We landed at 7 AM in
cold drizzle, collected our bags and descended underground and finally figured
out which train to take to get us to Central Station downtown. We arrived
about 20 minutes later and emerged into beautiful Amsterdam, after pulling
sweaters and rain jackets from our luggage - really strange to be cold after so
much heat! Tulip B&B is a short walk from the station and with their
good directions we found the address easily. It is located near a canal
entrance right across from the Red Light District.
We knocked on the door
of this impossibly narrow, 15th century, four-story building and we were
greeted by Chris, one of the owners. Our room wasn’t ready but he let us
stash our luggage. We rested a bit and then set out to wander the
neighborhood. We crossed the canal, past several cheerful, beautiful
girls sitting in their windows, just as they had 53 years ago when I last was here!
We found a café open and
sat and ate delicious ham and cheese frittatas and coffee, making it last as
long as possible as we can’t get into our room until 2 PM. Bob and I then
wandered through department stores and other shops until overcome with fatigue
we returned to Tulip and just sat, read, and napped. The house cat came
and sat in Bob’s lap, comforting him no end!
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| Our room under the eaves |
At 1:45 Chris took our
bags up and then led us up the very narrow, winding staircase to the top
floor which is ours! We’re right under the eaves with windows on all
sides, but separated from the street by a tiny courtyard so we can hear church
bells and pigeons and not too much street noise. We unpacked,
double wrapped our stinky jungle laundry, showered and relaxed. On TV
there were mostly Dutch language shows, but we also found the English snooker
championship to which we had become addicted many years ago when we traveled in
Spain in April. So that passed a few hours of rare relaxation.
At 5:30 we planned to
walk a ways to a high-rated Trip Advisor restaurant, but when we stepped
outside, it was drizzling again so we just stepped into Gusto, the Italian
bistro next door - brilliant decision - we had a great meal of pumpkin
soup - the restaurant Cat appeared and jumped on my lap (can you imagine that
happening in the US??) - then RR had eggplant ravioli and I had a wonderful
whole fish baked in salt. Great! Then to early bed and a sleep in,
I hope!
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| The Restaurant Gusto cat! |
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| Yummm! |
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