Amsterdam Day 1 (Morning)

The sun sets incredibly late, but it doesn’t stay late for long. I woke up briefly around 5 in the morning and it was already very light out.

Abby and I headed out in search of breakfast and bikes to rent a little after 9 in the morning. The first bike rental place we went to had a sign saying that it opened at 9, but it most certainly was not open. Neither was the second bike rental place we went to. We decided to try our hand at breakfast first.

Again Abby and I ordered the same thing, this time a traditional Dutch pancake. I didn’t really have much to compare it too but Abby said it was as if someone cooked two French crepes together.

The texture was really doughy and about half a centimeter thick. It was very rich and had a strong butter flavor. The pancakes were served with powdered sugar and syrup. It was nothing like an American pancake, and the syrup was nothing like typical maple syrup. The syrup was much more viscous, a lot darker, and had a hint of molasses. It was very good, but it was the size of plate it was on – which was rather large – so neither Abby nor I managed to finish it.

 The kitten that joined us for breakfast, and sat with Abby for a while

We had better luck renting bikes after breakfast. The first place we went to we asked if they also rented helmets – they laughed in our faces and informed us that there is no need for a helmet, nobody in Amsterdam wears them. We left. The second place we went to also didn’t have helmets, but they at least apologized for it. We rented from them.

Our first stop was the Van Gogh museum. It was a really cool building and held a lot of Van Gogh’s paintings, including some of his sunflowers, works from his Japanese wood print inspired series and many more which were all great to see. I was surprised and mildly disappointed though that the museum didn’t have any of Van Gogh’s drawings on display.

From the Van Gogh museum we walked across a field to check out the Rijkmuseum. We ended up not going in it because they had discontinued their student discount and even though I had heard a lot about the museum neither of us knew what kind of works were in the museum or what was even open since the museum was under construction.

After that mini adventure we ate “Real American Hotdogs(!)” from a street vendor for lunch which happened to be a lot better than any real American hotdog I’d ever had. 

 Yes, the photo is cropped together.