More of Amsterdam

There wasn’t too much we wanted to do in the old city so we decided to time our visit in the late morning so we could have lunch, wander around and bring dinner back to eat at the hotel.

Taking the train there around 1040, we headed to Dam Square where the Palace was.  A friend from Auckland, Vincent, was here on his 4 month world cruise and after some misunderstandings, we managed to meet up outside the Palace.

We had a catch-up over a cuppa tea at McDonald’s.  That was a steal at EUR1 and a hamburger was about the same as New Zealand price, unlike most things at about double.

We walked around a bit more including the red light district where sex workers were in windowed cubicles touting for business.  One was very old, yep, even older than me, I thought!

Around the Chinatown area, we started looking for lunch options and were attracted to a Vietnamese restaurant that helped Banh Mi (sandwiches).  They were very delicious but the workers looked Nepali.  But, when I asked, they are in fact Tibetan.

After a satisfying meal, we found a better option in the form a Suriname takeaway.  The food was heavily influenced by Javanese cuisine, due to the Javanese that the Dutch took over to Suriname.  That’s probably the reason I liked the look of the food.

We had considered some sights to visit.  The Palace was reasonably priced at EUR13.50 but we have had our share of lavishly furnished rooms.  The Nieuwkerk (New Church) was crazily priced at EUR20.

We had a beer by one of the canals before walking back to Centraal Station, stopping to buy a salad for dinner along the way.

Back at 1545, I caught up with admin and did some rehab exercises.  I didn’t make it to the hotel gym.

For dinner, we enjoyed the supermarket salad in the hotel lobby with some Bitterballen.  This Dutch snack is supposedly a deep-fried beef and roux ball.  But to me, it was like a beef chowder ball. Crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside.  Heavenly!