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| The wooden clog was little too big for me |
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| beautiful houses |
After my jaunt in Brussels, off I went to Amsterdam. I was very excited because I get to be with my cousin whom I haven’t seen in almost a decade. My cousin and her husband were horrified when they picked me up in from of the Centruum and saw my luggage. I apparently, I have amassed too much chocolate for one person to schlep across Northern Europe 🙂 This part of my trip was a family affair. I got to meet her cute little daughter and amazing husband for the first time. For my first meal in NL, they took me to this Chinese restaurant outside of Amsterdam and I had one of the best oysters. They were served fresh but slightly cooked in some sort of asteaming broth. It was indescribable! I still dream about those oysters from time to time.
In all my travels, I always buy 2 to 3 kinds of bottled water and so far, San Benedetto and Pejo from Italy were very good and real thirst quenchers. No offense to the French and the Brits but Vittel and almost all bottled water in Britain did not impress me. Who would have thought that the Netherlands will give me the best tasting water ever? My cousin introduced me to Spa Reine. It tasted so clean and fresh that I bought a few bottles back with me to London. Only recently did I find out that Le Grande Epicerie in Paris sells Spa Reine water. Was I ever so happy when we saw them in Paris last December? Yes, I was 🙂
Going back to my trip in NL, my cousin was super nice enough to give me a tour of Amsterdam at night. She took me to the Red Light District (just to walk around). Then we stopped by this pub and had beer then french fries on the way home.
I also had some time for myself and went to the Rijk Museum and beheld Rembrand’t masterpiece “The Night Watch”. So beautiful and complex. I don’t remember seeing a Vermeer painting in this museum and I was told that a huge collection of his paintings were housed in Des Hague. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to go to Des Hague during this trip.
It was also a great regret that I didn’t get to see Anna Frank’s House. My cousin and her husband drove me to the house but we found it overly queued up. It was also getting late so we decided to forgo the house and went to the downtown area instead.
They also took me to this place where they still had running wind mills and wooden clog cobbler factory. We had some Ambrosia wine (honey wine) and bought some souvenirs. Amazing views of the water and the windmills.
I will definitely go back here and explore Des Hague and Rotterdam next time.