The signs of January fill the streets.
The weather has been perfect to have guests, and have them indulge in the local cuisine! Would you like to know more?
Gezellig
Those of you following along from my last post will remember how I said that I wanted to complete a full circuit of the market before indulging in the gluhwein that was on offer. I’m sure all my highly intelligent readers can see the foreshadowing in this scenario.
Yes. By the time we got back to the wine truck, they were out of gluhwein, and would not have any more available for another half an hour! I think if I’d suggested that we wait for another half hour before imbibing something hot, Himself would have become violent (if he wasn’t too frozen to move).
Being that this is Amsterdam, we decided the best course of action was to find ourselves a traditional Dutch café in which to place ourselves for a while to defrost. We ended up at the Café Lusthof.
Dutch Brown Cafés are all over, and you can almost walk down any street and find one. Would you like to know more?
Pannenkoeken and Poffertjes
Or; Pancakes and … mini pancakes. I guess. *shrugs*
Himself and I have finally been to a Dutch Pancake House, and it only took having visitors from Tokyo coming to stay with us to get us there. I’m pegging that on the fact that three of the visitors were kinderen. In fact, as it turned out, we made it to two in as many days! I was a bit pancaked out after that!
But I’m here to tell you about how wonderful they were! Not to mention filling! The first such stop was in Zaanse Schans where we took our lunch break on Friday. Being lunch I opted for a savoury bacon and cheese topped pancake. Not too bad if I do say so myself! But the real treat was the promised pancake breakfast we scheduled for Saturday morning. We chose to go here, the Vier Pillaren. (Four Pillars)
Spring in Amsterdam
A simple post in list form. Spring in Amsterdam consists of several things.
– Tea with friends.
– Beer with friends while knitting.
Mud Masters
Last week involved a lot of things that didn’t photograph well. But the on the weekend Himself took part in Mud Masters.
Basically it was a 6km (or 12km) obstacle course through mud. Made all the more entertaining because the day dawned in Amsterdam 12C and raining.
But there were thousands of people participating, and all the people who were in the preceding waves and had completed the run were smiling. It was just hard to miss that they were all wrapped in silver hypothermia blankets too …
Himself completed the course in just over an hour, which, given the conditions was remarkably good! I was grateful that by the time he finished the sun briefly shone to assist in warming him up a bit!
You did have the option of having all the excess mud hosed off you at the end via fire hose though if you wished …
After all that excitement we took Sunday at a very relaxed pace, and after ambling our way around the local park, Him on his roller blades, and me on my scooter, we sat down in a local cafe for some refreshments.
A wonderful weekend was had by all!
What did you get up to?
ghoti industries 