We had no trouble getting our train to Amsterdam and high speed rail is such a great way to travel. We just showed up to the station, no check in lines, no security checks, no pre boarding process, just find our car and get on. I then spent the trip going through my Brussels pictures and writing the post (hope you enjoyed). When we arrived and got settled, we walked into the city center and found something to eat (a late lunch is such a bad idea). The pub we ate at had a nice cat that seemed to live in the place, which just made Kim miss our kitties back home. It was raining so we hung out for a while heading back and munching on some stuff we got from a grocery.
Kim wanted to see the Rijksmuseum, which seemed like a good idea since it was overcast and raining again (I never saw the sun once while in Amsterdam). It actually felt like a nicer art museum than the Louvre. The Louvre had a better collection for sure, but it is just so chaotic and maze like that it seems like a bother seeing a lot of it. The Rijksmuseum had some nice Monets and a few Van Goghs (most of his stuff is at the neighboring Van Gogh Museum) along with a lot of great Dutch landscape paintings (I got tired of dead people portraits and battle scenes). As we began to get a bit tired of the art, we headed out and tried to get another picture of the I amsterdam sign/sculpture, thinking it would be less crowded with the light rain so I could try and get a good, clear picture of it (why people insist on ruining a good sculpture by putting themselves in front of it, I don’t understand), which I finally got after a couple were gracious enough to wait for me to get my picture. We then took a tram to go to the Brouerij Tij (which is located next to the de Gooyer windmill) to have some beers. The place was really crowded, so we ended up standing at the bar. They had an IPA that used American hop strains and was really interesting (a European take on an APA basically). We then took a tram back to the museumplein for a meat place I had found recommendations for. The wait ended up being over an hour (a good sign) so we just hung out at a neighboring bar before we got to chow down on the lamb shoulder and the lamb chops (both were excellent).
The next day we grabbed some breakfast around the corner from the apartment and then walked over the Albert Cuypmarkt, which is a long street market. We were both pretty full from breakfast, so we did not try the street food (should have thought about that before breakfast :). There were a lot of touristy souvenir shops that Kim checked out while I was looking at the cheese and food options. I wish the US had more street markets, they have such a great potential for choices and discoveries. After that street market, we headed to the Bloomenmarkt, which ended up being more of an adventure with the tram we got on going AWOL and heading way east rather than north. When we realized it was going another direction, we got off and tried to figure out a new route there. We eventually found our way after mixing some short tram rides and walking. It was not as interesting as I had expected with most of the shops just selling bulbs or seeds (and some cannabis starter kits). We stopped into a pancake place for an early dinner before heading to the boat tour place we had picked for a night boat tour. The boat tour was nice, a lot of cool information and some cool scenes. I wanted more pictures but some people on the boat were cold so I had to keep the window closed :(. We then wandered home for the night.
For our final day, we went to try another, more highly reviewed, place for Dutch pancakes. We both tried some more interesting (and savory) options which turned out really tasty. We then wondered around the Jordaan neighborhood some, then headed back because Kim was feeling sleepy and wanted a lounging day. We lounged around the apartment the rest of the day, munching on some snacks and relaxing. For dinner, Kim wanted some Indonesian food (common in Amsterdam as it once was a Dutch colony). We had ayam kari and rendang, which were both very good.
We then headed home to get to sleep early, our train to Berlin was early in the morning.