Amsterdam weekend replay

I absolutely love it when friends come to visit, no matter how long.  Last weekend a good friend from H-town visited Paris for work and was super kind to take the train and spend the weekend in Amsterdam with me.  Fun times ensued....

1.  Friday night I took the train to meet her in A-dam.  Train was uneventful, actually easier than my previous trip that week for a passport issue.  I was on American soil for an hour on Tuesday to get a new passport.  Mostly because I needed to add pages to my old passport, partly because I lost my old passport.  Dumb things you do in Schiphol airport.  Long story, but I now have a brand spanking new one with 50+ blank pages of freedom to see the world.  A weight has been lifted.

2.  After meeting her at the hotel, we went to the Damrak for dinner, which was quite lovely.  We ate at the NH Hotel restaurant, which I usually don't like hotel food, but this had great atmosphere, very friendly waiters and was just a nice night.  After that, we walked the canals, the floating flower market and hit a piano bar (because weare two super cool girls).

3.  On Saturday morning, we headed first to Anne Frank, which unfortunately, I forgot my Jewish holidays and found out it was Yom Kippur the hard way.  So no Anne Frank.  After that, we headed to the Museumplein for the reopened Van Gogh:

 

The Van Gogh was even better than the first time I went.  It was in the news recently for a newly discovered Van Gogh, the first since 1923.  Apparently it sat in an attic for years until the Van Gogh museum finally decided to revisit their initial decision that it wasn't an original.  Apparently now it is....the intrigue alone will make that painting priceless.

 

After that, it was a quick lunch at the museum café and then off to the newly opened Rijksmuseum, with a stop for the typical Amsterdam photo:

 



 The Rijksmuseum was amazing - I can't believe I enjoyed the smaller version before the newly redesigned version.  It was better than the National Gallery in London and rivals the Louvre, although the Louvre totally beats it in sheer size.  It was pretty comparable to the Orsay in Paris...that's probably the best comparison.  It was packed, so I'm glad we got museum passes at the Van Gogh and then went to the Rijks.  The only room that was really busy was the Night Watch, which was anticipated. 

 It felt like a church, filled with art.  The whole design of the building was created to compliment the art or add to it, not subtract.  I loved it.

After that, L and I took the obligatory tour of the Red Light District, which is the Lindsay version.  We walked around one block and then got the heck out of there.  Every time leaves me more and more creeped out.  The first lady of the night/day we saw looked very manly like, which freaked L out.  At another set of windows, we saw a very confident guy walk up to a door, open it, negotiate quickly a price and then the curtain closed.  Disgusting.  He even looked normal, which just makes me sad for the male gender.  I know its the world's oldest occupation, but good Lord this is the 21st century.  Have we not evolved?  That was a first, I've only done 2 quick walkthroughs and I can now say I've seen a transaction happen.  I could go a lifetime without seeing that again.

Then it was off to introduce L to Dutch delicacies such as bitterballen:

 

Bitterballen is a Dutch meat snack best eaten with lots of mustard and lots of beer.  We followed this up with some Dutch pancakes (lots of them) and some more beer.

 

Then it was off to find a place to enjoy the rest of the evening.  Further proof that the living I forgot to do in my 20s I am now doing in my 30s:

 



On another note, I saw this bar in Amsterdam, which is the bar I frequent a lot in London with friends.  Took a picture for nostalgia:

On Sunday it was up early for L's flight back to H-town and I slept the rest of the day to rest up for a night of football at O'Caseys.  My FF team won, the Texans won in overtime....great weekend!

On another note, the weather has officially changed to fall here.  Rain every day and the temperatures are now below 60 degrees for what seems like for good.  Makes riding the bike in the morning an adventure....never know if that's how you will get home!  I draw the line at hail - I refuse to ride home in hail.