So after the pancakes, we walked for what seemed like forever. We checked out Lambiek, which claims to be the world's oldest comic book shop. Full of a ton of books from around the world, I thought for sure the hub would find something - he likes the comic books. We in the USofA make most of the books he reads and they are doubly expensive overseas so no book was to be bought that day although, it was neat to look at everything in the shop. I liked all the art and the posters. After comics, we walked to Bloemenmarket, a street, flower market which was very colorful despite the light white snowfall that encompassed us while were checking it out. I really wanted to buy a ton of tulips but alas, the US government does not let you bring plants or seeds back into the country. Oh well pretty tulips, I won't be seeing you in my backyard anytime soon. 
Next we walked around the canal streets and visited the millions of shops and malls. Amsterdam is really a shoppers paradise if you got the Euros. We went into Debijenkorf, Amsterdam's most notable department store. It was notable to me because of their Christmas decorations. I guess in The Netherlands, Santa's little helpers are these black-faced court-like jesters. I have never seen anything like them it before in my Christmas lore. The store had these giant ropes hanging from the ceiling with these jesters climbing up and down the ropes. There was a live St. Nic character greeting customers with his sidekick, a black-faced jester. When you grow in the States with one image of Christmas it's weird to go somewhere else and see a totally different image. I am going to have to go online and see why black-faced court jesters are helping out Santa. 
Later, we walked and walked until we ended back in the Red Light District back in China Town. We finally found Oriental City, the restaurant we had wanted to eat at the night before. After a long day of being outside in the cold it was nice to go inside and talk off our many layers of clothing. We choose to eat on the third floor which had a really, really, good view of the city. The hub was hoping to get some boobies "aka Cho Su Bao dim sum" but they didn't have any. Bummer. After getting two huge Thai portions the night before we opted to get a big pot of hot tea and share a meal. While we ate we discussed what to do in the evening. 
We ended up deciding to go to Pathe Movie Theatres. It seemed every time we went in to escape the cold that it would be 10 times worse outside, afterward, then it was before we went in. Sure enough it started to snow really bad while we were eating which was pretty to watch from inside but hard to walk in afterward. But we did it and made it to the theatre. I went totally ga-ga when I started seeing my posters and materials up in the theatres in Dutch. It was validation that my work really matters or at least, is being used out in the world. I was so excited to see standees, bunting and banners all up in the theatres. I tried to see the end credits of a movie I worked on but it didn't work out schedule-wise. You see, I have been working with countries to make local versions of "I Like to Move It," the Madagascar 2 end credit song, with local pop stars. 
The Netherlands was one country I worked with. It would have been so cool to see the song which I worked months on up on screen. But it wasn't in the cards. Having worked at a theatre chain for 10 years made me go spastic over a few things that were different at Pathe Theatres. Foremost, their concession stands are totally cool!! 
I could buy potato chips which they ban in the US because theatre owners think the bags make too much noise and secondly, they sell beer!! We totally bought beers and for the first time had beer while watching a movie. It was awesome! We decided to see JAMES BOND THE QUANTUM SOLACE which was in English with Dutch subtitles. The pre-show entertainment consisted of both English and Dutch trailers and advertisements which was a little weird to me having them go in and out of languages but I guess when you speak both languages you probably don't mind. We enjoyed the movie and the beers. The US should totally have beers with movies! We are missing out. The next day we hit up the Noordermarkt, another outside market that sold everything from clothes to fish to whatever old trinket you need to complete a collection. After walking through the market we headed to The Museum Quarter to visit the Van Gogh Museum. I had already been to the Rembrant Huis on my previous trip and the Rijksmuseum was still being remodeled so Van Gogh it was. 
Basically, all the paintings that were left with Van Gogh's family were put in this museum. While it was a perfectly nice museum I think I was little disappointed that some of my favorites were not there. Compared to Anne Frank and The Louvre I would say that this museum ranked third or last on my list of museums visited. I enjoyed the Rembrant House better. I think the hub would of liked that better too because it showed where the painter lived and his studio. I did visit the gift shop and got myself a Van Gogh tea pot, so for that alone, the visit was worth it! hehe Another thing I really didn't like was that the museum was so crowded. It wasn't that pleasurable standing in a line that made a big circle around the museum. The Louvre had a ton of people but at least I could stand in front of each painting by myself (with the exception of Mona Lisa) and take it in. This place you had to take a quick peek and move to the next one. Anyhoo, after Van Gogh there was more walking and more walking. We wanted to check out the Film Museum but when we got there it appeared to be just a library so we left. 
