2nd day in Amsterdam

Well, it rained a lot of the day, but that's Amsterdam for you!

We started off our day with the hotel breakfast - a huge buffet with bacon, scrambled eggs, toasts, cheese, etc, etc.  On top of that, the hotel owner asked if we wanted pancakes, and she cooked us up some special Dutch pancakes - they were SO good :)

Then, we went to Anne Frank's house for when they opened at 9 am.  It was good that we went early, as by the time we left, there was a line down the block.  It was quite an experience, and very emotional, to stand in the room where Anne lived and wrote her diary.  The exhibits were very well done, and it's a place well worth seeing.  We were very glad we went.

Then, we shopped for a while on the "9 streets", a section of town with tons of cute boutiques and shops of various kinds (but not the big chains: mostly local places).  We picked up sandwiches for lunch at a cheese shop, and they were amazing: on a fantastic, crusty multigrain baguette, with aged gouda, salami and a homemade artichoke pesto.  Yumm....

In the afternoon we went to the Van Gogh museum.  By the way, his name is not pronounced like the word "go", it's more like "choch" (where the 'ch' is like the hebrew chai).  Anyway, we got audio guides and learned a tremendous amount about him.  He killed himself at the age of 37, but only took up art 10 years before that, and only started paining about 8 years before his death.  It's amazing what he produced in those 8 years.  the museum was one of our highlights of Amsterdam.

Then, another great dinner!  We went to De Kas, a beautiful place inside a greenhouse, in a park in southeast Amsterdam:

there is no menu: it's just a fixed meal, for 50 euros each, where there is a set appetizer, main course and dessert of the day.  (they change the menu once a week)  All the ingredients are local, most grown in the greenhouse right there, or on the farm the restaurant owns just out of town.  We sat down and there was a loaf of super crusty farmhouse type bread on the table, with a bowl of olive oil that had finely chopped basil in it.  they also immediately bring a bowl of cut up cucumbers and huge olives.  That could have been the meal right there!  but then the appetizers came out: we each got a bowl of tomato soup (like a thick gazpacho, with chunks of organic tomatoes)

There were also 2 different plates, that we shared: one with wonderful lamb slices, charred Romaine hearts, roasted tomatoes and Hollandaise sauce; the other had some chorizo sausage, with beets, various greens, rhubarb, and black rice:

yes, it was as good as it looks !  (actually, better: all the ingredients were incredibly fresh and perfect)

Then the main course: a perfectly cooked piece of fish (plaice) on a risotto with asparagus, beans and peas, and a sauce made from shrimps and other stuff I can't remember:

The flower on the fish is an edible flower, from their greenhouse.  but susie's flower had a little visitor inside it - a tiny ant was crawling around ;)   No, she didn't eat it.

Dessert was also fabulous:

On the left is a Fabulous red currant gelato with a 'pipe' made of meringue.  In the middle is a pistachio cookie. On the right is a dark chocolate panna cotta with a sprig of red currants that had been frozen and coated with sugar.  It topped off the evening perfectly :)

so, this may be the last blog, unless we have time to do one tomorrow night - if not, we will be in Toronto sunday afternoon (we land at 1:40 pm - Erin, please pick us up!)