Our River Cruise had been a new experience for us and gave us some beautiful looks at the Netherlands and much they had to offer. Our last day in Amsterdam had us on the march again through the streets of the old city. We set out toward the flower market, Bloemenmarkt, on the north end of the city using a paper map from the boat. After running into a construction zone or two and taking some twisted alleys without the benefit of directions on a cloudy day I turned on my roaming cellular data and plugged in the gps for our turn by turn guidance to our goal.
Between where we were and where we were going was the outdoor flea market the took up a full city block with serious professional setups of clothing and tchotchke to food vans with the famous fried potatoes of the area.
Dusty looked at some cute jewelry and I saw a vendor with racks and racks of jackets. Many of them great looking vintage leather jackets. So the dance began. I was looking and he was selling. I asked the price range and he gave me the usual price for the jackets. He pulled an ugly green monster out that I guess he had been trying to sell since 1968. No sale. No interest. Finally I saw a brown soft leather jacket with a nice lining and good pockets and no damage. I tried it on and it fit like a leather glove. Hands slipped into pockets naturally. Wrist broke perfectly. I offered a much lower price. He teased with a higher price than original and with a laugh dropped from the original, very reasonable price, and gave me a break as his first sale of the day.
Poking our heads into shops along the way to the Bloemenmarkt we saw a beautiful display of chocolates and the smell at the door drew us in. We left with a bit more local chocolate. The flower market had a long history of sales from shops that were actually floating on the canal. It was a fun look, but we were not going to be taking any of these with us. Just window shopping without windows.
Working our way back to the hotel we went through a corner of the red light district and avoided anything too risqué. There was one store that had only one item. One that until my cousin took me to the airport I was unaware had become a real thing. An entire store of rubber duckies. Every possible job, celebrity, personality or whatever had been converted into a rubber ducky.
We hoped to be able to get some food to take up to our room, so we checked out an outdoor market with fruits, vegetables, and a huge assortment of cheese. After sampling some cheese, something we had hoped to do more of, we picked up a nice hunk of gouda that we could either dive into that night or would travel well if needed in our cooler sack. The rest of the stuff we had seen on our way out in a small grocery store near a couple of restaurants.
We had not eaten in quite a while and had not tried the famous fries of Holland. There was a restaurant called The Bull that was near the docks. The menu on tables in front looked like burgers and fries were a specialty of theirs, so… Lunch was on. I ordered a big burger with a local tap beer and the local fries. Dusty thought she ordered a sandwich with meat and cheese, but ended up with the same stuff in a huge salad. She was happy with the mix up. The fries were served with mayonnaise and ketchup and were a solid double sized double fried potato worth the reputation.
After our lunch (with boxed up leftover salad and fries) we went next door to pick up a bottle of wine, and some berries and croissants to carry us through the night before our departure the next morning.
By the time I got up to our room I was definitely feeling a fever and chills coming on. I spent most of the rest of the day curled up under the covers and finally felt the fever break with the accompanying soaking sweat about 1:00 in the morning. I did not get a chance to enjoy much of the grocery store bounty we had picked up just a few hours earlier.
By sunup I was well enough to travel. I was glad to feel more myself because we had to get on our way to Iceland. Puffing sighting had been on Dusty’s wish list for years and I would hate to be the reason she, and I, missed it.
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