Amsterdam Day One

We had an easy flight to Amsterdam...approximately 1 ½ hour from Heathrow. We found Uncle Phillip, who flew in from Florida to join us for our adventure, and we were able to grab a minivan taxi.

The layout of Amsterdam is vastly different from the bustle of the London city-life. Very green, lots of water, and well, so far, a very relaxed atmosphere. What I have enjoyed seeing the most are the number of bikes that are prevalent throughout this place, as well as the number of people riding them. Bike paths everywhere. Love it. Would love to see more U.S. cities adopt this way of transportation...

Our houseboat is amazing. It is docked, so we will not be sailing it. I don't know if it is common for people to take their houseboats out, but I'm assuming it is not...so it's a strange question to receive from people about whether we will be out on the water, 'sailing'. We will NOT.

It is quite breezy and yet the boat does not rock much. Hardly at all, but I have felt it a little bit.Right across the street from our boat are apartments where the ground floors house bars and other stores.

Here are some pictures of the paths on either side of us:




For lunch, we ate at “de wereldbold”where I enjoyed “bar food” that consisted of a plate of carpaccio with slivers of parmesan and sprigs of arugula (my favorite),along with a big ass salad of iceberg, bibb, arugula, tomatoes and more slivers of parmesan, plus a small bowl of spaghetti with a dabble of pesto, PLUS bread with a bit of tomato relish AND a little bit of pesto, which I assumed went on the salad, since I had no dressing. This was a three course meal AT A BAR. I had to have a nice red wine with it, which was just ordered that way “Red wine, please”...or “dank u weil (veil)”, which accompanied my food very well.

Tim had a focaccia sandwich...no rear end accidents involved to gain focaccia here. :-)

Service was unbelievable. The host was very accommodating with us foreigners and provided a local beer recommendation for Uncle Phil and Tim. Did I mention that the carpaccio was out of this world? Maybe it was just the entire atmosphere that made it so wonderful.

Back at the boat,

we discovered we had a waterbed in the master room. Um, yeah, that was actually quite comfy. I fell asleep...for about two hours...and then the girls fell asleep, separately, for about the same amount of time.

After we were rejuvenated, we set out for dinner. We didn't go far. We hit the other bar that is right across from the houseboat, Cafe Kanis en Meiland. Here I had a steak with the most amazing brown gravy, with a side of small potatoes. Cerina and Mia had chicken satay. Wow. Very hearty and wonderful...and again, labeled “bar food”. The best thing about this place, besides the food and atmosphere, DOGS ARE ALLOWED. When we arrived, we met this dog:



Then we met these two beautiful dogs with a very friendly owner:

We had to have “take-away” with the girls' and Tim's food...but I was able to enjoy ALL OF MINE.