Oct 30 Tuesday - Final Day in Amsterdam

My birthday today -- 70. A big number, but as my sister always says, its just a number. Nothing special planned for today. We decided to just wander around the city, do some window shopping, and see if anything grabs our imagination.  We walked past the same restaurant we had dinner on our first night here, Long Pura, the Indonesian restaurant that was a total disappointment. We hadn't realized that the street was a  major shopping street in Amsterdam on the edge of the Jordan area.

We stumbled on a new Italian jeweler and Donna found a lovely necklace and earrings that the jeweler had just placed on display. A bit later in the day she also found a fashion store that had a knit sweater in the window that caught her attention. She really did look good in it.

About the only other item we brought back was a wedge of cheese from a beautiful cheese store. It's infused with herbs and simply delightful. As I'm writing this after arriving home, I can say that it was not a problem getting through customs with the cheese, although we had a moment of concern as a beagle in the airport used to sniff out drugs stopped briefly at the bag we had the cheese in. The dog's handler quickly pulled him away, so we now have the cheese safely in our fridge.

We chose Van Vlaanderen for our last night's dinner, listed as the best restaurant in Amsterdam by Zagat's.  It was about a 25-minute walk to the restaurant from our hotel, and the meal lasted nearly three hours. We both chose the four course fish-centric dinner, and were not disappointed. Beautiful presentations, most with foam, with halibut for the main course preceded by an earlier course of a bass. Desserts were a lemon cake and a chocolate mousse. Very small, but very good. Three hours to get there? Probably not a place I would go again. Service was great, but intentionally slow.

We walked back to the hotel and packed for our flight home the next morning, a 10:30am flight that required we be at the airport by 7:30am. Glad we did as the lines we incredibly long and we had just enough time to have a quick breakfast and get ready to board for our flight home.

The flight home on Wednesday went by quickly and fairly comfortably, and we arrived on time just after noon. A very nice trip. Amsterdam is definitely one city I would like to return to.

Oct 29 Monday - The Armitage

An earlier start today as we headed out to see the two displays at the Armitage Museum, an affiliated museum of the Armitage in St. Petersburg. Due to the ongoing renovation of the Van Gogh Museum, a large collection of his paintings are on display at the Armitage along with a large collection of Impressionist paintings belonging to the Armitage. Unfortunately, I was not permitted to take any photographs at the museum (strictly verbotten as the sign said), so you'll just have to take my word for the impressive collection that took us nearly two hours to see, plus another two to see the Armitage's Impressionist paintings.

In London

The collection of Inpressionists was vast including works by Renoir, Monet, Cwzanne, Gaugin, Rodin, Laurens, Rousseau, Pissarro, Sisley, Moret, Degas, and Hoffbauer. We were particularly attracted to the painting by Hoffbauer titled, "In London", an Impressionist piece that maintained a strong bond to the Academy rules and allowed Hoffbauer to show it at the annual Salon in Paris.

The weather did not cooperate and our walk back to the hotel was cold and wet, although we did find a delightful chocolate shop on the walk and bought some treats to eat on the way. Before we had walked a block, we returned for a larger selection to bring home.

For dinner we ate again at Lucius. Donna had a full dinner of mussels and I had the turbot, both excellent as well as a bottle of the same sauvignon blanc we had last night. We sat next to a couple from New Jersey who have been coming to Amsterdam twice a year for the past 10-years. Lucius is one of their favorite restaurants -- I concur.

Chocolate Shop

The "Five Flies" Restaurant

Oct 28 Sunday -- Amsterdam & Rijksmuseum

So here we are on our first full day in Amsterdam. Slept in really late and finally got out of the hotel around 10:30am. Had a late breakfast at a small cafe just south of the hotel. Donna and I shared an omelet which the Dutch seem to prefer stuffed into a long hard roll. We chose to eat it on the plate, but they offered no butter or jam, so the roll was a bit of a waste.

We went back to the hotel so I could Google Map our route to the Rijksmuseum, under renovation for the past 10-years and scheduled to reopen in 2013.  It has the largest collection of Rembrandt's and Vermeer's in the world, and while under renovation has on display some of the most famous of the paintings in a wing that is open to visitors.  The paintings on display are spectacular, including Rembrandt's famous The Nightwatch, an imposing and magnificent painting (1642) that justly deserves its praise and regard. We spent over two hours viewing the offerings and were disappointed only in the fact that only two Vermeeer's were on display, and one of them we saw in Seattle at the Vermeer Exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum in Seattle. It would be worth a trip back when the museum reopens just to see the vast collection that was not on display.

We dined near the hotel at an exceptional fish restaurant, Lucius, just a block away. We had some of the best mussels I've tasted, these from Zeeland, an area in Holland as well as pickled herring, both as appetizers. I've never had such fresh herring, and the pickling was very mild. It was served with chopped onions and a tiny pickle which was all eaten together.







For our main courses, Donna had a plate of mixed poached fish in a heavy sauce, and I had three fillets of baby dover sole. Both were exceptional. We sat next to a man from Atlanta, Georgia who makes it his mision to eat at Lucius every time he comes to Amsterdam, which he seems to do regularly for business. We had a bottle of Domaine de Corbillieres Savignon Blanc by Touraine (2011) which was a highly drinkable wine, but not particuloarly memorable.

Night Watch

Oct 27 Saturday -- Depart for Amsterdam

Vasilis took Philip for a morning soccer game at the park, so we had our goodbyes and got ready for our pickup at 11:45am. The driver was right on time, and we made it to Heathrow in about 30-minutes. There was almost no traffic. I had to repack some items at the airport as I forgot I was allowed only one carryon, and my briefcase was considered too big to qualify as a computer bag. Everything fit into my checked bag, including my briefcase, so it all worked out without having to spend an additional 45 pounds for a second checked piece.

