Every day can’t be a thrill ride, and we used our last day in Amsterdam to gather up our strength and take a breath. And to do laundry. Lots of laundry.
Even still, we had a lovely day staying close in the neighborhood of our apartment, and saying goodbye. We slept in, did some laundry, shopped and prepped food for our train ride tomorrow, and did online stuff. Then, we set out for a place Daniel’s wanted to visit since we got here: The Chipsy King. It’s a chain of doner spots, not sure how widespread, but Daniel’s been chasing doner like he had in Paris 25 years ago, and we were hoping this was it. The food was great, and it got him closer to his doner dreams, if not quite there.
Daniel wanted to see what large-scale bike parking looks like, so we visited…would you call it a garage? It was a Saturday so not terribly packed, but totally Amsterdam-style, they had some beautiful Dutch themed art on the walls. Neat place.
We strolled around the neighborhood to the northwest of our place, which goes from modern busy streets to whispery canal-lined boulevards where no cars go in the space of a few feet – er, meters.
We visited our favorite chocolatier and got some exotic flavors – thyme, and also cognac for Stef, and fig marzipan, and also tea flavored for Daniel. The chocolates in this place are swoopy and aerodynamic, like they want to fly straight into your mouth.
We popped into a shop and a grocer that we had loved on previous days. We enjoyed a view of the Amstel river that had been right in front of us, but we hadn’t seen until today.
After a visit to our apartment, we headed out to Rembrandtplein, a plaza dedicated to the Netherland’s favorite artist (sorry Van Gogh). We’d meant to spend time there, because it’s very inviting, but didn’t get to it until our last day. It’s a grassy spot with a statue, ringed with an open square with the cafe seating we’ve come to absolutely love all over Europe. We had delicious drinks and just watched the people go by. It was quite a show.
And that’s it. Tomorrow we get on a train to Germany. Amsterdam, you are a jewel in the crown of Europe. The Netherlands, you have been wonderful to us and we can’t believe we’ve had the good fortune of enjoying your communities. This has been a fabulous leg of the journey, and we are so glad we had a long time to appreciate it and explore, if not to our heart’s content, at least to the extent that we could. We are grateful and so lucky.
Safe travels to Germany-can’t wait to hear about all your adventures there❤️
Good that you are maintaining the focus on the chocolate situation. As to Daniel and Chipsy King, add that to his fixation on Slappy Cakes. (Note, this may be a sad comment on the terrible fires that have destroyed Lahaina, it is not clear from their website whether they are temporarily closed or totally destroyed. )
I checked – the business location survived. All the employees are out of work… They are depending on a GoFundMe. ouch.
I did follow the news around there shortly after the fire. Same with old Lahaina luau, which appeared to be totally destroyed in some of the aerial videos. Yeah, I have barely processed the loss of Lahaina because I’ve been too busy since it happened. On the one hand, I’m of course glad that we appreciated it when it was intact but it’s also even more of a big loss