Our second day in Amsterdam we headed to the airport. No, we weren’t leaving the city, but we rented a people carrier (aka a minivan) to drive around the countryside for the day. We all made our way to the airport and picked up our van. Of course as soon we got our car it started to rain and didn’t stop the entire day. Our first stop was near Rotterdam, the village of Kinderjick which has 19 iconic windmills.
We braved the rain and very cold weather and walked out to get some views of the windmills and tour the second one. Now I will admit, I had no idea what windmills did so it was an educational experience for me! The windmills in this area were made to pump the water up from the lower areas to the higher area in a series of steps. This is why there were so many of them strategically placed. The wind would power the mill which through a series of gears would turn a wheel of scoops to transfer the water. Water is everywhere in the Netherlands and the Dutch needed to figure out a good drainage system to keep the lands from flooding. As we drove to Kinderjick, every field was checkered with drainage ditches.
It wasn’t long before we found some fields off the highway and drove around the back roads taking pictures as we went along. Of course because it was still raining we just rolled down the windows and enjoyed the fields of tulips, hyacinth and other flowers from the people carrier.
We made our way back to Amsterdam and Pat and Brad went to drop the car back off at the airport and we were going to meet them near the central station on their way back. Pat and Brad found this bar not too far from the station to grab a few drinks at. It looked like a castle turret and had a lot of character so we had a drink before heading to dinner on the floating Chinese restaurant that had been recommended to Pat from a few co-workers. It was a good dinner and we stuffed ourselves full! After dinner we headed back to the turret bar for a few more drinks when we figured out it was actually a gay bar. No wonder Jen and I were the only girls in the bar and the group of guys in there were wearing leather pants! Well, what do you expect when Brad and Pat are picking out the bars together! Kidding guys! After the bar, we went back to the hotel and hoped for better weather the next day!
The next day we woke up and it was raining again, so we headed off to the Van Gogh museum. We had pre bought our tickets online and got to skip the line that wrapped around the building with people standing in the rain. We had a good time walking through the museum and watching how Van Gogh’s art changed throughout his life time and just more about his troubled life. We saw another Sunflowers and a few other of his flower paintings, my favourite being the Almond Blossoms.
It was still raining when we were finished at the museum and it was about lunch time so we went to Sara’s Pancake shop and enjoyed ham, pineapple, chorizo, salami, mushroom, bacon, cheese, banana, chocolate and whip cream pancakes. No, not all on one pancake some variation of those toppings! And still raining, we made our way back to the flower market to buy a few things and then, sick of fighting the rain, decided to go wait out the rain at a bar in the Rembrandtplein area of town. Pat and Brad once again picked the bar, and once again, we ended up in a gay bar. Are you seeing a theme here? The chairs were comfortable and the beer was cheap so we stayed for the entire afternoon playing cards before it was finally time to head to Hook of Holland to catch our ferry back the UK. 
We braved the rain and very cold weather and walked out to get some views of the windmills and tour the second one. Now I will admit, I had no idea what windmills did so it was an educational experience for me! The windmills in this area were made to pump the water up from the lower areas to the higher area in a series of steps. This is why there were so many of them strategically placed. The wind would power the mill which through a series of gears would turn a wheel of scoops to transfer the water. Water is everywhere in the Netherlands and the Dutch needed to figure out a good drainage system to keep the lands from flooding. As we drove to Kinderjick, every field was checkered with drainage ditches. After the windmills and warming up in the small cafe with some hot chocolate, we headed to Delft to have lunch. We wanted to go a sandwich shop that had won awards for its sandwiches but of course, it was closed on Sundays – Strike One. So we parked and walked around to try and find somewhere else to eat. We stopped at another cafe but apparently they were only open for a private party – Strike Two. The next place we stopped at looked really good but even though there were open tables, they couldn’t accommodate six of us and even though there was a table of six paying their bills right in front of us. Great Dutch customer service and Strike Three. Finally we found a cafe that was open and that would serve us! After a good lunch we were off to find some flower fields.
It wasn’t long before we found some fields off the highway and drove around the back roads taking pictures as we went along. Of course because it was still raining we just rolled down the windows and enjoyed the fields of tulips, hyacinth and other flowers from the people carrier.
We made our way back to Amsterdam and Pat and Brad went to drop the car back off at the airport and we were going to meet them near the central station on their way back. Pat and Brad found this bar not too far from the station to grab a few drinks at. It looked like a castle turret and had a lot of character so we had a drink before heading to dinner on the floating Chinese restaurant that had been recommended to Pat from a few co-workers. It was a good dinner and we stuffed ourselves full! After dinner we headed back to the turret bar for a few more drinks when we figured out it was actually a gay bar. No wonder Jen and I were the only girls in the bar and the group of guys in there were wearing leather pants! Well, what do you expect when Brad and Pat are picking out the bars together! Kidding guys! After the bar, we went back to the hotel and hoped for better weather the next day!The next day we woke up and it was raining again, so we headed off to the Van Gogh museum. We had pre bought our tickets online and got to skip the line that wrapped around the building with people standing in the rain. We had a good time walking through the museum and watching how Van Gogh’s art changed throughout his life time and just more about his troubled life. We saw another Sunflowers and a few other of his flower paintings, my favourite being the Almond Blossoms.
It was still raining when we were finished at the museum and it was about lunch time so we went to Sara’s Pancake shop and enjoyed ham, pineapple, chorizo, salami, mushroom, bacon, cheese, banana, chocolate and whip cream pancakes. No, not all on one pancake some variation of those toppings! And still raining, we made our way back to the flower market to buy a few things and then, sick of fighting the rain, decided to go wait out the rain at a bar in the Rembrandtplein area of town. Pat and Brad once again picked the bar, and once again, we ended up in a gay bar. Are you seeing a theme here? The chairs were comfortable and the beer was cheap so we stayed for the entire afternoon playing cards before it was finally time to head to Hook of Holland to catch our ferry back the UK. 
Now the ferry is like a mini cruise ship with restaurants, a cinema and a ‘casino’. The casino was one blackjack table and one roulette table so we quickly took over the blackjack table and were joined by one angry German. Now Olga, the dealer from Odessa, Ukraine, was really nice and chatting with the rest of us while she took all our money with the ridiculous house rules and apparently this upset the angry German man. He proceeded to yell at Olga for chatting with us too much. Olga put him in his place though and he eventually left to play roulette. We lost all our money and went to bed and made our way back to London in the morning.
1 comment:
Good post Susan!
I'm kind of tired just reading about all the travels.
It's good to see you all having fun and to see Brad and Gruber still alive after there night in Amsterdam.
Good work on the Bar Pat and Brad. I'm sure it was an "accident."
Salami Pancakes eh? How'd those go down???
Love ya'll and miss ya'll too!
Tootles
Joey
Post a Comment