Thursday 23 June 2011

Amsterdam...there's cake!!

Okay..here I am finally summing up our trip to Amsterdam (which was ages ago now). The weather was slightly disappointing considering only the week before we arrived Amsterdam had been experiencing glorious sunshine and high temps. It was showery but not cold (well not cold to us hardy Scots anyway..lol).
Here is a couple of photos of Dam Square in the city centre. The first photo is taken from the fifth floor window of Madame Tussauds. The second photo shows the war memorial also in Dam Square.

  



This is the Hubs sitting having a "much needed cuppa" in the Museumplein. We had just been round the Van Gogh Museum and although we appreciated the artwork (mostly) the place was mobbed, meaning you had to shuffle around the art exibits which got a bit frustrating after 5 floors. It could have been that everyone had the same idea as us to get out of the rain but I suspect from previous stories I've heard the place is always busy. We bought a print of Van Gogh's 'Bedroom At Arles', a painting I've loved since studying the artist at High School.
 
Van Gogh a la wax (Madame Tussauds)
 
 I dragged my new husband in and out of almost every tourist shop in the city..despite our home already giving house room to numerous pieces of blue & white china in various forms of clog, windmill & kissing couple.  
I relented from buying myself some fleecy clog shaped slippers (sigh).
I did purchase a small bar of chocolate just to have some Dutch chocolate. After tasting it I shall stick with my Mars bars (UK version..I hear the overseas variety suck...something crazy about low fat regulations or suchlike...meh).


I could now go on to flood this post with photos of 'funny tall houses' and canal after canal but hey you can see all that on the tourism sites I'm sure. Let me share with you now something close to my heart...food.
Granted I'm not a 'foodie' as such, I'm a bit picky to be honest but I do like a good dessert.

Exibit 1: vanilla cheesecake
 
Exibit 2: Apple Crumble Cake
The first was enjoyed by Hubs on an afternoon cuppa stop at a cute cafe off Dam Square called De Drie Graefjes. He has been searching for the perfect cheesecake (in comparison to this vanilla delight..I tasted it..it was amazing) since we got back with no avail. I swear every supermarket variety has been tried and tested (they don't do cheesecake in Scots bakeries on the whole). The second pic is the "awesome" apple crumble cake from Bakkerswinkel on the Waarmoesraat (I know I've gone all American in my description but 'braw' didn't quite cut it). This place is like cake heaven and I wish they did mail order..lol. I swear if I lived in Amsterdam I would weigh 20 stone.

Okay..before I say 'tot zeins' to Amster...here's the canal pic.