A FULL day in Amsterdam….

Thank you to all the commenters, texts, and emails…..WE get so excited to read when I connect to wifi. Im truly disconnected this trip, which I’m loving. We started the day in our breakfast room, the spread is just, OK. I’ll agree with Mrs. Fancy…..our hotel is not a normal European spread, yet they have my hardboiled eggs, so we are good to go. Trust me, we’re not starving here. The food in this country is to die for!

Writing a bit out of order, as we just got home for the night after our first true dining experience, compliments of Nancy’s recommendation at a Michelin star restaurant. CUJ, you and Aunt Marlene need to add this place to your agenda when you visit, Rijsel…. On the East side of the city, an uber ride away.. we had an 8pm rez, and dinner did not end until 10:30pm. Another late night, Im typing and it’s midnight. We both opted for the 3-course meal…..I had Seabass Tartar, Monkfish in a beurre blanc sauce w/ mushrooms, and the baby waffle w/ vanilla pudding & strawberries. Tracy, the fish soup, famous chicken, and baked Alaska. This place had the BEST bread/butter, brought out a chicken liver pate and some salami cured meat as a taster before the meal. We both had red wine. What a meal…..Tracy described the place like we were in someone’s house, as the kitchen was in her eyes view. She felt like we were on the set of the TV show, The Bear. Thank you, Nancy! We loved it! Mrs. Fancy approved with flying colors and is purchasing their coffee table book.

Okay, back to the day…..today was our Museum day…..we started at Van Gogh…..loved seeing the Sunflowers, the Bedroom, The Iris’s, and learning all about his life. I guess I never paid close attention before to Vincents mental health struggles ; suicide, and cutting off his ear. I was like, OMG…..and Tracy was like how did you not know……Lol. Another had to be there moment. I loved learning about the tight bond he and his brother Theo shared, and how it was Theo’s wife who brought Van Gogh’s art work to the world after both brothers passed away at such young ages. Mind blowing to me the true meaning of a legacy and how he never knew while alive what a BIG deal he was or would be! We then made our way to the Modern Art Museum, more unreal life size paintings. I thought of Drew Dodge and how a true talented painter must view these museums so differently. We headed out to walk across this beautiful city by foot. Next up was the Jewish Quarter and more museums.

We marched over 5 canals, many bridges, down waterways, all while listening to birds singing, passing by groups of children on school field trips, sounds of traffic, bikers zipping by us, and watching boats glide down the water ways. We stumbled into a fancy hotel for a potty break. The Tivoli, wow…..this was a show stopper. Mrs. Fancy inquired about the going rate, at $800 Euro a night, I think she is satisfied at our hotel and will be spending her $ on more souvenirs. Out of the 4 other fancy hotels we have seen, I vote this one a hidden topper. We also visited The Conservatorium Hotel & The Pulitzer. I could absolutely create a tour of fancy hotel lobby’s. Lol… We both love a good hotel experience.

We arrived at The Jood’s Museum(Jewish). Wandered through all the history, memorabilia, and they had a special Sex Position exhibition downstairs. Fascinating to see how wrapping tefillan can be seen as sexy and could be like bondage. We also learned more about the whole Jewish ways of sexual impurity- the meanings/reasons etc. The children’s interactive section was cool too, I wrote a memory about what being jewish as a kid was like in my household at the interactive area. . Next, The Portuguese Synagogue, a gorgeous temple, WOW! We took our photos and made our way down the street to the Name Monument…..this was sad, depressing, and unreal to see. Its SO wild to truly grasp how many lives were taken from the holocaust. This was small bricks of all the dutch who parished in tye camps, or at the hands of Nazi’s. Ugh!! There was 2.5 rows of Cohens…..Ben Cohen was such a common name. The brick stated, name, date of birth & death and age. Crazy to read 2 yrs old, etc. You get the picture. We opted out of the Holocaust museum…..it had already been a Museum filled day.

It was now 2 pm, we were hungry, as we had not eaten since breakfast. We marched again across the city, a 30 min walk to another restaurant we had on our list, some must eat Hummus place, sadly closed on Tuesdays. Not our lucky day, or was it? 😊 A bit disappointed, we were grouchy, starved (oink oink)……and maybe over tired, ha. The Pulitzer Hotel, on Tracy’s list to see…..just happened to be on the other side of the canal once we popped out of the side street. We had a lovely lunch in a beautiful garden with 5-star service. A Burger/fries and a caesar salad under an umbrella outside just when the rain started. Finally the day slowed down. And we got to cross more must see places off our list. The rest of the day was at leisure……Mrs Fancy got to shop, while I connected to wifi in a cafe and read all your comments. Im dying to find a “coffee shop” to partake, but need to be our map, so this activity must wait until later on Dora’s amazing race, ha ha.

I stumbled upon a tik tok famous cookie place with a line out the door and got us a treat. She LOVES to shop and , well I’m Dora😂. We went up and down The Nines area of 3 streets of the cutest boutiques. Flower stores, cheese shops, candies, clothing, housewares, etc. All very fancy, quaint, and charming. We saw a parked house boat on the canal open for touring, $9 to walk through…..what a cool way to live. Different than the swamp way in NOLA, LOL. I could live on a fancy houseboat in an Amsterdam canal- no prob. The rain started, we snuck into a cafe for a hot chai and watched tye day pass by, while the daylight dimmed. At 6 pm I ordered us an Uber. Everyone here is from another country,…..the languages spoken are from all over, yet everyone speaks perfect English. I think this could be an awesome study abroad city. CUJ, it is this cool!! Your article is old, but true! Today we hit 21K steps! Yesterday was 16 K, we love a walking city! Especially when 🐷🐷🐷🤣

Rain brought traffic, it took 30 min to get back home and only gave us 20 min of down time before our 8 pm dinner at Rijsel where I started this post. We both love our neighborhood so much! I think by now I have driven Tracy to exhaustion. But, she loves to rally….we are a great pair.

Tomorrow is TULIPS……get ready. 8 am bus to the tulip fields. Cant Wait! Who needs to sleep, ha ha ha🤣

Sweet Dreams from Amsterdam! Slow down time please……

love Laurie Sue AKA Dora & Mrs. Fancy💕🎉💫🙏🏻❤️

p.s. The canal photos never get old…….breathtaking views EVERYWHERE!!