Day 19 - July 15: Poffertjes Galore!

LIZ:

Marieke and Diede - aren't they the cutest??

I woke up this morning feeling sad to say goodbye to this hostel.  I look forward to hanging out in the living area and catching up with my fellow hostelers

at the end of each day.  I’m mostly sad that my girls didn’t get a chance to stay here and meet all the young people I’ve met….they would have had such a great time here…and I can totally imagine the nights we would have spent playing rummikub and cards at this table.  (These games went totally untouched while I was here, but the cute guy who works here claims he is unbeaten in rummikub…the girls and I would have put an end to that I have no doubt!)  I couldn’t decide between the many wonderful breakfast items so I went with the parfait AND the raisin toast with brown sugar. Marieke, Diede (the Dutch girls that arrived on the day I did) and I were all leaving at the same time, so we walked into town together where Diede was hanging out until her later train, and Marieke and I continued on to the train station where we headed our separate ways.  I won’t be surprised if I end up seeing these girls in the States sometime in the coming years!

I took the train to Amsterdam Central and the tram to my hotel for the night.  I’m staying just two stops past the Van Gogh Museum stop where  my mom and girls are staying, but two stops further from the city center, so the neighborhood has a very different, more residential feel. Surprisingly I was able to check in early, which I appreciated except that it really slowed down my momentum to have a room to myself. My two big goals for the day were to get to the Rijksmuseum – after Julia’s description earlier in the week I didn’t think I could miss it - and to eat some poffertjes - – a very special Dutch treat that I had been remiss in not having before today. ( I promised Marieke and Diede I would be sure to eat them as much as possible before leaving the Netherlands.)

I was able to motivate myself by coming up with a plan that involved both.   I grabbed a small sandwich near my hotel and ate it while waiting for the tram. I purposefully got off the tram at the Van Gogh stop, before the Rijksmuseum stop, to walk through the stalls between the two museums absolutely sure that I would find a stand selling this Dutch delicacy.  I had mistakenly thought that poffertjes and Belgium waffles were one in the same thing, but came to learn they are not.  I was dismayed (is distraught too strong?) to find that while I could get waffles, there were no poffertjes to be found.

  I came to the entrance of the Rijksmuseum empty handed and knew I would never be able to properly focus on the art if all I could think about were poffertjes (still not exactly sure what they are).  So, I just kept on walking, past the entrance, through the tunnel into the city center, determined to find a place that sold them.  

With no luck twenty minutes later I finally asked someone and was pointed in the direction of a restaurant that specializes in them. 10 minutes later I sat down and was surprised when the waitress asked if I wanted 10 or 20 poffertjes.

 I assumed I'd be having one.  Turns out they are little silver-dollar pancake size, but light and spongy, and served with powdered sugar and a huge pat of butter.  You can also get toppings – I went for strawberries and whipped cream.  And I was so happy.  I wasn’t sure I could eat all 10 alone, but it didn’t seem to be a problem.

Feeling totally satisfied, I felt able to explore the Rijksmuseum and given my late entry time there was no one at all in line.  But, somehow the museum was still plenty crowded – a little too crowded.  I only had enough time to do the highlights audio tour, covering all the major pieces., which is the perfect amount of museum for me.  After this week, I am really getting to know my Dutch Golden Age masters and can differentiate Rembrants from Vermeer from Jan Steen from Frans Hals.  I definitely couldn’t have done that before this trip.

JULIA:

Our day started off with a walk around the oldest square in Amsterdam, one that used to be used to house the nuns in an enclosed area and now, while it is a residential neighborhood, appears to only be rented out to women.

On the way to this square we stumbled upon a market that seemed to be all of our ideal market. They were selling old books, prints, postcards, maps, and much more, and it was clear that we could have spent at least an hour wandering through. But since this was our last day and we still had a lot on our list, we sadly had to keep going.

Our next stop was the Amsterdam Museum, a surprisingly well done collection about the history of the city of Amsterdam, complete with paintings, artifacts, videos, and more taking you from the 16th century to today. Unfortunately, our timing was just slightly off so we all started to get hungry before we had fully seen the museum. We left and found another very hip and absolutely delicious restaurant entirely by accident!

Next up was the Stedelijk Museum (we still have no idea how to pronounce this), Amsterdam's modern art museum. As hard as I try, I just can't bring myself to enjoy modern art the same way I enjoy most other forms. For the first time on the trip, I found it easy to go through most of the museum fairly quickly, but Rachel loved it and was the last person to come back to our meeting spot!

Rachel, mom, and I had found these crackers with raisins (think thinner, sweeter Fig Newtons, but with raisins) in Italy that we loved, and Rachel and I had found some the other day in the train station and had already gone through the 5 packs we had got. So we made a quick detour to the grocery store across the square, and were very, very happy to find that not only did they have the ones we had already had, but also many different flavors. Needless to say we have plenty of snacks for Berlin!

Our final to-do in Amsterdam was the Moco, a museum with a joint exhibition on Warhol and Banksy. Grandma had no interest in either, so she gave us some money to get in and went back to the hotel to pack. While I found it difficult to appreciate the modern art in the other museum, both Rachel and I really enjoyed seeing this one, and I was very glad that we got it in.

LIZ, GRANDMA ELAINE, AND GIRLS:

After the museum I walked back to the hotel where mom and the girls were staying, finally reuniting for real after our week apart.  When the girls got back from their final museum outing in the Moco we hung out a little and then headed out to find cheese snacks for my mom to take to England.  All of the cheese stores in Amsterdam sell Gouda, but none seem to sell Edam.  When I asked why they said because Gouda is in Holland.  I feel after a week of being in the Netherlands, I should have understood the distinction of what is Holland…Edam is not in Holland, it is in the North Country, part of Netherlands but not Holland.  Embarrassing to just be getting this now. I really should have bought some Edam cheese while I was there!!

We had a big Indonesian feast for dinner – the girls sharing a vegetarian platter for two and my mom and I sharing a meat/veggie platter for one.  We needed to eat dinner quickly so I could share my poffertjes experience with them before they closed at 9 pm.  

Unbeknownst to me the place I was guided to this afternoon had lots of  “best in Amsterdam” sort of tripadvisor reviews…so six hours after eating 10 poffertjes by myself, we returned to the same place as a group.  The waitresses were still the same ones from this afternoon – hopefully they didn’t recognize me.  This time we ordered 10 with Nutella, 10 with lemon curd, and 20 with strawberries and whipped cream. Julia’s stomach wasn’t feeling great, but she powered through, as is necessary in these situations.   So very delicious!

We walked back to the hotel so my mom could get packed up.  She is leaving early tomorrow to get take a week-long English class at Oxford.  I went back to my hotel for the night and will pick the girls up in the morning to start our final week of this amazing trip!

The after picutre - after five days of fun together!!