Thursday, November 3 - Amsterdam

Well, we made it! Woke up this morning to a nice, sunny day, which we weren't really expecting. Wow. The hotel here is pretty basic, but the bathroom and shower are wonderful, and after all... that's what we look for in a hotel most these days.

Started our day by making our way on foot toward the train station. The goal was to get Metro passes that would cover any bus or tram (light rail) trips for the next three days. Unfortunately, it's not all that easy to get somewhere in a hurry here; there is SO much to look at that we ended up stopping a million times along the way. One of those stops was at a camera shop, where I found a great deal on a really nice 22-55mm lens I've needed, to replace the piece of crap short lens I've got. Cool.

After getting our Metro tickets, we caught a tram out to the Rijksmuseum. The museum is located in this neat park with ponds and a giant "I amsterdam" sign, so we - along with a couple dozen other tourists - took our pictures next to the sign as the wind blew leaves around. It was one of those gorgeous fall days that you hardly even hope for, so we're making sure we take advantage of every ray of sunlight.

The Rijksmuseum, located in a very upscale neighborhood, is home to many of Rembrandt's most famous works, as well as a lot of his pupils' and teachers.' Here again, it was thrilling to see in person many works of art I've only seen in pictures. Among the museum's collection are pieces such as Jeremiah lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem, The syndics of the Amsterdam drapers' guild, The denial of Peter, and The Night Watch, as well as many, many others. Wow.

Once we'd made it through the museum, we set back out for the hotel to drop our bags before foraging for food. At the recommendation of one of my airplane friends, we set out on a mission for Rijstaffel, an Indonesian meal consisting of numerous meat and vegetable dishes, served with bowls of rice. We ended up near the flower market at an Indonesian warung (I'm assuming that means "restaurant") called Sukabumi, and that's where the REAL fun began. Started the evening off with a really nice bottle of the house wine, and then an array of dishes appeared, the likes of which I had never eaten. Beef, pork, chicken, three kinds of vegetables, tofu, eggs... and every single one was a culinary event in and of itself. I was very sorry to come to the end of it all, but I'm sure we'll be back as soon as I get my wits about me again. It was really that good.

A quick trip through the red-light district (we're tourists so we had to see it, but it wasn't all that interesting), and a stop at the internet café to e-mail home wrapped up the evening for us. Pretty soon, we were heading back to the hotel to crash. More museums to visit tomorrow, and my feet are still just getting their calluses back. Better set aside at least a little recovery time...

Good night,
Leanne