La Chouffe, Space Cakes, RLD Show's, Oh My!

My sister Jennifer has been visiting us here in Amsterdam for almost three weeks now.  It has been wonderful to have her here and show her around this beautiful city.  Couple of bike rides, loads of La Chouffe, stroopwaffels, and some European travel = Good Times.

The first week we kept it pretty low.  Ate at most of our favorite local Restaurants (Koh-I-Noor, Venezia Del Nord, Doner Kabob), toured the RLD, viewed the Rembrandts at the Rijks Museum, ate muffins from Amnesia, it was a good week.

The second week Jennifer and I ventured out to Paris.  This was the first time that either one of us has taken the train anywhere in years.  All was going swimmingly, the train seriously leaves right at the exact time that it says, which is a rarity when traveling via air.  There we were sitting in our seats looking out across the lovely Holland countryside dotted with sheep and some windmills, loving every minute of it when these two women entered our car and sat in the seats adjacent to us.  Now we have all had the unpleasant experience of having to sit in close proximity of some pretty ripe people, but I swear that never in my life have I ever smelled anything as offensive as the body odor that these women emitted.  Worse than farm animals.  Everybody in the car sat with their noses buried deep within their jackets and giving each other sympathetic looks.  We sat there laughing for about a half an hour, at the luck of the Doyles.

We arrived in Paris and were instantly in awe at the sheer size and ornateness of everything.  It is by far the most stunning and amazing city I have ever seen.  On the very first day we walked about nine miles, taking in as much as we possibly could not wanting to take the Metro for fear of missing anything.  The Notre Dame, Latin Quarter, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triumph, Champs Elysees, the Tuleries etc.  I don’t think either of us have ever been so exhausted at the end of a day on holiday.

The next day we shopped all afternoon in the Marais and stopped for lunch at a café to dine al fresco and share a bottle of vino.  After another full day of walking and shopping,and a tour of the Louvre, and not getting back to our neighborhood until about ten p.m., we decided we just wanted a quick dinner and to call it a night.  After a short search about, we decided on Chez Madame Wongs.  I kid you not, that was the name of the restaurant and it was damn good Chinese food!

Our third day we opted to take the Metro to save our feet the agony.  We took it up to the Montemarte area to see the Moulin Rouge and most importantly the Sacre Couer.  It's a catholic church that sits at the highest point of the city.  As you can imagine the view is unbelievable, you can see just how truly big the city itself is, as well as see the Pompidou in all it's glory pop right out at you in the middle of it all.

We headed out later in the evening to see the Eiffel tower light up and see it's light-show (which btw, I've learned by doing some research for work that you can film the tower during the day, but you cannot film the light show at night because the designer has copyrighted the pattern of the lights, crazy 'eh?).  After taking it all in we called it a night and prepared to take off the next day.

I truly indulged myself in everything and anything I could get my hands on.  Desert everyday, wine with every lunch, café au lait's with chocolate croissants, lemon tarts, and yes I had to go to McDonalds and order the Royale with Cheese.

We then picked up Matthew and spent one night in Brussels which we were all honestly a bit under whelmed by.  The highlight by far though was eating escargot from a street vendor across from Mannekin Pis( a pissing boy fountain) and running into my mother's boyfriends brother who lives in Germany.  We just happened into a bar that served some lekker Belgium beers and look over and bam there he was with his family.  They were visiting some friends of theirs who live in Brussels.  It's those moments that reinforce just truly how small this world is.

After Brussels we were off to Antwerp to spend the day.  Gorgeous!  I loved it!  We sat in the square sipped more lekker Belgium brews, eating our chocolates.  After walking just a bit to take in the city we decided to eat late lunch in what appeared to be the favored restaurant by all of the geriatrics of Antwerp.  But as Jen was quick to point out, they are a pretty good indication of cheap and delicious food and boy was she right.  We all ordered Belgium specialties that came of course with frites, yum!  Afterwards we peered into all of the diamond shops and made our way back to central station for the train ride home.

This week we've been laying pretty low.  Jennifer has been doing some shopping, and I think she is about to finish her fourth book since she's been here.  Tonight however we are heading back to the RLD and taking in a show that can only be seen here.  It's bound to be craziness.

Cheers to all!

Maureen (Composed)
Jennifer (Additions)
Matthew (Posted)

PS. Picture's soon...