Amsterdam – day two

It felt good to sleep a little bit longer than yesterday. Juli decided to set her alarm for 08:00 – approximately 50 minutes before sunrise, wondering how it could still be that dark on the outside. We’ve seen our hosts for a few moments this morning when we already had decided to go for our breakfast at Dignita. We decided for a sweet start (me) and Black Forest Pancake Stack (Juli) and it was a simple exercise to enjoy. The tea was good and service very friendly. The weather was according to this time of the year quite cold and we decided for a walk through Vondelpark which took us around half an hour and gave us a beautiful green spot inmidst of also beautiful mansions. From there we took a short break for a cup of hot fresh mint tea and a sip of freshly squeezed orange juice at B&B Lunchroom Leidsestraat. Very unfortunately we were still too full from our breakfast so we didn’t get a chance at the supreme burger menu. After we got our hands and feet back a little warmer we headed towards Albert Cuyp Market. It felt a little bit like the Vienna Naschmarkt. Particularly fish and seafood was amazing, decoratively arranged so you wouldn’t mind having it in your kitchen or on your plate. Unfortunately we only strolled through, not convinced to try Stroopwaffels or Poffertjes or Apple Beignets or anything for that matter. Still definitely a nice place to go and get an idea on Amsterdams largest daily market. From there we decided for a gaming venue at Friends & Foes. Again while we didn’t decide to buy anything we felt at home, friendly place which serves a large collection of dutch and english board games, card games and there were a definite selection of gems. The clerk/owner was friendly from our very entry to our departure and I would recommend going there if you’re into that kind of stuff. It was close to 15:00 when foodhallen became our next stop, for obvious reasons? A few minutes on foot, a few on tram and we managed another nice view on a filled market giving plenty of different cuisines from all around the world their display. Close-by within the “hallen” were several small shops, creative and hand-crafted or at least carefully selected goods. At the close-by Kinkerstraat we finally got our late lunch, a healthy, tasty and great looking poke bowl from Poké Perfect. Now we were curious about a special theatre, built in the 1920ies for around 4 million gulden – the Tuschinsky theatre, nowadays a cinema. Since we missed out on fantastic beasts 2 (Grindelwald’s crimes) – we quickly made up our mind to catch up with this one. The venue was a phantastic settting, reminding me on the musical we watched in London. Enjoying movies at this place is definitely worth the experience, having a great time at the movie itself only a bonus. We came out with mixed feelings, but most likely will give it a try at home when it’s released on netflix, amazon prime or a similar platform. Finally we took a stroll towards the beautifully enlightened grachten and from Central Station we found two seats in a boat for the Amsterdam Light Festival 2018. A Canal Cruise through the Grachten and showing around 20 out of 30 artsy light installations, the tour should have taken around 75minutes but we could enjoy it for more than 90 due to heavy traffic. Definitely worth seeing and a great way to end the day with another memorable sight in Amsterdam on day two.