Day 2 Amsterdam: Wins and Losses

Day 2 begins a bit late, considering the extreme jetlag and, well, wine and meat consumption the night previous.  Bettie and Trevor headed out for a late breakfast, and wound up with cold cheese slices on a hamburger bun.  Our waitress laments- "but you asked for a cold cheese sandwich!" damn the language barrier, or might it be an accent barrier? Trev also received coffee rather than his usual OJ, and we resolved to have a second breakfast at a much more delicious venue, Goodies.

I like my sugar with coffee and cream, hold the coffee.

Homomonument

 Goodies was delicious and had fantastic peoplewatching. With our bill came two Dutch traditional lollipops that tasted like they were made in Satan's Asshole.

Second Breakfast. Non-psychedelic brownie, mint tea, and goat cheese goodness.

 After Goodies, we took a stroll through Vondelpark. They have beautiful gardens and ponds and tulips were blooming everywhere. There were also a number of playground structures on which children and Trevor liked to climb.

Tulips in Vondelpark

Tulips. Toooooooliipppppps. Tulips.

 After Vondelpark, we walked to the Van Gogh museum, but it was closed. Then we went to the Rijkmuseum, and it was about to close. At this point, we said screw it, let's eat and drink some more.

Rijkmuseum. Pronounced Rake-museum.

 We found Rembrandt Square and stopped there for an early dinner. We sat out on the sidewalk with a couple hundred other people and watched people pass by.

Rembrandt statue, dressed up for Queensday two days early. You'd think such a renowned artist would have better fashion sense

Beer and Dinner at Van Rijk

Left to right: Tuna sashimi. Oyster and shrimp. Crab bisque.  Beef carpaccio. Behind the bisque: Pate. Not a vegetable in sight.

 Our bad luck streak with museums ended when we encountered the torture museum. Bettie could commiserate with the victims as her shoes were sadistic devices of their own sort.

Wish you were here.

 After the torture museum,we swung by the only slightly more upbeat Anne Frank House, where we toured the hiding place of eight Jewish Amsterdamsters.

We tried to get her to sign Bettie's book but she just stood there.

Blogshaustion!

We left Boston at 9pm and arrived in Dublin at 8am dubtime. Despite our best efforts, we failed at obtaining a true Irish Guinness before our flight to Amsterdam. We arrived and had some interesting adventures for day 1:

First lesson: Amsterdamsters drive like jerks.

Second lesson: Parking in Amsterdam is nearly impossible

Third lesson: Once you park, Amsterdam is awesome.


Here are some highlights:

The moon was huge outside our window the whole flight

Edward Gelatohands is now Edward CoffeeAndIceCreamHands

A ramp would drop down at the end of the ferry, and we were hoping this old dude would ramp off it on his moped

Our first view of Amsterdam

Canals!

Racial Stereotypes!

We were accosted by a group of drunk Nederlanders who offered to take our picture on the condition that they pose in the photo with us.

Purdy

This panetone mosaic is in the place where we're staying

We even have a rooftop deck with a nice view

Beer and Cheese at Cafe de Wetering

Public Urinals! Yay!

Tapas at Bocas, a cute little place with raw meat and cheese and bread.

Quick escape to the land of golf, sand, sun, and the williams sisters

The Land of golf, sand, sun, and the Williams sisters

otherwise known as West Palm Beach Florida

Trev and I had a pretty busy and at times rough December.  Christmas is always the busiest time at Trevor's work, and I can assure you there is not much more miserable than being the only psychiatrist in the entire hospital on the merriest of days.  Anyways, we needed to run far, far away from snowy, wet, icy, gray Worcester.  It dawns on me my awesome Aunt Barbara has been luring me down to Florida for years now- what have I been thinking?! we book tickets immediately.

We arrive, its warm, its beautiful, and there are palm trees.  and we get to drive a mustang!

this was our rental- our anxiety producing muscle machine.

Considering we got in a bit late, we head out for food and find a tried and true source of always open artery clogging deliciousness- Denny's.  They are doing a promotion for The Hobbit, which involves odd and nearly unidentifiable foods that I'm not sure a Hobbit would know what to do with.  Red Velvet Pancake Balls with cream cheese dipping sauce?

right after this Trev hacked up what sounded like a hairball and climbed under the table to hide from the light. He was muttering something too... 

We meet up with our lovely hosts Barbara and Don and enjoy all that Ballenisles, their home, has to offer- beautiful views, golf courses, bistro, club house, pool, spa, gym, you name it, they have it!  

We also tried to stalk Venus and Serena Williams, but alas, they were in hiding.  

enjoying lunch with wonderful family and an over-serious Trevor.

 Florida, interestingly enough, has lots of creepy creatures, lizardy things, and is just sort of tropical.  I suppose that is the trade off when you give up temperatures below freezing and 8 months of seemingly endless winter.

We head straight to the beach, and are surprised by the nearly deserted but absolutely beautiful scenery.  We are known to swim in nearly any temperature of water, and this was like a nice warm bath.

 It was late in the day, the sun was setting, we were running around like 8 year olds making weird sand sculptures and playing with our shadows.

beach tree.

Crabby-dude!

Bettie swam with a sea turtle! 

 Later that night, we treated ourselves to a raw seafood feast- oysters, crabcake, cherrystone clams, champagne (to make up for lost alcoholism over new years eve, spent in stage 4 sleep).

this man would shuck, we would  eat.  that simple.

 Barbara and Don took us on a tour of the most fabulous, scenic and wealthy island I have ever seen- Palm Beach Island.  In my head I naively imagined it to be like one of those lost little islands off the coach of Belize (Trev and I are going to buy one some day).  But really it is more like a combo of Michigan Ave/5th ave in NY/add something warm and tropical here.  Really like no place I have ever been.  We ate at Taboo, were seduced to shops by models as we dined, and oogled jewelry and cashmere in storefronts in the January Florida sun.

There were many an art gallery as well, selling bizarre and interesting pieces at outrageous prices- here was one Barbara and I decided likely had some sort of important meaning, although we were not sure of what.  

 We then explored a magical place called "The Breakers"- a truly incredible high end hotel where you might get married, have a drink, hide out from reality, or stow a troublesome elderly but deserving family member in many many years time from now.  Just some thoughts/suggestions.

this is to show you our trust steed, a porsche, and the incredible entrance to The Breakers- palms decked in xmas style

this is kind of what most of the bajillion rooms looks like- some more opulent, some more modern.

setting up for a caroline herrera fashion show, no biggie.

We trek to the seafood bar, where the bar is literally a fish tank and looks out over the beach front.

 Trev gets an impressive bloody mary, I get a gingery concotion, Barbara gets something pink and delicious, Don gets a classy white wine- we all enjoy the scenery and the company :)

 Our final day of sun we lay out and enjoy the pool at the clubhouse.  Reality beckons but we were determined to ignore it for as long as possible.  Thank you again to our lovely hosts!

still albino.  Trev bought SPF 70 sunscreen.