Amsterdamed or Longest Day Part II

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Updated with pics!!!!! Check out the Hot Carl Tosti

Hello all,

Apologies for the sporadic updates but finding internet access over here is tough, especially if you don't seem to wake up before 2 pm. I guess I just have not been able to get over the whole jet lag thing. Yeah that's it. Also apologies for no pictures as of yet but I can't seem to find a terminal that will let me upload photos. As soon as I can though I will add the pics that go with these posts.

So continuing from last post, after we checked into our closet (a theme we will get more accustomed to as the trip goes on) we went for some breakfast and coffee at Cafe Lechinstein. There we sat outside drinking cappuccinos like proper Eurotrash and watched the dutch cruise by on their bikes. Amazing actually when you think about it, the multitasking on these bikes in quite enthralling. We saw women riding bikes while talking on the phone, applying makeup and one lady even had a blow-dryer attachment for her Huffy. It really was amazing.

After getting our bearings and our caffeine we wandered over to the first place on our must do list that seemed to be close to our hotel, the Begijnhof. This was billed as "An Oasis of peace with tiny early Dutch houses ringing a well kept courtyard."
(editor's note: Ugly American comment No. 1😊 I found the Begijnhof to be similar to any California apartment complex with a decent looking lush garden. The big difference of course is that this apartment complex opened in 1465. I wonder if they needed a credit check to rent back then?

After leaving the Oasis of Peace and Spiritual Tranquility. we ventured in search of more hyperbole at the Royal Palace, which happened to be closed for renovation. Lovely. We then wondered into what we called the Green light district(not because of Heineken) but due to large number of head shops, pot cafes, magic mushroom vendors and stinky, unshaven hippies.

For the record we pulled a Nancy Regan and headed over to the Nieumarket section of town. At 2:01 pm, after being up for close to 24 hours we had our first sip of Dutch beer. Alllright Alllright.

We were looking over the menu when we found the first true high pint of our trip, We were looking for something to eat and on the menu we found the Hot Carl Tosti sandwich. Words can not describe the delirious glee that discovery left us with.

If you do not know what a Hot Carl is, I strongly advise against googling it. You have been warned.

After a couple hours of drinking Amstel and watching bike traffic we headed over to Rembrandt square and took a picture of Rembrandt's Statue. It seemed to me like a lot of bother over the guy who invented toothpaste for smokers but what do I know 😉

After a few more beers and one of the Ubiquitous bier cafes we decided to keep moving in order to stave of the approaching sleepiness that threatened to wreck our sleep patterns for the whole trip.

We moved onto De Still, which was this really cool Whiskey Joint offering 350 different varieties of Whiskey. For a couple of Bourbon Heads like us, this was an awesome discovery. The Bourbon gave us second winds and after a quick change of clothes we ventured to Dinner at Wolvenstraat 23, which sadly bore no resemblance to Wolverine of the X-Men. The place was awesome in it's own right though and if forced to nit pick I have to say I didn't come 5000 miles away from Seattle for Pan Asian cuisine. That being said, we had a great time at this slick hipster neighborhood bar and chatted with a table of locals who offered guidance as to what bars/clubs to avoid.

Alas, sleep deprivation finally overwhelmed us at about 32 hours of being awake and walked back to the hotel to hit the sack. Thus closed quite an eventful first day.

STAT OF THE DAY

20

The total number of drinks we each consumed over our 32 hours of being awake. Welcome to vacation 😊

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Photos

Hot Carl on Special!
While we braved a lot of new foods on this trip, unfortunately the Hot Carl was not one of the things we were down to try.

Pole Postion
This was our view from the Cafe Leichenstein. This is where we sat and evaluated proper bike riding "form".

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