Amsterday – day three

Another day in Amsterdam, our third day started as the others before – with an excellent breakfast. This time we were heading for the Bakers & Roasters, only to find a long queue in front of it and quickly deciding it did not look special enough to wait in line. I think it was a great decision for we ended mere minutes afterwards in front of The Avocado Show – this one also with a (short) queue but definitely worth waiting. Juli enjoyed a salmon – avocado – egg combination and I ended up with a marvellous tropical bowl. It was crunchy, fruity, smooth and just a great starter into day three. And did I mention the nice mixture of funky music? It was just plainly enjoyable. Speaking of it, this day promised to be a bit rainy, so we were looking for a little bit of indoor options, deciding for the Amsterdam Museum. On our way there, we happened to drop by in a great shoe venue and I have to admit, it felt just right to buy a pair of New Rock at Taft in the Kalverstraat. From there it started a little bit with these tiny raindrops and we took a sip of warm ginger tea at the Museumscafe Mokum (by the way Mokum happens to be the jiddisch word for safe-haven and also for Amsterdam itself) before heading into the Amsterdam Museum. Learning more on the city and its surroundings was our primary task and – it worked quite well. Good visuals showed for example the city’s different levels below sea and above – so for example yesterday’s park was 2m below sea level – quite an interesting feeling if you learn about this. Also the organisation of the city itself, the transformations from catholic to protestant and towards the tolerant open city it seemingly is still today. It was stunning to see many transformations over time, from world-war I in which the netherlands were neutral to 1940-45 as besieged country with many losses – just 16.000 jews that were slaughtered by the overwhelming german force. It inspired quite raw emotions with many atrocities of the past from slavery to naval warfare to happyness and joy for having the first marriages for gay and lesbian couples in April, 2001. The story of the toy-rings that were removed to reveal tattooed marriage rings with one of the couples was for me particularly nice – just something to behold. After several hours between art, war, crime, trade we concluded to call it an afternoon when we headed onwards north to A’dam toren (Amsterdam tower).Since we had some time left, we decided for another ginger tea and mint tea at a cafe right next to it – but I have to say from our three days it was the first time I got the impression of a rather slow and uninspired service. Also the menu did not impress too much, so I’ll skip this “recommendation”. For the tower itself, with a preliminary booked time-slot at the swing we had a very, very windy experience of swinging freely 135m above ground. The progression to the top was a nicely done experience in itself and in my opinion seeing Amsterdam at night, from up there – is a definite must-see – breathtaking and adorable, stunning and exciting, where adrenaline meets serotonin. Having enjoyed not only that view we headed again for the (free) ferry and with the metro and line 2 to our final destination for today – the Happy Bull. So, if you like burgers – if you enjoy them with some homemade fries or coleslaw, if you enjoy a nice beer or ice-tea and maybe love some venecian ice-cream shake – then this might be just the best place to be – ever. It was special, the service was lovely and very attentative, the food delicious – just a great end for day three before we returned to our lovely place at innamsterdam4u for another night of sleep before we finally head towards Emmeloord in Flevoland tomorrow.