Amsterdam - Part 3, the (semi)Final Chapter

Another early morning for us. Good googly moogly, do I hate to get up early on a Sunday. Well, ok, I hate getting up early any day. But, thankfully I had the free breakfast to help wake me up (I needed to snag some more sugar waffles!).

It rained for a lot of the night, but thankfully, the skies were clear by the time we woke up.

Today, we decided to get out of the city, and check out Dutch life (alright, Dutch life for tourists, but that's ok). We got the tram back to the Olympic Stadium to get our car. MAN, it was such an easier trip going, than coming, without having to lug all our luggage. Word to the wise - if you're going to be taking a tram thru Amsterdam, with lots of luggage - sit in the very back. Wish we had known about that on Friday - there is TONS of space to put luggage without worrying about pissing off the locals who are trying to maneuver themselves around your 50lbs of various bags. But anyway, on the way to the stadium, we passed by the Museumplein (where the Van Gogh museum is located). It's then we realized exactly how far it was from the Central Station. Oops. Oh well, we needed the exercise...(I say so begrudgingly I can't even stand myself).

So, got in the car, and off we went to Zaanses Schans. Make sure to explore the website - it's got a lot of fun things to do & see. I describe it as a sort of Colonial Williamsburg, but for Holland. People don't dress up or anything, but it's a place with all of these museums, shops, restaurants, walking paths, etc. People actually live there, but it's so much more than that. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you're not into crowds), since it is still winter, not everything was open. But, 80% of the things I wanted to check out were open, so I can deal.

Amsterdam, and the surrounding area (hell, maybe all of the Netherlands) is swampy marshland. And boy, does that wind absolutely whip around the plains (everybody, now, "OOOOooooooooklahoma!!!"). The sun was warm (I suppose), but the wind almost froze our faces right off. For reals, yo.

I cannot believe my lips never turned blue. Brrrrrr.

There weren't a whole lot of people there yet - things were just starting to open up. There were maybe two or three cars in the parking lot (including ours) and one Japanese tour bus. Trust me when I say this (and PLEASE know that I am just stating a fact, not a commentary)...there will ALWAYS be a Japanese tour bus.

Our first stop was at the clog factory.

Of course we got there too early to see an actual demonstration (I honestly don't know if they even do demonstrations in winter, but it looked like they did). But it did have a little museum all about the different kinds of clogs, and how they made them. They even had some 400 year old clogs! One thing I never realized - the reason that the clogs have pointy toes (well, many of them do) is so fisherman could pick up nets with their feet! They also had clogs specifically meant for peat farmers (I guess so they didn't sink in the muck). They looked a little bit like skis, almost.

They even had horse clogs:

As well as wedding clogs, roller skate clogs, and many many many others. It was also interesting seeing how the clogs were made.

Yes, I know, I'm a big huge dork. I'm secure with myself, and my nerdy ways.

I just think it's so cool that you can take just a solid block of wood, and make yourself some fancy-pants shoes! These Dutch are genius, I tell ya!

Anywho, onto some more Dutchy things!

Next up, my personal favorite - the cheese shop. They supposedly have a demonstration about cheese making, but no one was back there (another aspect of Zaanses that is a casualty of winter, I suppose). But, whatevs, y'all know my love of cheese, so you can probably imagine that I've been to many many many cheese factories before. I don't need to watch them make the cheese.

I did, however, need to sample some.

They had cow cheeses, sheep cheeses, and goat cheeses. I love cow cheese. I love sheep cheese.

I do NOT love goat cheese.

I know this about myself, and yet every time I'm around it, I make myself try it once again. This time it was smoked goat cheese. I figured the smoke would cover up the taste of goat.

Nope. Still tasted like goat.

So we had our fill of cheese (or, rather, I had eaten enough of the cheese were if I kept on going, I'd be scoffed at for eating ALL the samples). So, we went off to explore some more.

All of the windmills around the area are working mills. The first one we went into was the spice mill.

OMG, the smell was wonderful! They had three different grinders - one was doing cinnamon, and I think one was doing clove, and the other one wasn't being used at the moment. They also had a cool display showing how far the Dutch sailed to gather their spices back in the day. And, there was a "smelling station" where you smell different spices, and guess what they are. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I mixed up the clove & the nutmeg. And the lady working there laughed at me. Not to be mean, she just thought we were being our cute Aycock selves, I guess.

That's one thing I definitely noticed about this trip - the Dutch people are generally all REALLY nice! They are very welcoming (unless you get in their way when they're on a bike. Don't do that, please, if you're every here) and kind.

Anyway, we kept on walking, checking out the sites.

There were more museum/shop combos that weren't open yet - a coffee house museum, and a pewter foundry. I realllllly wanted to go to the pewter foundry, but had no idea when/if it was supposed to be open. Poo. So, trying to keep our faces from freezing off, we decided to go walk down the line of windmills to see if they were open yet (the spice mill was on the very edge of the line of mills, which is why we went to that one first).

I reallllly wanted to go to the pigment mill - where they ground ingredients to make paints, and chalks. Not open.

Then we get to the sawmill - glory Hallelujah, it was open!!!! I've never been so happy to see an open sawmill - a chance for us to get in out of the wind!

The lady running the front of the mill was very kind. She also laughed at us for being so cold, and told us to remember that they needed the wind for all the mills!

Whatever, Miss Smartypants.

Anyway, we watched a short video on the sawmill, then got to go inside to see it in action.

My dad would have had an absolute nerdgasm at this place! As would my grandfather, who used to BE a logger in British Columbia back in the day. They're both kinda dorks when it comes to old machinery.

