Trekking Through Amsterdam 2.
Shopping in Amsterdam has to be a favorite pastime because in
most places we found street vendors and traffic free squares
where temporary businesses open shop under tents. Cuypmarkt a
place like a white elephant sale and Waterlooplein flea market
are popular with the residents. In the prices of anything,
cafes, restaurants, beauty shops, and even taxies, (BTW) taxes
and a standard 15% service charge are included. Still the
waiters expected tips, even a small one, when they waited on us.
I don't blame them at all, since Amsterdam is not a cheap city
to live in, especially if you keep losing your goods to
pickpockets.
If you are in a hurry and want to grab a bite in Amsterdam,
there are Febo stores, a Dutch type of McDonalds, so to speak.
They have a self-service where you put in the money and get
fries, burgers, sandwiches, or whatever. Here we got fries with
mayonnaise instead of ketchup. This was, surely, a new one for
me.
A favorite fast food for the Dutch are the croquettes, deep
fried mashed potatoes and gravy, tasty enough but I wouldn't go
for it again.
Amsterdam is full of pavement cafes, despite its sudden rains.
As soon as the sun comes out, tables and chairs appear as if
from nowhere and are filled with people in a few minutes. There
are also bars that serve beer, wine, and simple snacks any time
of the day.
Beer is the usual Dutch drink since Heineken and Amstel are
situated here. It is usually served with a huge frothy head in
small iced or wet glasses with handles. Most of the Dutch dishes
"Neerlands Dis" are made with meat, cheese and vegetables.
Sausages, ham pea soup, bisque soups, herring are some favorite
Dutch tastes.
Once we went in a restaurant with a hawker, a person in front of
a restaurant hired to invite and actually goad passers-by
inside. The food was awful. No wonder, if they needed a hawker
the food had to be bad. Stupid us!
The best place we ate was the Cafe Van Gogh with excellent
sandwiches and goat cheese salads. For me, Amsterdam was not the
best place for eating, although they had quite a variety of fish
prepared in different ways that I enjoyed. In general even their
light snacks are not light for they usually are tostjes--grilled
cheese and ham sandwiches--or doughnuts and pancakes.
On the streets of old Amsterdam all the way into suburbs, we
were quite taken with ice-cream vendors, who were mostly
Italians. Most sell their very fresh ice-cream in vending carts
with umbrellas or awnings on top of them, as the outlets of
nearby ice-cream factories. One funny vendor made his sales in
Dutch but cursed in Italian. When I understood and laughed, he
offered me extra ice-cream.
Amsterdam houses are different in the way that they have been
preserved for at least two to five centuries. Some have
paintings on them, some have coat of arms that can be of wood.
The houses are usually built from dark red bricks and their
large windows are white and the doors are different colors. Most
doorways are detailed and old warehouses have wooden hatches.
The fa