Back to Amsterdam-6 Miscellaneous

For lunch one day we headed to the Pancake Bakery. The ad for it said that is is "undoubtedly the best known and most preferred pancake restaurant in Amsterdam." It's a very small place located near the Anne Frank house. It claims to have over 100 different sweet or savory pancakes and omelettes on the menu. Even the building itself was interesting— a 17th C warehouse— and nostalgic. By nostalgic I mean a long, narrow restaurant, very dark with low ceilings and slippery floors. It definitely had character. Syrup of some kind in a giant cup.Yep, you dish it out with a large wooden spoon.

What's a Dutch pancake? Well, these are not like an American pancake or a puffy baked German pancake or a French crepe. Our "family pancake" is mostly egg and cottage cheese. These are thin but delicate. These Dutch pancakes are perhaps between German pancake and a French crepe? They are thin with a high egg content and very LARGE.

Mine was a ham and cheese pancake. A pancake topped with ham and cheese. B had a sweet pancake for lunch. (B note: pancake. Stroopwaffles, chocolate, banana, chocolate sauce and whipped cream- Yum!)

We had dinner a couple of times at the Chinese restaurant called the Sea Palace. It's a floating restaurant very near our hotel. This is said to be a copy of another floating restaurant in Hong Kong. However, legend has it that during planning, the engineers failed to take into account the difference in salt content of the water in Amsterdam and the weight of the people. As a result there was a buoyancy issue. If you believe the stories the restaurant cannot fill to planned capacity or it starts to sink. Beyond the history, the food was excellent.

We decided on Italian one night and I ordered a calzone. I didn't expect one quite so large! And the way they draped sauce over it, to me it looked like a lobster.

I got to have Dutch pea soup a couple of times— Yum! The tomato soup is excellent as well. One evening I had a "typical'" Dutch meal of white asparagus, small potatoes and ham.

Here's a new one for me: sparkling iced tea. I had this twice and have since had made it at home. Quite good and tastes a little different. Iced tea elevated to a new level.

More photos of Amsterdam... This appeared to be a private yacht! Wow! Even a helicopter pad!

We even saw horse drawn carriages. Notice, though, how the buildings in the background lean a little. Typical Amsterdam.

 Ship we toured at the Maritime Museum.__________________

An attempt at a photo to capture bridge arch within bridge arch, etc. Oh, well, difficult in a moving boat.

This was the most adorable car I've seen. It's called a Twizy, seats 2, is electric and apparently you can park it where you park bicycles and small scooters. I love how the doors open—up!