I guess the dork nugget didn't fall far from the dork tree.

Yes, I'm including myself as one of those dork nuggets.

The sawmill really was interesting - I couldn't get over how SLOW it was to saw the logs. But you could definitely tell when the wind picked up, by how fast the saws were going. I had to laugh as we were walking thru the place, though. There is no way in HELL that any place in the USA would be open like this. We (the tourists) could walk all over the place, and there were zero safety precautions. It wasn't like it was extremely dangerous or anything, but you DEFINITELY had to watch where you were going. Plus, the back end of the mill was open to the water (where they kept the logs that were waiting to be cut) with a large ramp going down to the edge. I am Señora Klutz, and I've been known to fall off quit a few structures in my life. So I was verrrry careful about where I stepped.

BTW, please don't think I'm defending the American way of making everything so sterile and "safe" (which leads to stupid lawsuits when people still manage to do truly effed up things to hurt themselves). I think more places should just be like, "Hey, you're responsible for your own safety. Watch your step, or you could get hurt."

But I digress.

We decided to go do some shopping after this. On our way out of the sawmill, we bought some Glühwein from the lady at the counter. I know glühwein is a German thing, but this was probably the best I've had so far. Even better - she made them extra hot to help warm our hands.

God bless that woman. :)

We stopped back at the cheese shop (duh) and bought two different kinds of cheese (smoked gouda & spicy), some black licorice bears (I'll get to these in a minute), and some stroopwafels.

Do me a favor. Search for online stores that sell stroopwafels, and buy yourself a case. You will not regret it.

Stroopwafels are basically thin, crisp waffles that are sandwiched with a kind of smoky, syrupy, molasses-y, taffy like goo. So incredibly good, you have no idea.

Then, we stopped by the clog shop and bought ourselves a really nice painted pair. After a few more stores, we decided to get a snack/lunch and then head back into A-dam.

Everyone who's been to the Netherlands has urged us to get a pannekoek (pannekoeken if it's plural).

It's basically a really thick crepe, really thin pancake. There are many types of toppings (generally, though, either bacon, onion, cheese, or cinnamon & sugar/powdered sugar). Then you top it all off with a Dutch syrup. We got ours with just cheese. The verdict?

Meh.

It was really crispy on the edges, and soft and spongy in the middle. It was fine. But I don't really need to get another one.

I do need to get more stroopwafels, though.

At this point it's almost 1pm, so we headed back to Amsterdam to go to the Rembrandt house.

But, as we sit down in the car, I realize that we bought licorice bears that I haven't tried yet. (No, I wasn't hungry...but I did want to try the stupid licorice). Now, I love licorice. We always got licorice babies when we went to visit relatives in Canada. I always picked out the black jelly beans to eat first.

So, I open the package, pop one in my mouth, and start to chew. Josh likes licorice as well. He looks at me chewing, and pops one in his mouth as well.

He lasted about 3 seconds before spitting it out. I had chewed too much, so I was only able to get half of the bear out of my mouth, and was forced to swallow the other half (which took an unGodly amount of time).

Apparently, they like salted licorice in the Netherlands. I knew there was such a thing as salted licorice, but I thought it was something that just the Nordic people from way north ate. Nope, apparently the Dutch like it too. I had never had it before. I'm pretty positive I never want to have it again.

I'm still trying to get that taste out of my mouth.

We get back to the Olympic stadium, and take the tram to the middle of town (instead of Central Station) so we can go to Rembrandt's house.

I loved this little house. Rembrandt was born wealthy, but he went bankrupt before he died. Most of his belongings were sold off to pay his debts, so other than the paintings, the furniture wasn't original. However, he drew & painted many interiors of his house, so historians were able to do a really good job reconstructing the place.

I really liked this place. We had those little audio things that told us about the rooms as we went about. Again, this was another one of those narrations that was actually informative (like the canal tour).

There were a couple of artists stationed around the house, showing methods from Rembrandt's time. One lady was showing how he did his etchings. We JUST missed her live demonstration, but we did see a video on the process.

Another lady (who we did see) showed how they made their paints back then. Which was HILARIOUS! Okay, the artist wasn't hilarious, but one of the fruitloop tourists in the crowd nodded and agreed with EVERYTHING the artist was saying. She seemed very much like a high school art teacher. "Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Oh, yeah. Uh-huh."

Josh and I had to leave the room, because we kept eyeballing each other and nodding, making it very hard to stifle the laughter.

That's how you have a good marriage, folks. Laugh at other peoples' idiosyncrasies.

Here's one of the reconstructed beds. Back then, people were much shorter. But, they ALSO were scared of sleeping while laying down (something about the blood pooling in the head and causing death, or something along those lines), so they used to sleep propped up. How uncomfortable, amiright?

After the Rembrandt house, we decided to walk back to the hotel, and get ready for a night out on the town. We even got a quick nap in! (ok, Josh napped, I interneted)

This time, we actually researched where to go for dinner. We were in the mood for Thai, so based off of online reviews, we decided to go to Thai Bird, right outside the RLD. Thai Bird has two locations - right across the street from each other. One is a take-out place, and the other is a sit-down place. At first we thought about going to the take-out place, because the entry way to the sit-down place was PACKED. But, it was just one big party, so the waiter let us cut. The party was not happy about that. They stood their ground, and Josh and I literally had to squeeze through a people-tube. I'm pretty sure I got felt up. Hell, I'm pretty sure Josh got felt up.

But, I gotta tell ya. It was TOTALLY WORTH IT! This was by far, hands down, the BEST Thai food I have ever ever had. If you are EVER in Amsterdam, you must go to Thai Bird. Amazing.

