Our First Taste of Amsterdam

Hi Dear Folk,

My flight out from Philly was uneventful and with nobody sitting next to me gave me extra space always nice.  I flew into Manchester on American Airlines and then had to catch a connecting flight to Heathrow, London on British Airways.  Can you believe on that short little flight they served breakfast which was coffee or tea, orange juice and a hot bacon bap sandwich and let me tell you it was very good.  You can fly all the way to Hawaii and you get absolutely zero to eat included in the price of a ticket.

Unfortunately as I mentioned in my post last Wednesday my suitcase did not make the transfer and neither did it make it to my friends house on that Sunday evening, which I thought it might, because my door hubby one time left one of his suitcases on the carousel, forgetting it and we received a phone call that night asking for directions to my parents little thatch cottage which was in the boonies and he turned up at one in the morning, Mr. B. even remembered the name of the company Pony Express, well I guess they lived up to their name but City Luggage did not.  It did not arrive until Monday afternoon which under normal circumstances would have been fine except for our flight out to Amsterdam from Stanstead Airport was at 7:00AM, so no change of clothes for Amsterdam, but you know it all worked out, the weather cooperated by staying quite cool even a bit cold and I was prepared for that.

We navigated our way through the airport and out to the train station, figured out buying a ticket the easy way by going up to a ticket office and speaking to a person.  The train took us right into the Grand Central Station in Amsterdam.  We found the station lock up boxes, figured how to pay for that and left our luggage in one of those.  The Tourist Office is across the road.

So here we are, after having sorted out at the Tourist Info office, some tickets for the canal ride and trolley tickets, plus a very nice young man helped Jean sort her phone out.  A good time to pop downstairs which is where this lovely restaurant was located right on the canal and get a coffee and apple cake.  Totally hit the spot.

The shape of smaller mug seams to be the norm in Holland for coffee and I actually bought one just that shape and size, a little small for coffee compared with what we are used to but I love the design on my mug by a Dutch artist.  Will have to look him up.

IKEA serves an apple cake like this over here, but not as good.

Here is the outside of the restaurant, as you can see it is an overcast and cold day, well it was 21st March.  But we are all smiles just to be there, drinking coffee and eating cake and sitting by the canal.

Christy