[chezp]

Friday 10 February – part nine: enjoying Amsterdam after dark

We headed out again about 7:00 pm and scored the same luck with the trams as for much of the rest of the trip, waiting for ages for a number five. During that time, we saw about four go the other way. Go figure. It was absolutely freezing there, with the wind really whipping through this street. By the time the tram arrived, I was cold, hungry and tired, not a good combination with my chronic fatigue. I was not impressed when the tram pulled up further along from the stop and we had to run for it. Not what I needed.

We made it to Leidesplein and got off. Almost at once, I could feel the cold again. We went and had a look round and tried an all-you-can-eat sushi place, which had been advertised as being €18.50 each, but when we got there, we discovered that was the lunchtime price, and because tonight was a Friday night, we were looking at €26.50 each, which felt like a lot of money.

We started to walk down the road with the great Italian in that we’d eaten at last night and I eventually decided that we’d just go back there, as we knew we’d get a good meal there.

I started with the caprese or mozzarella and tomatoes, and this was absolutely perfect, exactly how I expect it to be. If you read my Disney trip report from April 2011, you’ll know I had this dish a number of times, both on the Dream and at Walt Disney World and a lot of the time it didn’t live up to my expectation, but this definitely did.



Mark had the garlic fried mushrooms and seemed very pleased with his choice.



For main course, we both went for pizza. I had the miramare, which came with a variety of seafood, including salmon, shrimps, tuna, squid and mussels. It was very good, but the tuna did make it a bit too salty for my taste.



Mark had the calzone and had no idea what it what he’d ordered until he saw another one go out to someone else. I knew exactly what it is – essentially it’s a huge pastry with all the filling tucked inside it, if you’re not sure, but he was mortified. Sure enough, that’s exactly what he ended up with:



He set about it with determination and dissected it, removing the filling and eating all of it and pretty much leaving the pastry, so that worked.

Neither of us had room for dessert, but we both had room for limoncello and it seemed like we got a bigger measure this evening.



Our server got a photo of the two of us after we finished eating:



We paid up, with the bill coming to €57, just a little cheaper than last night, due to no doubt to having no dessert.

Cucina Typica Italiana:

Appetiser 9½ 9
Entree 8 8½
Service 8½ 8½
Atmosphere 8½ 9
Value for money 9 9

Average score: 8.75

When we came out of there, we decided, despite the temperature, that we’d go for a walk to see if the canals were lit up. This was the first sight we saw when we came out:




Well, the first canal we came to wasn’t lit up, but it was absolutely packed with skaters, which was very neat to see.



We then grabbed a tram to head a little further up the road and got off again, wandering along the main shopping street that was, by now, pretty quiet. However, one thing was open....



Yes it was bakery that we’d been to the day before, so we headed in there to get a hot chocolate.

We carried on walking and found an interesting knife rack..



The next canal had no-one skating on it, so we jumped back on the tram up to Dam Square to see what it looked like at night. Some things were lit up, but not as much as I’d hoped, which was a shame. I was hoping to see the town hall all lit up, but it wasn’t to be...



Once we’d finished there, we hopped on a tram back to the hotel. It was the end of another day long, but rewarding day.


Total amount we got “free” from the I Amsterdam card today:

• Troppenmuseum €10
• Maritime Museum €15
• Museum Our Lord in the Attic € 8
• Oude Kerk € 5

Total for today: €38

The weather today was sunny, but cold with temperatures in the mid to high 20s.
The best thing today was the Museum Lord of the Attic.
The worst thing today was freezing every time we went outside!
The funniest thing today was seeing the cows on the ceiling of the souvenir shop!
Today we tried visiting the Troppenmuseum
And the result was it’s a fascinating museum and well worth a visit.
The most magical moment today was seeing the canals packed with skaters in the evening.

Next: do I have to take a photo of you?