One thing, though - Josh and I love spicy. The spicier the better. Europeans can't handle spicy, and the Thai people that own restaurants here know this, so they cater to European tastes. When the waiter took our order, we made sure to tell him "extra spicy."

"You sure? You sure?"

"Yes, we're sure. Extra spicy."

"Really? You sure?"

"Um..yes, please."

It was definitely spicy, but nowhere near inedible. It was the perfect amount for us. I think the waiter came over twice to check on us, and he said, "Oh, too spicy?"

"No, no, this is perfect. This is good."

"Really?"

"Yes, very good, not too spicy."

I think he walked away a little defeated.

****After dinner, we went to a show.****

After the show, we went to bed. I think we made it into bed around 12am, 1am?? I'm not sure. I just remember crashing.

We didn't even go to breakfast in the morning. We both just wanted to sleep (and we did, til about 8:30am). Then, off we went, back to the Olympic stadium, and back home. 5 hours later, we had the dog from the kennel, the cat was happy to have us back, and we were happy to be relaxing on the couch.

This trip was DEFINITELY the best trip we have planned on our own. Josh said he was really proud of me for working my ankle so hard (I have to admit, I was a freakin' champ). We did everything we planned to do, and more.

So, here's the list:

My favorite thing: Anne Frank house tied with Zaanse Schans
Josh's favorite thing: Van Gogh museum
Least favorite thing: Both of us think the weed museum was a waste of time. HOWEVER, it's not really fair to say that on here, because it was being remodeled. If you're going to be in Amsterdam, and it's still being redone - skip it. But, I'd go again to check it out if the remodel was done.

I'm sure we'll go back someday. Next time, here's what I want to do:
- Go in the spring time when all of the tulips are blooming (so we can go to Keukenhof gardens)
- house boat museum
- cat museum
- flea market district
- Zaanse Schans to see EVERYTHING open

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Okay, folks, here's the deal. I have written an entry about the "show" that we went to see. Don't worry, nobody got a hooker or anything. But it is definitely an NC-17 description. If you want to read it, you have to ask me - I'm not letting everybody read it. If you think you're worthy, let me know, and I'll send it to you. It's not scary or anything - it's really pretty funny. I just don't think everyone wants to hear about it. ;)

Amsterdam - Part 2

Have I mentioned before how much I love free hotel breakfast? Even better, I love European hotel breakfast. Bread and cheese - that's the way to this girl's heart. Generally, European breakfasts are similar - breads, cheeses, meats, yogurt, fruit. Sometimes you get a hot station, with eggs, bacon, etc. One thing that was different about the Amsterdam breakfast was how much fish there was. Fried cod, smoked mackerel, etc. Josh enjoyed a breakfast of sausage, potatoes, and fried cod. I had bread, cheese, cucumbers, and a sugar waffle. Sugar waffles are amazing. They're prepackaged waffles, and I guess you could heat them up, but I didn't. They're cakey, with crystallized sugar in all the little waffle pockets.

I may or may not have taken a couple of them for later...

We had to hurry up and eat, though, because we had to hurry up and get moving! We were out of the hotel by 8am - yes, not the most relaxing vacation. But, we'll sleep when we're dead, right?

We decided that we could just walk everywhere in Amsterdam, and not worry about getting tram tickets.

Ok, I lie....the tram ticket counter wasn't open yet (why the heck would they be closed until 10am on a Saturday!?). Really, we fully planned on walking TO all of our destinations, but we wanted to get a tram ride BACK to the hotel after we were done. That didn't happen. But we'll get to that later.

First up - the Anne Frank house, which was about a mile and a half away. One our way there, we noticed a TON of city workers, cleaning up the streets. Lemme tell ya - the streets were disgusting. Trash EVERYWHERE (and more than one pile of vom - gross). Workers were picking up trash, street sweeping, street washing, washing down store fronts. I can't even imagine how disgusting it would be if they didn't have so many people cleaning up. The amount of trash was worse than New Years Day in Munich.

But really, once we got further away from the train station, and the RLD district, it definitely got cleaner. Then we got to the Anne Frank house. There was already a small line formed, but it wasn't bad. The museum took up the buildings next to the house, but then the warehouse with the secret annex was right next door.

Before we went in to the house, we watched a short movie. That's one thing I really liked about this museum. Every couple of rooms, there would be a screen playing interviews from people associated with the Frank family (friends of the family, the people that helped them in hiding, and even Otto Frank - Anne's father).

One thing I couldn't get over was how tiny every room and corridor was, but it all added up to one huge building. The size of the place was definitely hard to comprehend, and even after having walked thru it - I'm still pretty confused about the layout (especially since we walked through a bunch of other rooms that weren't part of the original warehouse, but were now used as part of the museum).

Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures in the place. I wish we had, although I'm not sure a photo could have captured the feelings of the place. It was amazing how tiny and steep the staircases were (thankfully we went back down thru the museum, which had a modern staircase. I don't know how I would have made it down the way we came, with my ankle being a useless pile of metal).

The most amazing thing was seeing how well-preserved the bedrooms were. The Frank room still had pencil marks of Anne & Margot's heights on the wall. That was a shock to see. Then, you walk into Anne & Margot's bedroom, and you see all of the pictures of movie stars that Anne herself pasted up when they moved in. (this was all under protective glass) It was definitely moving.

The most moving was probably watching the interview with Otto (Anne's dad). He was the only survivor from the house, and seeing him speak about it was....well, you'll just have to go there to see it for yourself. This is definitely a place I think everyone should see once in their lifetime.

But do me a favor - read her diary first. The number of people that were going thru the place that had no clue about it was astounding.

