up a young American girl by lauding his great travel experience as a cpa. We were a bit suspicious, but it may have been working for the girl. Actually, it was probably just his accent.
We wandered back over the red light district to watch the crowds and get in more trouble. Had quite a memorable evening, but added a haze from buying some (yes legal) joints from the coffeeshop. We stayed out until the bars closed and had better judgement than the two guys sitting next to us who had decided to eat some shrooms for the first time ever just as the town was thinking of closing up for the evening. We gave them the basic tenents: 1) All cars are real (and trams and bicycles) 2) Don’t stare at the sun and 3) Don’t eat your food if it talks to you. Seems like rational advice for everyone, actually.
