"VT-meeting December 27, 2003" Top 5 Page for this destination Amsterdam Travelogue by pieter_jan_v

cjg1, the NY tip grouper

We had a nice meeting with the following 8 people:

citylover666
vrede and Mary
cjg1
kristara aka Gypsytravels
virtualpatrick
AC_spotter
pieter_jan_v

Street lamp

Chris had noticed that a lot of New Yorkers would hang out at Amsterdam around Christmas, so he organized a meeting with an informal walk through town.

VOC-cafe - bottles enough

We met at the VOC-cafe (as we did on the previous meeting). It's close to the Central Station and has a great interior.

Gypsytravels

The VOC-cafe is located in one of the old city-wall towers. The New Yorkers came in a little late, because they had to travel from The Hague (and I still don't know what their host Mique did with them the night before).

Our starting point

I was surprised citylover666 showed up. He was not on the list, but just around in Amsterdam and he decided to join us for a part of the day. He was the early bird of the group.
Next was vrede (member for only a week!) and Mary.

We waited an extra half hour for kalimerachara, salampeace, Roaminmn and nurochka, but they didn't show up.

Nieuwmarkt flower stall

For a change it was sunny (!) weather with a cold wind at times.
Mind you, it was in the middle of the winter.

Oliebollen

We went to the Nieuwmarkt and both Chris and Patrick were brave enough to follow me in having a "Broodje Haring" (Herring sandwich) at the health market.
citylover666 was experienced enough to order "kibbeling".
I could not persuade anybody to try the fresh baked "oliebollen", which were fried outside the local bakery shop.

Staalstraat

We continued walking along the Kloverniers Burgwal, took a look at the old Gasthuis buildings (now Headquarter of the Amsterdam University) and via the Staalstraat we went around the Stopera.

Waterlooplein

Mary loved the Waterlooplein market.

Rembrandtplein

We realy walked a lot. Via the Blauwbrug we went over the Amstel River to the Rembrandtplein.

Utrechtsestraat

The rembrandtplein is one of the nightlife centers. We stopped in front of the restored Tuchinsky Theater in the Reguliers Breestraat.

Leidsestraat

We left the Munttoren at our right and admired the flowers at the floating Bloemenmarkt. We took a left at the Leidsestraat and finally took a stop at the Leidseplein at the Grand-Cafe Heineken-Hoek.

citylover666

citylover666 already went to a friend during the walk (he is becoming an Amsterdammer) and vrede & Mary said goodbye too, so the real VT-diehards stayed together.

Lijn 5 tram

After being warmed up we explored the "9 little streets".

9 little streets

We went through the:
-Runstraat
-Huidenstraat
-Wijde Heisteeg
back through the:
-Oude Spiegelstraat
-Wolvenstraat
-Berenstraat
and up again via the:
-Reestraat
-Hartenstraat
-Gasthuis Molenstraat

In these 9 little streets many speciality shops are located.

Dam square and a fast tram

Via the paleisstraat we ended up at the Dam square at the time most shopping people were gone. The temporary ice-skating ring was just disassembled in preparation for the NYE festivities.

real virtualpatrick

Everybody was getting hungry and as we had discussed real Dutch food already, we went to the "Oud Holland" restaurant at the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal. I had some wonderful "capucijners", a real Dutch treat.

Metro

We had to split up. AC_spotter and I did some more photo shooting and took the Metro to the parkinglot. The New Yorkers went back to The Hague and prepared themselves for a trip to France.

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