I'm about 90% sure that the building to the right of the building with the red shutters is the original warehouse with the secret annex, and the three buildings to the right are part of the museum. (It's either the building to the right of the red shutter house, or the one right next to that...I told you - it was confusing!)

Next up - our Blue Boat canal tour that was included with our LivingSocial package. This was about another mile. By this point, I was ready to sit down! Thankfully the canal tour was 75 minutes long - a good break if you ask me! :)

I have to say, I really really liked this boat tour. SO MUCH BETTER than taking one of those stupid bus tours that Josh and I tend to take. Plus, the narration was actually really informative (and the good thing is - it wasn't constant, so you didn't have to always be "engaged").

Our hotel (the glass building)

A replica of the West India Trading Company ship, The Amsterdam

One thing I loved to do was check out all the houseboats on the canal. I just think it would be so awesome to live on a houseboat. Of course I'm sure it sounds way more romantic than it actually is...but a girl can dream, can't she?

Another fun thing to do was check out all of the different types of gables (building tops). Some of them also had a beam with a hook jutting out from the top - these were typically just for the poorer houses. It was for a pulley system to move goods up to the attic (or also just moving furniture in). Chances are the REALLY rich people had their own storage houses elsewhere, so they didn't need a pulley system.

Now, this one really shocked us. You see all of the rows and rows and rows of narrow houses. What you don't see, is that many of the houses (esp. in the rich areas) have huge gardens in back. The inside of the squares are literally full of parks, trees, benches, etc. etc. etc. What I would have given to be able to see some of those parks!! It looks so metropolitan (well, 16th century metropolitan) and non-green, that I find it hard to believe there is that much green space hidden away. We did end up seeing an aerial map of the town at the Rembrandt house, and sure enough, you can see all of the green space in back of many of the houses. Amazing.

It was nice to get the break in walking, but it was time to get moving again. We hadn't really planned on going to the Van Gogh museum, but we were so nearby (about half a mile) that we decided we might as well just do it.

We passed by the famous "I amsterdam" sign, but there were waaaayyy too many people to get a really good shot.

But we tried.

The Van Gogh museum was in a very nice park area. It would have been great to go sit out there in the summer, and people watch. Even so, it was still fun to people watch. Except at this point we were starving, and it was cold and windy. (which means I was cranky)

The museum is much bigger than it looks in the photo (plus, that's just one section of it).

We get to the museum, round the corner, and realize that we probably should have pre-booked tickets (except we didn't even know we were going there for sure). I wasn't expecting quite so many people, but it only took us twenty minutes to get through - and it gave us a chance to scarf down some jerky (for Josh) and chex mix while standing in line. And, at least we had a group of high-as-hell Spanish guys in front of us for entertainment.

At this point, I feel the need to extol the virtues of the coat check. We weren't allowed to bring in our camera or backpack, but we also checked our coats.

I don't know what it is, but being able to shed yourself from the shackles of tourist paraphernalia is liberating. I never took my purse anywhere on this trip, but whatever I needed went in the backpack (along with all the camera equipment). I was already having mini heart palpitations throughout the day because I thought I forgot my purse somewhere, but now being without the backpack AND coats pushed my mini heart palpitations into full on heart palpitations.

Don't care - totally worth it to not have to lug that crap around anymore, for at least a couple hours.

The museum itself was good. It went through Van Gogh's entire life as an artist (which really was only 9 years or so). There was a lot of personal information about him, but unfortunately, I feel like they really sugar coated his life. I wanted to hear the nitty gritty about his ear, his relationship with Gauguin, and all the other craziness that was Van Gogh. But that's really just because I like dirt. ;)

I did really like the museum, but at this point, I was just so sore and hungry and tired. Josh likes to be verrrrry thorough when it comes to looking at paintings - he will read every single description of every single piece of artwork. I typically read maybe 70%. So, by the time he was ready to go, I was reallly ready to go.

We decided that we would stop by a pub or something on the way back from the museum to the hotel. From the Van Gogh to the hotel was another 2 miles. Oy. Why why why didn't we get a tram ticket?!?

We did get to walk through the antique store district, which was really neat. At first we were looking for places to stop, but halfway through the walk back, I think we both just decided to hurry up and get to the hotel. I was afraid if I stopped, I wouldn't want to start up again. My ankle was doing well, but I didn't want to test it any further. There are a lot of directional signs in Amsterdam, listing the highlights of the city and how far away they are. I think that was the only thing keeping me going - seeing the distance to the Central Station (near the hotel) diminishing with every block.

Finally, after what felt like hours, we saw the Central Station in the distance! We KNEW that the hotel was right there! I could have run the rest of the way.

As soon as we got into our hotel room, off went the shoes, and I pounced on the sugar waffle like it was my long lost lover. That was the best damn waffle I've ever eaten. I think it was about 4:30pm at this point. Other than a hand full of chex mix, we hadn't eaten since 7:30am. And that was after walking allll day (minus the 75 minutes on the boat). All in all, we walked a minimum of 5 miles. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but it was. At least for me, Mrs. Wuss.

Of course, we still had to go out later that night... Ugh.

The plan was to just go somewhere nearby the hotel. But...well, do y'all remember reading about our problem in Brugge? We're trying to find a restaurant that caters to us, while not being crazy expensive, that has something for both a meat-eater, and a vegetarian, that we're also both in the mood for. But at this point, I'm still cranky, and now I'm sore, and it's raining to boot.

Finding a restaurant just wasn't in the cards. Getting into a fight about finding a restaurant WAS, however.

