Thursday, October 8, 2009

Amsterdam--still here

Rain
By Claire

We spent the entire day in the fabulous, high tech, user-friendly, better than a museum Bibliotheek. Free high speed computers everywhere. We decided to take a tour of all 7 floors and were even more amazed. One floor is devoted to cultural studies and has a very complete section on homosexuality. We found the Film floor later on and used their very comfortable chairs to kick back and read the rest of the afternoon away. I even took my shoes off and had my feet up on a huge ottoman. Earlier though, we discovered their amazing restaurant. Chuck was sure it would be too expensive but it turned out to be a real deal. We each had a drink and a pizza and the entire bill was €16. The restaurant is comfortable, and very hip.



Who else would have thought to plant an olive tree in a restaurant?




I was trying to figure out what to order to drink when the bartender suggested this one because it's good for the digestion. They even had a booklet to read up on it. It was delicious.


You order your food using a plastic card given to you as you enter. They give you this device that flashes when your food is ready. When you leave you hand over the card and it shows them what you owe.


Best pizza I've had in a long, long time. Spinach/pesto. All their pizza and pasta is made fresh. The pizza was €5.75. Note the upscale silverware.




During our tour we discovered another restaurant upstairs on the 7th floor. There are picture windows everywhere with spectacular views. Fresh food and cheap prices.


It was a rainy day which made it perfect to be inside.


Dinner for (hopefully) the last time at The Kantine. This soup will be hard to beat and their Bock bier was so good we just had to have two.


One more shot of the bar at The Kantine.


Our favorite server, Mandy. What a doll.


We are heading to BW in a few minutes to find out whether or not today is the day. Rene told us to check out of the botel so we are quite hopeful. It's a beautiful day today with sun and blue skies. We plan to walk the Jordaan area of Amsterdam while the transmission is installed and a few other items inside Homer are taken care of.

Today is your day, your mountain is waiting, so get on your way. ~ Dr Seuss

4 comments:

Kelly in West Sac said...

I don't want you to think SD&PS has been ignoring you. In fact, we're totally enjoying your blog. We talk about it several times a week. I feel like I have gotten an in-person viewpoint of your interactions that many people wouldn't be able to express. Your writing is poetry.

Nancy Harrington said...

My heart goes out to you guys...stuck in Amsterdam with all the great food and wine and scenery and...

I'm recalling John Steinbeck's comment in Travels with Charlie: "Trips take us rather the the other way around."

Chuck and Claire said...

Wow, thanks Kelly!
Claire

Chuck and Claire said...

Nancy,
Yeah, I know, it's a tough job, but someone has to do it.
Claire