This morning LB woke up at 3 am because he was getting bit by mosquitoes and was too itchy to sleep. We had opened the windows a couple days ago and saw mosquitoes flying in. Since then we have been trying to kill them all, but somehow they keep coming in. LB ended up falling asleep at 7:30 so we let him sleep while we went to breakfast a little before 8am. After breakfast we went to the Rijksmuseum and wandered around there looking at all the great works of art.
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| Van Gogh |
They had one self portrait of Van Gogh, a whole lot of Rembrandt’s works including ‘The Night Watch’ and many more from Rembrandt’s proteges. The museum itself is a beautiful, old building with lots of intricate stained glass as well as having been recently remodeled to have a modern interior.
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| The Night Watch |
When we were done going through the museum we walked to the Metro and went to watch Kyoko-san perform again at Gymnaestrada. Her group’s performance this time seemed to be cleaner and they did a very good job. After their performance Ojiichan, Christal, the kids and I went on a self-guided food tour through the de Pijp neighborhood, and more specifically Albert Cuyp Market.
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| Albert Cuyp Market |
We signed up for it through the I Amsterdam card and then they sent us a PDF itinerary to follow with discounts for each stop. We went to FEBO for croquettes, Tjin’s Toko for Surinamese chicken and potato curry with rice, long beans and piccalilli hot sauce, Mezzava where we went off the tour menu for a Jewish smoked short rib sandwich, that the owner recommended more than what was offered for the tour, Vishandel (fishmonger) Albert Cuyp for herring and kibbeling, Poffertjes Albert Cuyp for poffertjes which are mini pancakes doused in butter and powdered sugar, Rudi’s Original Stroopwafels, and lastly Osaka Balls for takoyaki. By the end of our tour we were pretty full and had been able to see all of Albert Cuyp Market.
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| Rudi's Stroopwafels Were Amazing! |
From the market we headed back toward our hotel and booked a boat tour of the canals. Before our tour got started we had time to drop off the stroller in the hotel room, while also finally waking LB up from his slumber.
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| Rudi's Stroopwafels Soothes the Mosquito Bites |
The boat tour got started promptly at 4 pm and went through the city on some of the canals, rivers and other waterways while we listened to an audio guide of the city.
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| The Famous Canals |
When the boat tour finished we headed back to the Gymnaestrada for one of their FIG Gala shows which seemed to be attended by over half of the participants and fans. Most of the countries present had one act from, I’m guessing, one of their elite groups and most of the performances were very impressive, whether it was the choreography, the acrobatics or the physical skill that was shown. Unfortunately we had to leave a little early in order to make it to dinner on time. Dinner was at a restaurant called Zoldering, which was awarded with a Michelin star and the food was all extremely good. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and after I helped get the kids down for bed I walked around to see if I could get some night pictures.
Unfortunately, none of the canals were lit up and the streets were pretty crowded with partiers because there is a gay pride festival going on. After walking around for a while I headed back and went to bed.
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| Rijksmuseum |
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