We ended up snaking our way all through the Asian district, weed district, RLD, gay district. Got lost a couple times. Got cursed at in Dutch by a "homeless" man to whom we wouldn't give money.

Even though we were totally unsuccessful, and just ended up going back to the hotel to eat peanut butter sandwiches, it was still a nice time. I'm thankful for all the experiences Josh and I have. Not only do we get better and better at traveling, but it also helps in other areas, and helps us to get over persnickety fights waaaay easier & quicker.

By the time we got back to the hotel room, it was 10pm. After the pb sandwich, and a quick shower, we were down for the count. The DoubleTree hotel in Amsterdam doesn't have the most comfortable beds, but maaaaaaan, did we sleep good that night.

All in preparation to DO IT AGAIN on Sunday! Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog: Amsterdam - Part 3

Ramstein to Amsterdam - Part 1

The past weekend was our long-awaited trip to Amsterdam. I only wish we had been able to get to it in our younger, slightly less responsible years. :/ But, even so, this was by far the best trip that Josh and I have ever planned ourselves.

So let's begin.

You all know my love for Groupon & LivingSocial. I bought an Amsterdam trip for $370 bucks (from LivingSocial), and it was WELL worth it. It was for three nights at a DoubleTree, with breakfast each morning, 2 welcome drinks, 2 canal cruises, and 2 bicycle rentals. Even though we didn't use the bike rentals (I'm a wuss, and I was worried about the ankle), it was still WELL worth the money.

We left on a Friday morning. Unfortunately, we had to wait until Sasha's kennel opened (9am) til we could leave - normally we try to hit the road before then. But, it worked out. The trip took about 5 hours total - that was from door to door, with 3 stops (I have a bladder the size of a walnut).

Parking in Amsterdam is a nightmare - most people just ride bikes, and the city is criss-crossed with bus & tram lanes. Based on a couple of tips (Josh is friends with a travel agent from the area) we decided to park outside the city, at the Olympic Stadium, and just take the tram to the hotel. If we wanted to park at the hotel, it would have been €45. Some of the other garages nearby would have been around €30. WAAAAAYYYYYYYYY too expensive. Parking at the Olympic Stadium was only €8 per day! You park there, go give your parking ticket to the agent, and they give you two tram passes to use. You get a free ride to your destination (the Central Station in our case) and a free ride back to the stadium when you're done. I think you have a maximum of four days before you have to move your car.

It was really an easy system, but lemme tell ya....two people with backpacks, a huge roller suitcase, and a big recyclable shopping bag do NOT fit well on a Friday afternoon train. It was the most uncomfortable thirty minute ride of my life. But, finally, we made it to the Central Station. Our hotel was literally right next door. This was the PERFECT set-up for us. We were right on the edge of the city, and near enough landmarks that we couldn't get lost.


View Larger Map

The hotel was nice, and we also had free Wifi, and an Apple TV. Free Wifi is a really great amenity to have when you're in a new city - we used it several times during our stay, to find locations of museums, restaurants, etc.

We hung out for about an hour, just relaxing and settling in. Josh and I are really anal great about unpacking our suitcases & hanging everything up. OK, Josh more so than me (but y'all knew that).

First on our list for Amsterdam?

That's right, the Sex Museum. Y'all should all know by now that the Aycocks are no prudes. In fact, we are big huge perverts. This museum was totally right up our alley. We're also history buffs, so we LOVED all of the historical aspects of the place. The building was either 3 or 4 stories high, and filled with examples of sexual artifacts from the last 150 years. It didn't include REALLY old examples (like Kama Sutra stuff), but it was still very very interesting and informative. Plus, it was fun! They had many animatronic displays all around the building. For instance, we walked down one hallway, and heard a voice saying, "Hey! Hey, you!". We turn, and see an animatronic guy coming forward out of an "alleyway". He is wearing a trench coat, and when he gets close to us, he opens the trench coat and flashes us. It was hilarious! Another section was made up to look like the OLD Red Light District (1800s). The mannequins were wearing costumes from the era (absolutely beautiful lace outfits). There was also a closed door with a window. You peak your head in the window (which is covered with glass). An animatronic "gimp" comes forward, peen in hand, and shoots the window with water from his peen. HILARIOUS!! (The reason it's funny is because neither of us expected it, and we both jumped back as soon as we thought we were going to be hit with the "substance".)

I know it sounds really crass, but the museum was really very interesting, and well done. The amount of dirty porn from the 1800s was just amazing. Who knew they were into watersports back then? (Please don't look that up if you're one of my family members and you don't know what that is...seriously, don't do it).

They also had several old Nickelodeons with the old porno reels in them. If you're ever in Amsterdam, seriously come to this museum. It's not just about looking at "dirty" things. I promise it's educational! There was only one part that I had to gloss over. They had a section of the museum dedicated to the 70s, and in that section, they had a phone that you could pick up and listen to an actual phone sex recording. I'm not gonna lie, I listened to it for about 3 minutes before I got the heebie-jeebies. Not because of the phone sex operator (she's just doin' her thing!) but because of the "customer". ick.

Now, I couldn't post these photos on Facebook (stupid "indecency" rules), so here they are, in all their glory!

After this, it was off to the Hemp Museum. That's right - total night of debauchery for the Aycocks!

Alright, the weed museum kinda sucked. It was half-price, which wasn't bad, but it was half-price because it was being renovated. Basically it was just a couple small rooms, and was just so-so. They did have examples of artwork extolling the virtues of weed. They also had some OLD oil paintings of smokers. Apparently they have their own grow room, but that was under renovation as well. They also have a vaporizer that you can try, but we got there too late to even see the thing work (not that we would have tried it...).