We got back to our rental and then headed to the little pub that was within a few steps of our place. We had some beers and grabbed dinner. The very nice barmaid explained the entire menu to us since it was in Dutch. She did a really good job translating. We felt bad because we ended up ordering the first two items she translated: the chicken satay and the cheese fondue. It was our last dinner before heading to Paris the next day.
Next we walked around the canal streets and visited the millions of shops and malls. Amsterdam is really a shoppers paradise if you got the Euros. We went into Debijenkorf, Amsterdam's most notable department store. It was notable to me because of their Christmas decorations. I guess in The Netherlands, Santa's little helpers are these black-faced court-like jesters. I have never seen anything like them it before in my Christmas lore. The store had these giant ropes hanging from the ceiling with these jesters climbing up and down the ropes. There was a live St. Nic character greeting customers with his sidekick, a black-faced jester. When you grow in the States with one image of Christmas it's weird to go somewhere else and see a totally different image. I am going to have to go online and see why black-faced court jesters are helping out Santa. 
Later, we walked and walked until we ended back in the Red Light District back in China Town. We finally found Oriental City, the restaurant we had wanted to eat at the night before. After a long day of being outside in the cold it was nice to go inside and talk off our many layers of clothing. We choose to eat on the third floor which had a really, really, good view of the city. The hub was hoping to get some boobies "aka Cho Su Bao dim sum" but they didn't have any. Bummer. After getting two huge Thai portions the night before we opted to get a big pot of hot tea and share a meal. While we ate we discussed what to do in the evening. 
We ended up deciding to go to Pathe Movie Theatres. It seemed every time we went in to escape the cold that it would be 10 times worse outside, afterward, then it was before we went in. Sure enough it started to snow really bad while we were eating which was pretty to watch from inside but hard to walk in afterward. But we did it and made it to the theatre. I went totally ga-ga when I started seeing my posters and materials up in the theatres in Dutch. It was validation that my work really matters or at least, is being used out in the world. I was so excited to see standees, bunting and banners all up in the theatres. I tried to see the end credits of a movie I worked on but it didn't work out schedule-wise. You see, I have been working with countries to make local versions of "I Like to Move It," the Madagascar 2 end credit song, with local pop stars. 
The Netherlands was one country I worked with. It would have been so cool to see the song which I worked months on up on screen. But it wasn't in the cards. Having worked at a theatre chain for 10 years made me go spastic over a few things that were different at Pathe Theatres. Foremost, their concession stands are totally cool!! 
I could buy potato chips which they ban in the US because theatre owners think the bags make too much noise and secondly, they sell beer!! We totally bought beers and for the first time had beer while watching a movie. It was awesome! We decided to see JAMES BOND THE QUANTUM SOLACE which was in English with Dutch subtitles. The pre-show entertainment consisted of both English and Dutch trailers and advertisements which was a little weird to me having them go in and out of languages but I guess when you speak both languages you probably don't mind. We enjoyed the movie and the beers. The US should totally have beers with movies! We are missing out. The next day we hit up the Noordermarkt, another outside market that sold everything from clothes to fish to whatever old trinket you need to complete a collection. After walking through the market we headed to The Museum Quarter to visit the Van Gogh Museum. I had already been to the Rembrant Huis on my previous trip and the Rijksmuseum was still being remodeled so Van Gogh it was. 
Basically, all the paintings that were left with Van Gogh's family were put in this museum. While it was a perfectly nice museum I think I was little disappointed that some of my favorites were not there. Compared to Anne Frank and The Louvre I would say that this museum ranked third or last on my list of museums visited. I enjoyed the Rembrant House better. I think the hub would of liked that better too because it showed where the painter lived and his studio. I did visit the gift shop and got myself a Van Gogh tea pot, so for that alone, the visit was worth it! hehe Another thing I really didn't like was that the museum was so crowded. It wasn't that pleasurable standing in a line that made a big circle around the museum. The Louvre had a ton of people but at least I could stand in front of each painting by myself (with the exception of Mona Lisa) and take it in. This place you had to take a quick peek and move to the next one. Anyhoo, after Van Gogh there was more walking and more walking. We wanted to check out the Film Museum but when we got there it appeared to be just a library so we left. 
We got back to our rental and then headed to the little pub that was within a few steps of our place. We had some beers and grabbed dinner. The very nice barmaid explained the entire menu to us since it was in Dutch. She did a really good job translating. We felt bad because we ended up ordering the first two items she translated: the chicken satay and the cheese fondue. It was our last dinner before heading to Paris the next day.
Comments