Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Tuesday - It was time to return to Amsterdam. Frank had a plan to walk the Jordaan neighborhood and eat lunch at an outdoor cafe. We took the train. 

Lynda and Frank were able to use the two train cards that Kees and Joke left in the house and add money to them using coins here at the Soestdijk station. When we arrived at Amsterdam Centraal we both wanted to add money to our cards. Surprisingly, the machines would not take our credit cards. I tried two of my Visa cards with a chip and they were rejected. A train official came up to try and help but she admitted she didn't know what was wrong. Then I tried my chip-less Capital One Visa and it mysteriously worked. And so did Lynda's. Go figure. When we finally left our machines there was a bit of a line.

We headed over to the visitor center for a detailed street map that we really didn't need. Frank was following our small pocket size Amsterdam tour book. We walked through the crowds and over to the right to avoid the main street that leads to the Dam. After a few turns and crossing two canals we found a nice looking French-style cafe where we could sit next to a canal. There was an American couple from Illinois already seated and they encouraged us to sit and we did.

They were right. The food was superb served by our French looking, French sounding, Dutch waitress.

I was ready to order the hamburger but when she started describing the carpaccio as unique, I changed my mind and so did my Linda. It was a little thicker than usual, rolled around all the things that usually lay flat under the meat. The middle included roasted pine nuts, greens, and crispy julienne potatoes. Yum. 

Lynda Adamson started with a watercress soup followed by a salmon dish. Frank had a shrimp croquette that looked like a biteballen that was also presented nicely.



There was beer and red wine involved in this lunch too. Nice thing about taking the train - you can drink at lunch.





This was the view from our table. Very Amsterdam, don't you think?

We finished our lunch and followed Frank's directions as he led us through more blocks of the Jordaan. We peaked into a courtyard that was semi-private. There were more canals to cross and interesting houses and doors to look at.

We're always excited to see Smartcars and Amsterdam seems to be growing them. Here we found cars from the same company that is in Washington, D.C.: Cars to Go. We get asked all the time if ours is electric and here we found some that were.

There also seem to be more and more of these bikes with the compartment in the front for groceries and/or kids. One guy we passed had his girlfriend laying down in the box.

Before we headed back to the train station, we found a cafe by another canal to have our afternoon espresso. Doesn't Lynda look nice in the flowers?

Two of four tired tourists headed back to Soest.

Along the way, the conductor came by to check our fare cards. Lynda's showed she and Frank had not checked in and it didn't contain the amount of euros she thought she had added to it. This was disconcerting. After explaining that she had to do something about that, he let her have a free ride. This was all resolved the next day.

Our dinner was pork steaks and steamed artichokes. What a treat. 

On TV, we found a tribute to Robin Williams and they were playing Mrs. Doubtfire. That was fun and sad to watch.