After the museum, we walked thru the Red Light District (furthermore known as RLD...because I'm a lazy typist) to get back to the hotel. Just so you know, you are not allowed to take pictures of the RLD. We weren't going to test that.

I knew that there were gonna be hookers in windows. I was fully expecting to see it. But, still, my jaw dropped a little as I looked upon the rows of hookers dancing in the windows lit up with red lights. Each building had maybe three or four or five windows, and the ladies could talk to each other (they weren't closed-off cubicles or anything). It was still relatively early in the night, so there weren't THAT many people out. But there were still groups of drunk men gawking. It was very early in the evening (maybe 7??) and there were already some VERY drunk men around. That surprised me, actually. I was expecting everyone and their dog to be walking around high. Don't get me wrong, there was a LOT of smoking going on. But more drunks than smokers (which is what surprised me).

We weaved thru the streets, looking at all the sights. Josh decided we should stop by a bar on our way back to the hotel, so we started looking for one. We were walking down one street, and happened across a whole row full of bars. I knew exactly what was going on, so I just kept on walking. Josh was looking around for a bar, when he stopped and said, "Well....I really want to go in here, but I just don't understand why all these bars are full of just men..."

"Um, Josh? Did you happen to notice the rainbow flags above all of these bars?"

"Ohhhhhhhhhh!!! That makes much more sense now!"

Hahaha! It was so cute. Now, y'all know us - we have zero problem with any kinda sexuality. You do what you want, and as long as you're not hurting anyone else - have at it. But even so, Josh didn't really want to stop at a drag bar. So we went to one right outside the district.

Of course, after we sat down with a beer, and started playing pool, we realized something. I'm pretty sure we still ended up in a gay bar.

But, whatever, it was still a good time. :)

After a beer, and the worst possible game of pool I've ever played (seriously) we headed back to the hotel for our welcome drink.

The hotel has a pretty nice bar called SkyLounge - the big deal is that it overlooks the city. It was nice to see the skyline at night, but the bar was just meh. It was more of a fancy shmancy disco-y place - not really our style. But, whatevs, free drinks! (have I mentioned how much I love LivingSocial?)

So, we got two glasses of wine, and they also brought out a plate of snacks. Which was great, because we hadn't eaten anything in quite some time. They gave us a bowl of seasoned nuts, a bowl of these cheese straw/cracker/cookie things that were awesome (I love cheese), and a bowl of the most amazing, but most "duh" product I've ever eaten. It was a bowl of dried strawberries. Now, everyone has eaten dried fruit before. Raisins (vom), cranberries, apricots, etc. But, I don't think I've ever had dried strawberries before...at least not like this. They were almost like gummy candies. Amazing.

Unfortunately, it just whetted our appetites. It was around 9:30pm at this time, but we decided to go get an actual meal. Luckily, on our way back to the hotel, a (male) waiter at a nearby restaurant flirted with Josh and gave us a 10% off coupon to come back and eat. Unfortunately (for Josh - ha!) the waiter was gone by the time we got back there. But, we still decided to stay and eat. ;)

It was a Mexican restaurant. That's right, these two proud Texans went to a Mexican restaurant in Amsterdam. It's always interesting to go see other cultures versions of Mexican food. This is also when we realized how cat-friendly Amsterdam is. We're sitting at the table, waiting for our food, and a kitten comes out of the back. He sees Josh (who has his arm down) and immediately RUNS for Josh's arm, to play. It was the cutesthingeverohmygosh.

And now, the food. It really wasn't the worst thing ever (like I was expecting). They don't come out with free chips and salsa (I wasn't expecting them to). Josh got some chicken nachos, and I got a cheese and jalapeno quesadilla. Josh's nachos were pretty funny looking. Apparently there was a shredded chicken breast UNDER all the chips, and the chips were topped with salsa, guac (which was not horrible) and some weird sour cream sauce (it had what I believe was chopped jalapenos). My quesadilla was on a supposed tortilla. I say supposed, because it LOOKED like a tortilla...it ACTED like a tortilla...but, sister...that was no tortilla. However, the cheese/jalapeno concotion was pretty good.

Not a bad meal, all in all.

Afterwards, we went to a coffee shop right next door. They also had their own resident cat. Josh and I are typically the animal whisperers (Josh especially). Animals seem to flock to us. Sure enough, as soon as we sat down in the shop, the cat runs over to us, and plops himself on my lap for the entire time we're there. I love our cat, Rufus, but he's not a HUGE cuddler. It was nice to have a lap cat for a little while. She just sat there with us for maybe 30-45 minutes, watching the other customers come in and out.

At this point, it was getting pretty late, so we decided to head back to the hotel. Saturday was going to be a FULL day, so we had to try and get a good nights sleep (all 6 hours of it :/).

By the way, I think this will be a 3 part blog (unlike my usual 2 part blogs for weekend trips). We just did SO MUCH this weekend. Plus, no one wants to read a super long blog all in one sitting. Well...unless you're my mother. ;)

Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow!

Obligatory Valentine's Day Post

Everyone else is doing one, so I guess I should, too.

I like Valentine's Day. I don't LOVE it, but I definitely don't hate it. It's another reason to get presents! Or, at the very least, some flowers or a card or candy, or hell, some wine. Josh and I have spent 7 Valentine's Days together. Some have been filled with tons of presents and dinner's out with dancing. Some have been nothing but a bouquet of flowers, and a card. It doesn't matter, though. It's still fun to get that stuff.