The KLM flight was a short hop of only 55 minutes, and with the one hour time change we arrived at 5:05pm. Our luggage arrived quickly, we found the cab stand, and were lucky to have a very well informed taxi driver who gave us some interesting history and tour commentary on the way to the hotel.  He drove us past the Ann Frank house which still had a block long line-up to enter.  We'll likely skip that tour.

The hotel is lovely, and our room delightful. I'll have some pictures shortly. The hotel clerk suggested we try a local favorite for dinner, Long Pura, an Indonesian restaurant that serves only one specialty item, an assortment of dishes called rijsttafel or rice table, very popular in the Netherlands. Actually just a lot of spicy boiled meats in tiny bowls. Not anything either of us would want to try again, although it wasn't bad, just not very interesting.

Oct 26 Friday - Greenwich

National Rail Line Platform

Took the train to Greenwich with Carolyn and Philip. We were pleasantly surprised to find that our Oyster Cards were good for the Railroad and our only transportation cost was for Philip, for while he was free on London tube and buses, anyone over 5-years needs a ticket on the railroad.

Cutty Sark

Inside the Cutty Sark Museum Shop and entry

It was a quick 25 minutes to Greenwich and the train station is less than a 10-minute walk to the harbor. The weather had turned much colder (as the pictures show) and we all glad we had brought along warmer clothing. Our first stop was at the restored Cutty Sark sailing ship, an mid-19th century clipper ship that first saw service in the tea trade between London and China, and later as a wool merchant ship sailing between Sydney and London. It is now a fully restored museum ship. Carolyn and Philip took the tour while we waited in the gift shop. It had started to rain and we had little interest in walking on the exposed deck of the ship in the rain.

Observatory Entrance

Donna Straddling East & West Longitude

From there we walked to the Royal Observatory, one of the highlights of our trip for me. I've read the book, the Longitude by Dava Sobel, and was eager to see John Harrison's H4 clock, the most important invention of its time that finally allowed for the determination of a ship's longitude (or anyone for that matter) with a fine degree of accuracy. Up until Harrison, the most accurate clocks were accurate to only one second per week. Harrison's clock was accurate to one second in 100 days and won the 20,000 pound prize established by the Longitude Act of 1714. Harrison worked on the clock for over 40 years and was finally awarded the prize in 1772, shortly before he died in 1776.

Philip on the Prime Meridian

Harrison's First Clock

This was our final day in London and we walked into Kennsington for dinner at a neighborhood Italian restaurant. The rest of the evening was packing for our departure on Saturday.

Harrison's 4th Time Keeper - Won the Prize

Fast Disappearing Phone Booths



Our Apartment in Chelsea

Oct 25 Thursday - Borough Market

Carolyn took Philip with her for an early morning meeting near her office, and they spent the day together at various markets and at the London Zoo.  Donna and I took the tube to Borough Market, the largest open air food market in London and the one of the largest, we are told, in the world. We couldn't begin to explore all of it, and after wandering around the stalls for about an hour decided have a fish and chips lunch. We shared a fried haddock lunch that was excellent, not greasy at all, lightly floured and flavorful without any fishy smell.

We found a stall selling Turkish Delight, even better than the candy we had in Turkey. Bought much too much of it and ended up leaving most of it in the London apartment when we left on Saturday. That was about all we managed on Thursday. Carolyn, Philip and Vasilis were late getting back to the apartment and had just a few minutes to get ready for the dinner reservations we had in the theater district.


Dinner was fine, an Italian restaurant, and we walked to the Palace Theater to see Singin' in the Rain. It was delightful, and Philip was obviously enjoying it, perhaps a bit too much for the lady sitting in front of him as he stood laughing at several scenes.

Oct 24 Wednesday - Victoria & Albert Museum

Carolyn stayed Tuesday night at a hotel near Gatwick Airport, and Vasilis left very early (as ususal) for his office, well before we woke up. It was just Donna, Philip and me for the day together and we had it planned out pretty well.  After breakfast we headed to the Victoria & Albert Museum. The Museum has a special exhibition of Hollywood costumes that we thought Philip would enjoy seeing. We didn't realize that entry required tickets with specific times for entry. The earliest available for us was 12:30 pm, nearly two hours away. We decided to buy the tickets and spend the time wandering around the museum, which we did. Their is an extensive section on early clothing with some remarkably preserved items from the 15th century on.

Glass Sculpture

We saw several examples of sarcophogi lids, carved in the likeness of the inhabitants. The entry has what looks like a Chihuli glass sculpture hanging from the ceiling, but I didn't check out the artist.

Henry VIII Writing Box

The Hollywood exhibit was interesting, with the costumes from what seemed to be just about every famous movie made, from Charlie Chaplin's Tramp, Darth Vader, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Harry Potter, Gone With the Wind, and of course, Judy Garllands dress and red slippers from the Wizard of Oz.

15th Century Ark

Philip in Fron of Light Box

Harry Potter Costume

Judy Garland's Dorthy

Ruby Slippers

Steam Engine from Textile Mill

Victoria & Albert Museum



Early 19th Century Locomotive

Enigma Machine

Globe at Science Museum

We had lunch at yet another Lebanese restaurant in the area and afterwards went to the Science Museum. I wanted to the see the origina Enigma Machines that were made famous by Alan Touring as the man who broke their code and saved untold thousands of lives and helped bring the war to a close. The museum has extensive holdings of early technology in Great Britain and I wish I could have spent more time there, but the day was already late and we had dinner reservations at Cafe Spice Namaste, one of the best Indian restaurants I've ever been to. I know I'll regret eating as much as I did, but then, I usually do.