Amsterdam day 3

A day or two after Tay arrived, I brought him to Palast to hang out with my coworkers there and I got some advice from Lys who had been over to Amsterdam recently. She told me that they had spent basically two entire days and seen two museums (the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh musuem) because of all the lines to get in.

So before we took off for our trip, I went ahead and booked our tickets online. It was kind of a pain being tied to a particular place and time, but let me tell you, we walked right past all the lines, straight into the museum like we were VIPs.

Expensive though, each ticket was 17 Euros, although probably not paying much less after waiting in line for hours. My biggest tip for Amsterdam this trip: book your museum tickets online.

The Van Gogh museum did a good job at contextualizing his artwork and trying to show who he was and how his ideas, mental state, and artwork evolved over time. Looking back, it was actually quite a tragic arc. There were only two blockbuster works on display: one of his "Sunflowers" and "The Potato Eaters." Only, the potato eaters had finished their meal and left early: this most notable early work was currently on loan.

We wandered around some more after leaving the museum, picking our way through areas we had not shopped before, looking through antique prints and lithograophs at one store, glass bottles at the next. On a quiet and sunny side street near the Golden Bend, I saw a flamboyant and expensive looking but eccentric shop selling what looked like a mix of high end antiques and ecclectic furnature. There was also a coffee menu. Our interest piqued, we all trooped inside, scrupulously careful not to touch anything and asked about the coffee. It turned out they were a kind of combined teahouse\decor shop, and we were encouraged to sit wherever we wanted, for example, on the gray suede setee, or at the wooden table for sale. We opted to sit outside where they shook off the furs on the bench facing the canal. The shop keeper brought out an ornate silver tray with our drinks and a single orchid flower. I opted for a premium tea which seemed to fit the character of the place better, but Saori and Tay both ordered iced coffee drinks which were served in crystal goblets along with a bite of cake.

We sat and chatted a bit in the late afternoon sunlight- all of the trees along the canal had flowered a few weeks before, and now the air was filled with the papery petals of the tree seeds, carried along by the wind. The ridiculous decadence of the drinks and service and location was perfect for the moment. Actually the three of us sitting there enjoying our drinks attracted a lot of attention from passers by, whose foot traffic seemed to please the shopkeeper. She took a photo of all of us enjoying our drinks.

We continued on to the Van Loon house museum nearby. Van Loon was one of the founders and owners of the Dutch East India company. His family and descedents still own the large canal house which was meticulously restored with period peices to reflect how the wealthy oligarchs of the city lived in the golden age of Amsterdam. It was an easy and tranquil visit. No guided tours, just wandering through a few rooms and the lovely garden.

Sitting among the Queen of the Night tulips, we picked out an Italian restaurant and Tay called them up on my phone to make a reservation. We wandered around more in a new part of the town to kill time, and I popped into a liquor store and bought a earthenware bottle of Kornenwijn which is a kind of very old fashioned and tradition Genever, the precurser to gin.

The Italian place was fully staffed and run by Italians. It was crowded and bustling and the wait staff seemed to delight in near misses with each other and the guests with plates of food. The menu was only in Italian, although our waitress was happy to explian words we didn't know. We split a carafe of wine and munched on the best fried calimari I've ever had, before moving on to our main dishes. We finished up with a limoncello cake and tiramisu, although the limoncello cake was the clear winner. We were at that restaurant at least two and a half hours.

After dinner, we worked our way over to another gin bar called Oolofspoort or something like that, close to the red light district. I went to the bar and said bascally that we didn't know much about Genever and what did they suggest for three neophytes. I got three very interesting and good spirits. My favorite was the 1 year old Genever, although the older, wooden cask conditioned Genevers were a lot smoother and more like brandy.

After a round of drinks, we were all tired, so we took Saori back to the house and we all passed out.