I don't really understand it when people say they hate the day, though. I mean, I guess if you're single and MISERABLE. But....even then, you get yourself a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates. How is that bad?? I don't feel any more loved on the day. I know some people say it's a made up holiday, created by the card companies. But.....isn't EVERY modern holiday just full of overt commercialism? Hell, look at Christmas!!! It's way more commercialized & "made-up" than Valentine's Day. Look at the religious aspects behind both of the days. They're both rooted in Christianity, but the celebration is so far removed from any truth behind the religious background, that it is almost a complete farce.

Yes, even though I'm not religious, I still know some stuff, people!!! :)

Anyway, why does that stuff really matter? Just have fun, people!! Those of you who "hate" Valentine's Day - quit being so dang curmudgeon-y!!! I'm one of the most cynical, complaint-filled people I can think of, but I still enjoy it.

Flowers are pretty, candy is delicious, wine is even more delicious. Just enjoy!!

Although, I do have to say that Josh and I both made bank this year.

I got a spa day (manicure, massage, facial), and a card. I gave Josh a craft I made, and I also booked us a hotel for 3 nights in Prague. Awesome, eh?

But, Prague will have to wait a month or two. This weekend is AMSTERDAM!!

Man, we're spoiled....

Product Review - Koff'e

Well hello again. Keeping in line with my previous post (the Greek restaurant review), I decided to do a review on something I purchased recently. And, seeing as how it's poker night at my house, I have nothing better to do than to play online on a Friday night (I don't get to play poker with the boys, but I do get to cook their food :/ ).

Disclaimer: I'm pretty awesome, so I tend to like pretty awesome things. You have been warned.

I'm a sucker for a good deal. Now, I'm not a crazy couponer or anything. I'm way too lazy for that. BUT, I do love stuff like Groupon & LivingSocial. A few months ago, I found a site called Groopdealz. It's sort of like a Groupon, but for handmade, artsy-fartsy items (like what you would find on Etsy). Mostly it's jewelry, and other accessories. But, one time I found a deal for a 4-pack of Koff'e Body Treats products.

I had never heard of the company before, but I love trying new beauty products. The 4-pack included a solid lotion bar, a bath melt, a "pure luxury bar" (basically a bar of soap), and "lip butter" (came in a tube like chap stick).

The solid lotion bar was good. I picked the "cocoa mango" scent. The fragrance wasn't too strong, and it does a pretty good job moisturizing. I've had other solid lotion bars before, and honestly, they all do pretty much the same job. I've never thought of any of them as, "OHMYGOD THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING LOTION BAR EVER!!!". But, this brand was good.

The bath melt is the size of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. I haven't tried it yet (I guess I should have, before I wrote this review...I just don't take that many baths).

The "Pure Luxury Bar" was AWESOME! Although, I'm just going to refer to it as "soap" from now on. The other name was just too long. I got the "Honey n Oats" scent. It has a layer of oats on the outside, for exfoliation. The thing smelled EXACTLY like an oatmeal cookie. It didn't give a lot of suds, but it was definitely creamy, and soothing (that sounded dirty). I have dry, itchy winter skin, and it really did a good job with moisturizing.

Now, the best part. The lip butter. I got the "Honey Child" flavor. This was seriously the best lip balm I have EVER used. And, I don't even LIKE lip balm. I use lip stain just so I don't have to feel the stickiness of lip stick. This "lip butter" keeps my lips soft & moisturized for what feels like forever. Plus, I've used it at least every other day for maybe two months (if not more) and I've only used maybe 1/4 of the tube. I am totally going to buy this lip butter all the time, now.

Seriously. Go to the Koff'e website, and buy some lip butter. Do it now!!

Metaxa Restaurant in Ramstein

Hello, folks. I have been mulling over the idea to start a new blog - one just for reviews on restaurants, businesses, etc. But, since I have a hard enough time updating this blog, I don't think I'd be very good at managing two blogs. If you haven't noticed, I'm kind of a procrastinator.

But, I do still want to review restaurants, and other places we go while we're here. Businesses around here don't have websites like they do in the States. If they do, it's more like an early 90s Geocities website or something. It ain't pretty. So, you really never no what you're going to get from a restaurant, except by word of mouth. And I have a big mouth that likes to eat, and likes to express strong opinions. So who better to review restaurants, eh? Also, I'm a vegetarian, and the hubby isn't, so I can cover both aspects of the food world.

I know these restaurant reviews don't really help people who don't live here....but, tough. Besides, all two people who read this blog will probably end up visiting us here in the not-too-distant future, and they may want to see what there is to eat around here.

Saturday night, Josh and I decided to go out to eat. I had a hankering for Greek food, so we tried this restaurant called Metaxa, in Ramstein (the town in which the Air Force base is located). I think Josh misread the name of the place, and thought we were going to a Mexican food restaurant. ;)

Anywho, it was a cute, family owned restaurant. I'd say 90% of the customers were Americans, which isn't that surprising, since we were probably 1/4 mile from the base entrance.

It was freezing outside (I think -1F?) so we were so thankful when the waitress seated us right next to the radiator. Soooooo cozy. And we only saw two people working the floor there - one lady who seated us and took our order, and then one guy who was our server.

Now, I love Greek food. I love strong flavors like feta, vinegars, olives, and also fresh veggies like tomatoes & cucumbers. Unfortunately, there weren't a ton of vegetarian choices. They did have pizzas, but who wants pizza from a Greek restaurant? Most of the appetizers were vegetarian, though, and they had a large selection of salads as well.

We ended up ordering tzatziki for an appetizer. I ordered the Greek salad (actually, it was just called the Farmer's Salad, but it was what I think of when I think of a Greek salad), and Josh ended up getting the "spezial" plate. It was basically schnitzel, with fries.

