Reconnecting with Friends

After coming back from our trip, J and I hosted a "We're Back!!" party to reconnect with our Seattle friends. Aside from the fresh Costco strawberries we strictly served drinks and snacks that we encountered during our world travel which included Coopers Pale Ale (Sydney), Estrella (Barcelona), Tsingtao Pure Draft (Beijing), San Pellegrino Limonata/Aranciata (Rome), Malbec (Buenos Aires), Dulce de Leche (Buenos Aires), assorted salami from Salumi's and marinated mozzarella (Rome).
 
For a little bit of entertainment, J and I decided to have a friendly photo contest during the party. He and I each picked and anonymously displayed 5 of our "best" photos and asked our friends to pick their three favorites. The winner got to decide our next vacation destination! Here were the winners in descending order:
 
1. Kaikoura Peninsula, New Zealand
2. Bluff Cove Lagoon, Falkland Islands
3. Buenos Aires, Argentina
4. Amsterdam, Netherlands
5. Barcelona, Spain
6. Great Barrier Reef, Australia
7. Barron Falls, Australia
8. Paris, France
9. London, UK (tie for 9th)
10. Tongaririo Crossing, New Zealand (tie for 9th)
 
Right now, I'm thinking the Maldives. =)
 

Christmas came early this year

You're at the departure gate and it's Sunday at 8:20 PM, just about 5 minutes before they start boarding your plane. Suddenly, a woman's voice booms over the airport broadcasting system, "Ladies and gentleman, boarding for KLM flight #2441 to Paris will begin shortly. We are currently looking for passengers to give up their seats. Volunteers will be provided with hotel accommodations overnight, be given seats on tomorrow's flight to Paris and be compensated 250 EUR in cash or 300 EUR in vouchers. If you would like to give up your seat, please approach a KLM agent at the gate."

What do you do? Well, it's something I've always wanted to do, but never have. I'm always in a rush to get back to school/lab/work the next day, eager to start my vacation or on my way home for the holidays. I think the most heartbreaking opportunity I had to turn down was during Spring of 2003. I was on my way to Seattle from Denver for my graduate school interview with UW and coming in early to be able to spend two extra days with J. What did I turn down? Hotel accommodations, 1st class seat to Seattle the next morning, two 1st class domestic tickets, plus $500. After I got into Seattle and told J the story, he said I should've taken it. Blah!

This time we had nothing to lose. First, we were already assigned disjointed seats. Second, the reason we picked a Sunday departure is because all the other days were more expensive. Third, I have no schedule or commitments to honor. Fourth, J is more or less on flex time. Fifth, we were not looking forward to showering in our Paris apartment again. And above all else, 500 EUR would cover our hotel and plane ticket expense for this trip! Needless to say, we jumped at the chance.

Here's a list of what we each received:

- KLM compensation packet: 10 EUR voucher for food inside the airport (or, 2000 mileage credit, or 15 EUR towards on-board duty free purchase), 5 minutes international call (or, 15 minutes on the internet), 50 EUR off your next KLM flight.
- Overnight accommodations at the Crowne Plaza
- Overnight kit including an XXL t-shirt, socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, razor, shaving cream, deodorant, make-up remover and comb.
- Shuttle transfer to and from the hotel
- 3-course dinner meal
- Breakfast
- A seat on the 7:30 AM flight to Paris
- 250 EUR cash (we did not opt for the 300 EUR voucher)

Some things were expected while other things I felt were very thoughtful of them. Above all, I was impressed with the service. I half expected to be arguing with someone about us not being "in the system" but everything was taken care of from beginning to end. That night James had three dinners - the first one at the airport which he paid with his own money, the second one with the two 10 EUR voucher we received and the last one at the hotel which consisted of soup, entree and dessert.

The next morning we got on the 7:30 AM flight to Paris and was home by 10:30 AM. Thank you, KLM, for a free trip to Amsterdam!

Restaurant Alert! Dutch cuisine in Amsterdam

Restaurant Moeders
251 Rosengracht
Amsterdam, Netherlands
 
I found Moeders ("mothers" in Dutch) on Chowhound's user forum and it did not disappoint. It had terrific food and a great atmosphere. You can see from the picture below that the interior of the restaurant is just bursting with character. The story is that on the day the restaurant opened, the owners asked all diners to contribute a set of china, stemware and silverware to the restaurant. As a result they have an arsenal of very mis-matched table settings. The geek side of me kept wondering how many permutations of unique table settings there could be.

For dinner, J and I ordered the Dutch rice dish, which is a 2-person sampling of their most traditional Dutch dishes. This meal included two types of beef stews, stamppot (mashed potatoes with various stuff in it), and an impressive spread of accompaniments including poached pears, pickled cabbage, mashed potatoes and apple sauce. Ironically, we did not see a single grain of rice. J really enjoyed the stews, but for me the most surprising bite was the apple sauce. I never had a full appreciation for apple sauce. So, when it came I thought  "What the heck? Are they trying to fill the table with random cheap ingredients?" Let me tell you.. apple sauce tastes BEST when it's sandwiched between two bites of really heavy meat stews! It's so refreshing!

I'll end with a couple of pictures.

1. Interior of the restaurant
2. My place setting
3. J's place setting
4. Our dinner

Fast food in Amsterdam

J was interested in this fast food place called Feebo. Apparently, it's the Dutch equivalent of McDonalds except for one major difference - food items can be obtained through vending machines! We tried it and were impressed. Not only was the food really tasty, they were also still very hot! Hamburgers were available, but most items were variations of deep fried meats. Imagine chicken tenders, but on steroids. We also tried another fast food joint (Smuller's) with the same vending machine concept near the train station - equally good.

