The Adventure Keeps Rolling….

So, the adventure keeps rolling! The event I was attending finished-up in the late afternoon on Friday. Talking with a colleague, we decided to share a cab to Amsterdam, since we were all on our way there. It probably would have been somewhat less expensive to take a cab to a train station, then take a train into the city. We all had luggage, though, and the prospect of trying to manage all that on a train as rush hour approached was not appealing, so we took the cab. It was a e100 fare (fixed), but oh well. To avoid another e25 for two stops, and since we were going to hotels that were in the same general area, we had the driver stop just once in between the two hotels.

I still needed a charger for my camera battery. I had done some research to see if I could locate a reputable camera shop (the worry is that I had heard that some of the shopping areas contained some more-than-shady shops, and they preyed on tourists–I can’t afford to get taken over something like this). One of them was quite near our hotel, and it closed at 18:00 that evening. I figured that maybe we could get to it on our way to the hotel, so we tried. I saw the shop, but couldn’t recall the exact address or name, and it looked like it might be shady, so we passed it and continued on to our hotel.

Since we didn’t have a map at this point, we ended up backtracking a few times to get into the orientation that I knew would get us to the hotel. We finally arrived, and were pleased to find that our room was bigger than a closet (but only by a small amount). We dropped our stuff in the room, got settled, and freshened-up a bit. Then we set off to find some dinner and do a little bit of scouting before we set of for exploration the next day.

On our way around the hotel surroundings, we located a few places to eat (speaking of this, it is interesting to note that there are a ton of Burger King, McDonalds, and Kentucky Fried Chicken (yes, I’m serious) places around here–to think that I drove through Kentucky at least three times, and I’ve never seen a KFC there). One of them was a very Dutch-looking place that apparently had been in the same spot for a long time. We noted its location and continued up the shopping district towards Centraal Station to see what else we could find. On our way, we found (or, rather, smelled) a number of locations serving some relaxing substances, and we also found a bakery and cheese shop. This was an awesome little place that had lots of good, local hard cheeses and fresh bread. We grabbed a half-loaf of sliced brown bread and a few different varieties of hard and semi-hard cheese. While we were shopping there, it became quite clear why these have been staples for such a long time–this cheese lasts a long time with no refrigeration. This is also a good thing for us, since all we had was a mini-bar ‘fridge. So we paid for our e5,20 of bread and cheese, and headed back to the first place we had identified for dinner. Jenny and I both decided to have the same thing by chance–grilled meatballs with mushroom sauce. This was served on a large plate with french fries and a salad, and everything was quite good.

This reminds me of a side-story: One of the things that I have been craving (and will have when we arrive home) is a glass of some beverage with lots of ice in it. I heard that iced beverages were not popular here. I never realized how much I’d miss my ice. Also, most US restaurants offer free refills on pop, but that doesn’t appear to be the case here. Instead, one gets an ice-free small glass, and that had better be enough (for around e2, too!). Sidebar off.

Jenny and I enjoyed our dinner, and headed back towards the hotel. The Amsterdam Fair is going on at the same time (this seems to have matched-up with mid-semester break in The Netherlands and other areas of Europe, which is apparently a big holiday for lots of people, and lots of families take a holiday with a trip to different places away from home). It is located in the Dam Square, which is just around the corner from our hotel. They have all sorts of rides and standard carnival-type stuff there. We decided to walk down that way and circle through there on our way to the hotel. Jenny saw that they have one of those high-rise swing rides, and she was really excited about it. We bought a ticket and put her on it. I can’t ride stuff like that, so I had to watch from the ground and worry. 🙂 She had a blast, though. We walked back to our hotel after that, and enjoyed some of our cheese and bread (and what a wonderful bread it is, too–full of all sorts of good grains, really meaty.. mmmm). On the way to the hotel, we stopped at a little hot dog stand and got two Diet Cokes (or Coke Lights, as they are known over here). We left the window open and enjoyed the sounds of the city and the fair.

Here are some pictures of Noordwijk. I didn’t get many because of the battery issue. I wish Jenny had a camera there, too, because she saw a lot of neat stuff while I was busy. We’ll know for next time. Enjoy.

jonathan