Day 7 in Holland

My final day here in the Netherlands. I leave tomorrow at 3 pm and while I am very excited to get home and see Glen and Max part of me would be very happy to stay for another few days. I feel like there is still so much to see. Ah well, there is always next time…

It was not a sunny day like yesterday but that certainly didn’t slow us down. Lisa and I headed out to see the collection at the Van Gogh Museum (which is wonderful but made us feel a bit sad) and then we met up with Paolo who came from Rotterdam to hang out and explore Amsterdam with us for the day.

Spring blossoms

The three us walked through a few new neighbourhoods that we hadn’t checked out before, had afternoon coffee at Cafe Brecht, checked out an amazing cooking shop calked Duikelman. We went to see an exhibit called “The Printed Book: A Visual History” at Bijzondere Special Collections Library. We walked through Vondel Park and made our way to the amazing As Restaurant for my farewell dinner.

The dinner was the perfect mix of wonderful company and delicious, inspiring food. We started with homemade bread, local raw pancetta and a beautiful peppery olive oil, followed by warm beet soup with herbs and crème fraîche. Our next course was pickeled mackrel with poached fennel, blood oranges, black olives and watercress and then a ravioli with crab and greens. The main course was a whitefish served alongside a pearl barley risotto with peas and spinach. And finally, for dessert, a slice of eccles cake with a thin slice of local sheep’s cheese. Absolute heaven. I have been eating so much food over the last few days it is probably a very good thing I am heading home!

Here are a few of the visual highlights from the day…

View from the houseboat this morning

People watching at the Van Gogh Museum

Coffee Graffiti

From the Printed Book Exhibition at the Bijzondere

At the Duikelman Store

Amaryllis flowers

Vondel Park at dusk