Right after we ordered our food, the waiter came over with two cups of some kind of chicken noodle soup. Josh said it was really good, and he ate both cups. (one, because I don't eat chicken, and two, because I didn't want them to think that I was being rude by not eating what they gave us for free. good thing he was really hungry that night)

After the soup, they brought our tzaziki. It came with a basket of bread slices, and also a cup of some kind of red pepper puree. The puree was just pure red bell pepper - very, very fresh flavor. And the tzaziki came drizzled with olive oil, and garnished with pepperoncini, kalamata olives, and cucumber slices. Oh em gee, it was soooo goooooooooood. Very fresh tasting.

Then, the main dishes. I am always a little worried when I order "just" a salad from a restaurant, because I never know if it's going to be adequate enough for a meal, or if I'm going to leave the restaurant feeling slightly hungry, and slightly cheated. Let me tell ya - this salad was more than adequate. It was chock-full of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, olives, and feta. There were easily two whole tomatoes on this salad - in fact, I didn't even KNOW there was lettuce in the salad until I was 2/3 of the way in. That's my kind of salad. The dressing was some sort of Greek vinaigrette - I LOVED the dressing!! Tangy, highly seasoned, and not heavy at all. It also went well with the tzatziki in which I couldn't keep from dunking my tomatoes. ;) I will say one thing - I normally LOVE feta. I love that sharp, salty tang. However, this was the strongest feta I have ever had. I felt like I had literally licked the sheep that produced the milk. I only had a couple bites, before I just felt a little too...."knowledgeable" about what sheep nipples taste like.

Josh's meal was basically a schnitzel, covered in some kind of sauce, and cheese. It also came with french fries (the really thick-cut fries that are popular around here). He said it was pretty good, but he didn't rave about it. Although, he did eat 90% of the meal. I thought the fries were really good. :) After seeing some of the other, "real" Greek dishes come out of the kitchen, I think that he wished he had gotten something more along those lines.

While we were eating, we kept seeing the waiter go around to every table, taking shots of ouzo with everybody. Sure enough, at the end of the meal, he brought us shots as well. Man, that was some good stuff. It was a real shot, too, not a teeny "freebie" shot. (although, it was free)

The whole meal cost us €38 (almost $50). Now, I know that is kind of pricy, BUT, Josh and I had two drinks each, plus we had an appetizer. So, really, you could definitely eat there for way cheaper.

All in all, we had a really awesome time at Metaxa in Ramstein. The customer service itself was worth going back. Free amuse-bouche (the soup), and free shots of ouzo?!? Yes, please! We will definitely go back.

Man Meals

Last Saturday, we hosted a poker game at our house. I tried to be my little Suzy Homemaker self, and made some treats for the guys. I had pigs in a blanket, cinnamon brown butter rice krispies treats, firecrackers, and jalapeno popper dip.

I'm not giving out the recipe for pigs in a blanket, because gross. Plus, we watched Food, Inc. the next day, and even though I've been a vegetarian for 15 years, it made me feel like I've bathed in the blood of a million murdered animals. Although, I do highly recommend that movie to EVERYONE. It's not a preachy "be a vegetarian" movie, but it's all about every aspect of the food industry. Although, if you become a vegetarian after you see it, that won't hurt my feelings. ;) I think, actually, I'm going to try to only buy farm-raised, organic meat for Josh from now on. That is, if I can't actually ever get him to be a full-on veggie.

But, I digress. This post is about recipes, NOT about making people feel bad for what they eat. Sorry.

I've made brown butter rice krispies treats for a ton of occasions now, since I came across the recipe about 6 months ago. Brown butter is amazing. I would bottle it, and use it as perfume if I could (and if that didn't make me sound like a nutjob). It's time consuming, but it's worth it. Here's the recipe that I use. I didn't have vanilla beans, so I just did a generous 1/2t of extract. But, one thing I do add to this recipe is 1t of ground cinnamon. It sounds like a lot, but trust me, it's a pretty mellow (but super delicious) flavor. Make this dish - you won't regret it.

(btw, yes, I know that as a vegetarian I really shouldn't be eating rice krispies treats. i can come up with a million excuses, but i won't. sue me.)

Firecrackers are basically white trash chex mix. You take saltines, cover 'em in oil, ranch dressing mix, garlic powder, and a ton of crushed red pepper. Then, you wait til the oil soaks in. Super easy, and tasty. But, next time I'll use unsalted crackers. The ones I made basically brined my insides.

And now, my personal favorite for the night. Jalapeno Popper Dip. Oh my, was this stuff good. Here's the recipe. If you notice, it calls for bacon. I didn't put it in for obvious reasons. I asked the Mister if he thought I should add it in next time, but he said he liked it how it was. If a meat-eating guy says there's no room for bacon, then you should take him at his word. Also, I did this in a 9x9 pan. If you do it in that size - you definitely only need half of the bread crumb topping. If you do it in a 9x13 pan, double the amount of the dip, but keep the amount of topping the same. Also, my jalapenos were WAY TOO MILD!!! It tasted good, but there was no spice. The Aycocks like spicy. It was my fault, anyway, for not tasting before I put it in the oven. I just couldn't bring myself to do it, though. In my mayo-hating mind, I assumed the taste of cold mayo would rear its ugly head, and if it was heated up, I wouldn't be able to taste it. So, I really didn't want to try it until after it was cooked. Yes, I know, I'm a moron. Lesson learned.

Apparently we're hosting another poker tournament in a week....so if any of y'all (all two of you) have some ideas for different snacks, let me know. I always like trying new recipes!