Holland: part 2 (long overdue)

We took the Herreshoff and Tiger to the train museum (Het Spoorwegmuseum) in Utrecht. They wanted to go. Who were we to refuse?

They enjoyed the journey to Utrecht from Amsterdam (we rode on the top level of a double-decker train).

I got to pretend that I was a conductor!

Then we went through the "Train Worlds" - World 1 was in a mock-up of an English coal-mining village (with Do Not Enter signs in Dutch, obviously).

The rest of the museum was excellent. It was well-organised, well-maintained (of course), entertaining, and informative.

We walked back from the museum to the train station, accidentally detouring through the old center of Utrecht. I had no idea the city was so beautiful - I'd only really ever seen the inside of the enormous train station.

The obligatory train-arriving shot, for my Dad.

And a marching brass band of Zwarte Pieten (Sinterklaas' assistant) on the Damrak:

And an extremely happy few hours spent building and tinkering and experimenting and playing at the NEMO science museum.

My efforts on the binary word-maker:

After all of our playing (and a LONG troop across Amsterdam, including the FOAM photography museum [crap] and the Rijksmuseum [abbreviated, under renovation]), we had some jenever. YUM.

And then the next day, we feasted on carbs. Pancakes and the BEST apple cake ever.

Yup, that up there was AMAZING. It's at a tiny little hole in the wall called Winkel. We were directed there by our b&b host (we had a super time at Maes B&B) after asking for a good place to go for apple cake. He didn't miss a beat. After watching a steady stream of apple cake portions leave the kitchen, I asked our waitress how many cakes they got through in a day. On a quiet day, apparently, only 60. On a busy day, though, up to 150 cakes. One hundred and fifty apple cakes in ONE day. And it was not a big restaurant.

One last opportunity for frites, frikandel and fritessaus (oh, dear God, I just found a recipe online). This blogger writes about it best, I think. Nectar of the Gods. I could eat it with a spoon. I purposely did NOT buy some to take home. That would mean I'd have to give up on real clothes and just wear a muumuu all day. I didn't get a picture of the actual f/f/f - they were consumed too quickly. Mmmm.

Holland: Part 1

We certainly ate well in Holland. Our B&B and nearly all of our meals were guided either by the New York Times or by TripAdvisor, and it was definitely a success.

For our first lunch (after a somewhat choppy but otherwise uneventful Stena Line crossing - thank you, Tesco Clubcard vouchers!) we went back to the Blauwe Pan, where John had a Dutch stew (vast quantities of meat and sausages, on top of a carrot and spud mash), and I had a brie, walnut and honey sandwich. Not a combo I'd ever tried before but it definitely worked.

We explored the Jordaan for a while, and I loved this vintage shopping list. A wall-mounted shopping list (in Dutch) doesn't really fit with my schedule, unfortunately. Cute, though!

And then, beer. Lots of delicious Dutch beer.

Pardon the radio silence

We went on an adventure to Holland (mostly Amsterdam and Utrecht).

More pictures (and customary roundup) to follow.

But first: THIS IS THE BEST BIKE EVER. I think I might need to Dutch-ify my bike. Or at least put flowers on the handlebars.