"VT-Meeting February 15, 2010: leics in town!" Top 5 Page for this destination Amsterdam Travelogue by pieter_jan_v

leics in true Dutch Orange colours

Well, the reason for this meeting was obvious: leics was in town and needed some guidance. So I, pieter_jan_v and Swanèt picked her up at the Hotel Singel. Because of the cold weather we first transformer her into a well dressed frost resistant Dutch lady.

Brouwersgracht

I had in mind to eat a herring for lunch at Stubbe's, but it was Monday and all the stalls were closed.

My other option was to have lunch at the top floor of the OBA (Library) to eat and enjoy the lookoff. We could have stopped at the free excavation exhibition for the new North-South metro line at the Central Station on our way.

We decided differently. We went into the Haarlemmerstraat and checked the Nukuhiva shop, only to find that we arrived half a hour early. No Floortje Dessing meet :(

We almost missed Unlimited Deliceous; unbelievable!

Swanèt and leics into gold digging

Swanèt was very much attracted to the Noordermarkt. Yes, record were waiting for us. Meanwhile leics and I tried a Vietnamese Loempia and strolled along the stalls.

Baby up for sale

So much to see here. From second hand theatre clothes to all kinds of brick-a-brack.

Ice cold message of love

Via the Flesch shop we proceded into the Westerstraat.

On a parked car we saw this Valentine's Day message.

Westerstraat street market: Lapjesmarkt

At the Westerstraat the Lapjesmarkt was held. A rare opportunity for me, because I hardly visit Amsterdam on Monday mornings.

It was a little hidden at the side of the market, but we saw a glimps of the Pianola museum.

The Beehive from 1727

Via the Tweede Anjeliersdwarsstraat we headed for the Westerkerk.

Egelantiersgracht

We had alook at the Moriaan clothing shop. The Icecream factory was closed; I wonder why :) I guess leics had enough ice to walk over.

AT one point leics said she felt like Mrs. Michelin so I made here this new PPP.

Over Nes

My third lunch option, Café De Reiger was closed as well. We just continued.

leics with the Anne Frank House

leics first visit that morning had been the Anne Frank House. As she was an early bird she had the house almost to herself.

Food & Drinks at the bar

My fourth lunch option, the herring stall in front of the Westerkerk was closed also.

A traditional leics lunch

So we went into De Oude Wester café. leics insisted on having a bitterballen lunch and combine that with a COLD beer. Luckely we were sitting next to a central heating radiator.

Batenburg

Via my favorite canal, the Prinsengracht we went on.

De 9 Straatjes

We took the first of the Nine Little Streets: Reestraat - Hartenstraat - Gasthuismolensteeg

On our way we saw the Fifties-Sixties shop, the Lady Day shop, the Belga Hotel, De Transvaalsche Boer house and the Antonia shop.

Maria

At the very end we walked past the Brilmuseum.

't Haasje

Down South we went to the second trio of small streets: Oude Spiegelstraat - Wolvenstraat - Berenstraat

I was surprised to see that one of Amsterdam's oldest shops, H.J. van de Kerkhof was gone and being renovated and converted into a new store.
Yes, van de Kerkhof sure was 't Haasje, as we say it in Dutch.

Further down we encountered these shops for the ladies in our party: STOUT and Marlies Dekkers.

Johnny Jordaanplein

We peeked into the soap maker's workshop of the La Savonnerie shop and had a look at the Johnny Jordaanplein.

BAck at the canal we saw the Houseboat museum.

leics and me

We went a little further over the Prinsengracht. I had to tell leics the story of Hotel Wiechmann. If you are interested just follow the provided link.

leics ready to shoot

Into the last three of the Nine Little Streets we went: Runstraat - Huidenstraat - Wijde Heisteeg

I had the impressions leics was not taking that many pictures.

We went along the Witte Tandenwinkel, Famous and the Pampadour.

Inside the Kaaskamer

We had to go into the Kaaskamer and look for some high quality cheese. leics bought some blue Wolvega cheese with cloves and I some meadow cheese from North Holland.

POEP NIET OP DE STOEP

leics was doing well on the spontaneous Dutch language course we gave her. I was just in time to shoot one more picture of the Bibles Museum.

't Lievertje

You might recognize 't Lievertje from my Amsterdam home page.

PJ up in the air!

Wow, I made it to the VT JuMpInG PaGeS (although this picture is slightly better :) )

leics and Swanèt

It took some rehersal to come up with the picture.

leics at the door

leics had no idea what she was going into; the Begijnhof.

DE GLOYENDE OVEN

Next the Wooden House, a number of restored picture stones are on display.

Interior detail at the English church

Just to get warm again we went into the English Reformed Church.

Lookthrough the Church window

The view to the Begijnhof was really amazing.

Hajenius facade

We did anything to stay warm. Even looking to cigars at the Hajenius shop at the Rokin did the trick.

leics going onboard

It was clost to 4PM and it was only getting colder. So we went for a warm canal boat tour.

Canal boat ticket

Only to see that one of the first attractions along was XTRACOLD.

Canal boat helmsman

We sailed along the Stopera, Hermitage, Carré and the Skinny Bridge.

leics

It was comfortable to watch Amsterdam from a warm boat.

Singel canal

Through the canals we came back at the Singel and went to 't IJ. We passed the Bicycle Parking, Central Station and the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ.

OBA

From there we went into the Oosterdok and had a view of NEMO, OBA, Sea Palace and Scheepvaarthuis.

Groenburgwal lookthrough

Back into the canals we came along the Waterlooplein, Jewish Resistance Monument and Zuiderkerk.

leics

At the end of the tour leics saw the Allard Pierson Museum and became very enthiousiastic. Indeed: archeology!

leics and me

The stay warm we went into the Red Light District. We saw the Oudemanhuispoort, Restaurant Blauw aan de Wal (I had to note the name of the entrance alley) and Casa Rosso.

Swanèt and me

At the Oude Kerkplein I had an encounter with Belle.

Liberty condom

We had to show the Condomerie to leics and along the De Bijenkorf department store we crossed the Damrak.

leics

Dinner time. We met Igraine at Humphrey's where we concluded the day in a cozy way.

Go to my next meeting: The BIG Krakow EuroMeet.