Canal Cruise, Dutch Pancakes & A Queen

For our last full day in Amsterdam, we worked on checking off the last of our touristy things to do. Mike and Teresa took us to one of their favorite Dutch pancake cafes. They come sweet and savory, so we tried each!

Next, we took a small, open-air canal boat tour. The skipper was from Amsterdam and the mate was a university student from Spain studying at the Free School in Amsterdam (doesn’t mean free tuition). They both shared a lot of information about the old city and the canals. For example: Amsterdam has around 1.4 million bikes, which amounts to about 1.6 bikes per person; every year, 15,000 bikes are pulled out of the canals (and a number of cars too); some of the large canal houses sell for close to 40 million Euros (!).

Later, the two of us walked to Dam Square, which dates back to the earliest days of the city’s founding (13th century). Located at the square is the Royal Palace (closed to visitors this week) and the Nieuwe Kerk (new church—15th century). The church is now a museum, which is presenting an exhibit about Queen Juliana, who reigned from 1948–80. That is probably not a typical touristy thing to do, but we learned a lot about this very progressive and down-to-earth Dutch ruler, who is the grandmother of the current king—Willem-Alexander.

Finally, we had a special dinner at The Secret Garden, the site of the former Rosa’s Kitchen, where Mike was a cook in the 1980s. The restaurant features Peruvian-Japanese small plate dishes, which were beautifully presented!Read more