Tuesday
13 August
We came down for breakfast, which was continental,
although a delightful egg chef would cook you eggs in whatever way you
requested. Fried, scrambled, boiled etc. I chose an omelette which was cooked
freshly in front of me, and served directly to my table. Marvellous.
After breakfast the four of took a tram to The Rijksmuseum, which is one of
Amsterdam’s biggest attractions. It had been closed for renovations for ten
years, and only re-opened in April 2013. The most famous painting in the
gallery is Rembrandt’s masterpiece, The
Night Watch, and this is brilliantly displayed in its own gallery, the
Night Watch Room, at the end of the Hall of Fame. This museum also houses The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer,
another Dutch work of genius.
This museum is one of Europe’s best, without a
doubt, but suffers from being too busy, and too noisy. It is also difficult to
find your way around, and some paintings attract crowds which can be ten deep,
or even more for the really famous paintings. My other gripe was that you had
to queue for everything. Queue to get in to the main gallery, queue to hand in
your coat, queue for toilets, queue for the café and so on. Also, the
information panels next to each painting were too small, and I couldn’t always
get close enough to read them.
We decided to leave the gallery for lunch, and
headed off to find somewhere quieter. We ended up at an eatery called Pompa, which looked ok. I chose bread
and cheese, expecting a Dutch Ploughman’s lunch, but literally got two thin
pieces of cheese, along with some dry bread. Katy’s meal was forgotten, as was
part of Rob’s order.
Katy and I went to Vondelpark after lunch, and enjoyed strolling round Amsterdam’s
finest park. There is an urban myth surrounding this park that says that starting in September 2008, adults were planned to be
legally allowed to have sex in the park, as long as they "take their
garbage with them afterwards and never have intercourse near the playground,
and the sex must be limited to the evening hours and night". We didn’t see
any lovers, but I was delighted to see grey herons, rose-ringed parakeets, and
some Egyptian geese. After an ice cream in the park, we took a tram back to the
hotel, and arrived in time for cheese and bread, which was much better than my
disappointing lunch.
After a few
complimentary beers we took a tram to the city centre. I had read about an
underground glow in the dark crazy golf course in a pub named Noah’s Arq, and I was keen to check it
out. We found the pub opposite the waterfront, and sure enough, there was a
golf course in the cellar. Armed with our 3D glasses, we descended to the pub’s
basement and had great fun putting our fluorescent balls around 15 of the
wackiest crazy golf holes you we ever see. This was excellent entertainment,
and highly recommended.
We then took a bus
back to the centre, and decided to explore the red light district before
dinner. It didn’t feel seedy here at all, just full of tourists like us
checking out the area. If anything, it was simply a pleasant stroll along
another of Amsterdam’s many canals.
We found a
restaurant down an alleyway that was surprisingly upmarket. It was called Blauw aan de Wal (Blue on the quay).
Normally you would need to book to get in here, but we were shown to a table up
on the second floor. Although this is a top restaurant, there were only two
choices of starter on the menu, and likewise only two choices of main course. I
went with some sort of salmon and oysters concoction as my starter, but I
wasn’t keen on the texture. For main I got raw tuna in ginger broth, and was
similarly unimpressed. To be fair, everyone else in our party were impressed
with their meals, so maybe it was just too posh for me!
By the time we left
Blue on the Quay, the red light district was absolutely buzzing with punters
and tourists. We made our way back through the throng to the tram station, and
arrived back at our hotel around midnight, just in time for a port and lemon
nightcap.
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