One great thing about this experience is that we got rid of A LOT of small change! Machines do not discriminate. They do not spit on you when you attempt to use your small change. Well.. I take that back.. even they rejected the 0,02 EUR coin. Why, oh, why do you make cash denominations that no one will accept?? 

Anyhow....

Watch as J buys fast food from a vending machine for the first time.

Day 35 to 38: A 3-day weekend in Amsterdam

N121 Bus. J's got one over Rick Steves (RS). Our flight from Paris to Amsterdam was scheduled to depart CDG at 8:00 AM. At first, we thought we'd just take the Metro (subway) and transfer to the RER (train) which goes directly to CDG. However, J found a night bus (not mentioned by RS) which runs from Gare Montparnasse (5-minute walk from our apartment) directly to CDG! The N121 operates between midnight at 5 AM,  so we hopped on the 4:57 AM bus. For some reason, the driver didn't want to collect bus fare from us so we ended up with a free ride to the airport!

Paris to Amsterdam. The flight time was less than 1 hour long! It's like flying from Boston to NYC. Given the distance, I'm surprised that I had such a hard time finding a cost-effective and time-efficient way of getting to Amsterdam. Someone should consider starting a Boston-NYC Chinatown bus equivalent for Paris-Amsterdam.

Schipol Airport. Probably the most beautiful, cheery and comfortable airport I've ever flown in/out of. There was so much shopping that it felt like an upscale mall. Lounge sofas and cafe furniture were available everywhere for travelers to enjoy.

The city. City center is very picturesque. Christmas lights were everywhere. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Bikes, bikes EVERYWHERE! I didn't ride one because it was wet and cold, but that didn't stop everyone else. From an idealistic point of view, I think it's awesome that everyone bikes, but from a practical point of view, I thought the bikes were really annoying. Bicyclists ride wherever they please - in the bike lanes, on the streets with cars or on the sidewalks with pedestrians. Parked bikes sometimes took over the entire width of an already narrow sidewalk  and blocked the pedestrian's path. I likened the bikers to snowboarders. They think they own the streets and go where ever they please with no consideration for others.

Coffeeshop. Whenever I walked past a coffeeshop the smell reminded me of the bus stop in front of my high school. Although the cake itself was disappointing, we later found out that the establishment we chose at random from the hundreds of shops in the city (The Other Side Coffeeshop) just happened to be the only gay/lesbian bar recommended on Lonely Planet! What luck! At least we have an interesting story to tell now. =)

Attractions. On our first day, we visited Anne Frank's House. I didn't know the Secret Annex was such a prominent part of the house. It makes me wonder how it wasn't discovered sooner. The weather cleared up on the second day so we hopped on a boat for a 75-minute canal cruise in the morning. It was a good way to see the city, but I felt the city was prettier on foot. We spent the afternoon at The Heineken Experience. Do you know that Heineken is still a family-owned business and they strive to lower their environmental impact? They even prototyped a bottle that can be stacked like Legos to be used to build houses! On our last day, we finally hit the Van Gogh (pronounced Gock) Museum. It's hard for me to appreciate art by itself, but I've found that I enjoy hearing about the artist's life while viewing their work.

Food. We sampled random bits of foods here and there. There was the Dutch meal, which I will talk about later, the Cantonese meal, the street-side potato frites (fries) with mayo, the Dutch sweet and savory pancake, the vending machine fast food, which I will also talk about later, the roasted nuts and trail mix from the open-air market and the Big Mac. All was good, but my favorite food was the Spinach Soup from a bakery (Bakken Met Passie) we stumbled across in the De Pijp area. As you will see from the picture below, the soup was not visually appealing at all, but it was the best Spinach Soup I've ever had.

 The Shower. Yes, I am writing a whole paragraph on the shower. Never have we appreciated a shower as much as we did in Amsterdam. In Barcelona, our shower stall was so small that if we put our hands on our hips our elbows would touch the wall. We toughed it out and found comfort in the belief that it couldn't get any worse. We were wrong. Our shower in Paris is located in the kitchen. The side is so high that I have to climb onto the side and jump in. Elbow room is an improvement on Barcelona, but now, I can't stand up straight while showering because the ceiling is sloped (we live in the top most floor of the building so the ceiling is the roof). When we first arrived, the drain was so clogged that we had to shower using trickling water. In Amsterdam, we loved the hotel shower so much that we managed to each take 3 showers in a 24 hour period!

1. Charles de Gaulle International Airport
2. Schipol International Airport
3. On our way to Amsterdam city center by train
4. A canal by daylight
5. A canal by moonlight
6. A canal by red light (Red Light District)
7. A canal from canal-level
8. Magere Brug - Amsterdam's most famous bridge
9. A typical row of houses in the city center
10. A row of parked bikes
11. Christmas decorations on the streets
12. The front door of Anne Frank's House
13. The boat we took for the canal cruise
14. Me and J at The Heineken Experience
15. Our first of two Heineken tastings that came with the admission ticket
16. The stackable Heineken bottles that can be used to build houses
17. J enjoying some potato fries with mayo
18. The best Spinach Soup ever!
19. Finally, someone thought to combine my two favorite tic-tac flavors - lime & orange! It cost me over 2 EUR, but I got my large-sized lime and orange tic-tacs in one convenient container!


Seeking recommendations for Amsterdam

J and I will be in Amsterdam for 3 days and 2 nights this upcoming weekend. We have some ideas of what to do, but was wondering if anyone has any other recommendations - especially for places to eat!! Speaking of which, what are some must-eat Dutch foods?

So far we're planning to do the following things (in no particular order):

1. Anne Frank House
2. Van Gogh Museum
3. Red Light District
4. The Heineken Experience (We always thought it was a German beer... apparently not!)
5. Eat a "special" muffin. Anyone have a favorite bakery?

Thanks!