We ordained today as "sleep late Wednesday". Which really just meant that we woke up at a leisurely pace around 9am and had no real timetable in mind. We didn't go to bed until midnight last night so the extra sleep was sorely needed. Today I ordained that we would take a break from all the walking and rest. However, I failed to recall how all these Europe trips work out -- you end up walking to do everything. With some trains inbetween. We ended up doing only about 7 miles. That's "rest" for us I guess. Oh and have we mentioned how insanely steep the steps are here inside our apartment complex? I guess this is the norm for Amsterdam but a shock for us.
 |
| Apartment Stairs -- Don't trip! |
First stop this morning was to find out what the deal is with the Dutch pancakes they keep raving about. We hit (i.e. walk to) the Pancake Bakery not too far from our place and get in right away. So we get to the table and immediately notice something different:
 |
| Bowl full of molasses table-side |
Yes, it's just that kind of place. They have 79 kinds of pancakes here so it is quite an ordeal to figure out what to order. We opt for three things to share. A Dutch pancake with a Dutch Syrup cookie crumbled on top, cinnamon ice cream, chocolate flakes and whipped cream. Next is a pancake with ham, cheese and onions (our one savory item). And last are the poffertjes -- tiny puffed pancakes with butter and sugar.
 |
| Breakfast of champions |
We dive straight into the poffertjes without breathing. These things are just that damn good. The dutch pancake is amazing as is the savory ham/cheese one. Josh quickly proclaims this meal to be the best meal so far on our trip. I think we would agree with him. He also says that he could eat this meal every day for the rest of the trip. Suffice it to say, this was a hit. If you want proof that we liked it, here you go:
 |
| Carnage |
We then walk (remember how I wanted to rest today?) another 20 minutes to the central train station. Karen mentioned the insane number of bikes. Here are some pictures outside the central train station just to give you some idea of the magnitude of them.
 |
| Bicycle Ramp Parking Lot |
 |
| Bicycle Parking Insanity |
We are there to take a short 20 minute train ride to Zaanse Schans -- a small city in the country where there are lots of windmills still in operation. We arrive and *walk* another 20 minutes to the tourist part of town where they have a historic area set up around the still operational windmills. It's very serene out there (until the hoards of Japanese tourists descend on the place) as we walked all around the grounds visiting the windmills and reading about the historic town. The grounds are very well done:
 |
| On walk to windmills (across the river) |
They had a place that showed you how they make those Dutch clogs:
 |
| Josh in some large clogs |
And they had some place that made cheese and another that let you make your own hot chocolate:
 |
| Hot Chocolate Creation |
It was a neat place to visit but it still was quite the hike to get out there and back! On our return, we took another canal picture (it's hard not to do this over each bridge as you walk):
We picked up a few items from the grocery store on the way back then headed back to rest our feet and relax earlier than usual. (around 4pm) We had the usual cheese/bread/chicken ritual dinner and then went out for a walk/jog in the large park nearby. We barely missed the rain and got a little aerobic exercise on top of all the walking. On the way back, we finally got a picture of this tiny car we've been seeing here (in the land of small cars):
I swear, every time we have seen this car parked, it is not in a normal spot. It's always parked on a sidewalk or some place you wouldn't expect a car to be. This one must have thought it was ok because it had a handicapped sticker on it.
That's it for today. Tomorrow we plan to actually see the sights of Amsterdam -- since we've concluded there's no different between resting and walking on this trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment