Well, my first week is down. I figured I start this blog for mainly one reason: so I don’t forget my time here. Of course, there’s the added benefit of sharing these adventures with my friends should they be so inclined to ask.
Day 1 (March 23rd)
Most of the day was pretty uneventful. I had driven to my father-in-laws’ place late the night before; I needed to crash in NY so I could actually get some work done on Monday. After my morning craziness with the client, I decided to get one last shot at “The best pizza in Nassau County” – Gino’s. The chicken parm pizza, my first time trying it, was good, but dry and not as good as Angela’s on Rt 1 in Saugus.
Upon returning home, I noticed his black rugs were showing all dirt tracked in. I’m not OCD – just look at my work area – but something made me pull out the (older, Dyson-wannabe) vacuum and take care of them.
After leaving a thank you note for my father-in-law, I headed over to my brother-in-law’s to play “Playmobil” with my nephews. The youngest still does not like me – I’m no threat to his ability to win over the ladies, so I don’t know from where the hostility is coming. The oldest came up with this elaborate plot where the school catches on fire with the teacher still in the classroom, and fire and rescue have more interest in recovery than rescue. I didn’t like school, but I wasn’t imagining my teachers burning to death.
Dinner was some barbeque joint owned by a friend-of-a-friend. I know barbeque, and that sir, was not good barbeque.
Off to JFK. No traffic, but it was late at night. TSA was surprisingly easy. I assumed since I had a backpack full of tech and wires, I was absolutely getting stopped. Breezed right through, in a pre-check like fashion.
Flying Norwegian Air – flight delayed an hour to allow late connections from Columbia. Annoyed, but seeing many beautiful Nordic blondes in the waiting area quickly quiets me down. Boarded the plane with two large carry-ons – both fit in the overhead above me. Of course, all those blondes, and I sit next to the Asian dude who decided not to shower that day.
Day 2 (March 24th)
The 787 Dreamliner is nice, but we are definitely sardines in a flying can. I upgraded to two meals, but in-between meals, drinks were not free ($4 for a can of soda or bottled water). Next time I’ll bring my own, but I didn’t want to dehydrate.
Geek out: Seatbacks had Android tablets. Similar to JetBlue’s seatbacks, but touch-screen and way more interactive. Movies were free (thankfully), so I got to watch Dumb and Dumber To in between attempts at sleeping. Definitely made for the fanboys.
Landed in Copenhagen. Had to do some quick work – found a cafe and used airport wifi to log into NY. What a pain.
Cleared passport control and waited by the monitors…two hours before my next flight and still no gate assigned. And waited. And waited. Then -> Three terminals away? C’mon!
This flight was on time. Smaller plane – had to check one of my carry-ons. No biggie. We all arrived together, where my wife met us and took us to the cab stand. A Tesla model S and 55 euro later, we’re at the apartment. Too tired to mention anything other than it is definitely more modern than we are used to, and pictures don’t do it justice.
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Memories: Looney Toons on the short flight
Day 3 (March 25th)
I lost a day of work, so I made sure I put in as much as I could. Didn’t shower till very late in the day – stayed in my pajamas.
Unpacked a bunch. Put our lucky Portugal rooster on the fridge:
We were told our windows were mirrored, so people on the boats in the canal couldn’t see in. I decided to test that during lunch – I noticed an elderly couple staring in my direction. I waved. They waved back. Good thing I wasn’t truly testing the windows with nudity.
Tech withdrawal. Setup our new internet and our FireTV. WAIT! Geo-restricted content! Hmmm….I’ll see what I can do.
Day 4 (March 26th)
Worked until 1 PM. I had to start my immigration process; first a 2 PM meeting at City Hall. Had all my paperwork in order. Took $33 and no time to get a form that needed to be stamped by Netherlands INS (known as IND).
Here is where the fun began:
I arrived at the IND, showed them my form, got a number to wait, and was called up rather quickly. The woman was very nice, and very apologetic that I had wasted my time…my wife’s company was supposed to file paperwork on my behalf to start my residency process. Having not done so, I’m not in the system, therefore no stamp.
What I did receive was a huge packet of forms, most of which I did not have to fill out. I got home, filled out the three I felt pertained to me, and then noticed we were missing much needed proof documentation. After calling Kathryn and having her print (at work) what she could, we realized there were a few docs at the apt that needed copying, so she would have to continue on Friday.
After a disappointing day, it was not helpful to be scolded by my wife for not using “block letters” on my forms as the forms requested. So I went online, found the PDF formats, filled them out online, and then sent them to my wife to print.
That night, our landlord was arriving to teach us how to replace the multiple air filters in the house. Starving, we walked around the neighborhood to try to find a quick bite before he arrived, and we came across a tourist-friendly cafe (Rembrandt Corner) near the Rembrandt House museum that actually had a decent meal (and cider!). I got the chicken schnitzel (which could have been a bit larger) and she got her much coveted Dutch Stamppot (think Dutch shepherds pie, minus the pie crust, with sausage/worst instead of beef).
Day 5 (March 27th)
Congratulations! That’s what the Dutch say instead of Happy Birthday.
Worked. Hate work. Made sure to shower and head out to the grocery store for lunch. Crazy busy at lunch time, not expected.
Kathryn failed to make a reservation at the Amsterdam BBQ joint, so she poked around quickly and found an Italian place in Nieuwmarkt called Gusto. It was the second decent Italian place in Nieuwmarkt.
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When I was in the states, I decided to judge Italian restaurants on a single meal, essentially comparing apples to apples. In the US, that was typically Veal Parmesan (with a brief phase of Veal Saltimbocca). Here in Amsterdam, my favorites do not seem to be available. Luckily, both places had (and I ordered) the bolognese as specials; loved them both.
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Dessert was interesting. Sgroppino – lemon sorbet whisked with vodka and prosecco. Since Kathryn and I found a lemon sorbet at the grocery store that is like crack, I had no choice but to try it (at the very least, it’s something we could make at home and offer guests). It was very tasty, but the resulting froth was not appetizing.
Day 6 (March 28th)
Het Sheepvartmuseum! Not many museums are interesting to me. Since Kathryn bought a museumkaart (free pass to most museums), she suggested a trip to one. I thought the maritime museum might actually be interesting, given the Dutch East India history.
We arrived, and I bought myself a museumkaart as well. Not really for me – for any guests that come in pairs, they can borrow the cards for free entrance (provided they are about our same age and of the correct genders to match the cards).
If you want to visit the maritime museum, definitely use our cards. Not worth the admission price. Very few exhibits, though I learned how to use a sextant and enjoyed exploring a replica East Indiaman Amsterdam, whose wreck in the English Channel can still be seen today.
As we finished the museum, I noticed a hardware store nearby Doe Het Zelf (Do it yourself). I made the call to stop there – Kathryn needed a screw and some pliers to fix her “new” second-hand bike she bought, and I needed a power strip. On the wrong side of the Nieuwvaart canal, we ended up much further east than we wanted to be. We saw an old windmill that has a cafe at the bottom – though not really. No food, just beer, but we were starving at this point.
We kept walking and came across an actual cafe – Cafe Dorst. Only thing I would eat was a ham & cheese tosti (only 2.50 euro), but not satisfying. We hopped on a tram back to Rembrandtsplein and walked home from there.
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Our guestroom has a TV in it (really it was the master bedroom, but Kathryn does not want a TV in hers. So our guests get a BNB experience – with shared bathroom). It only gets Dutch TV – until now.
I brought an extra Fire TV stick from home, and there was an open HDMI port, but only one power outlet. I needed the power strip from Doe Het Zelf, so our guests could now enjoy Netflix and Amazon prime streaming.
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Dinner was at this Mediterranean place across from our apt called Olijfjes. Really good food. We needed a reservation (and of course, did not have one), but he sat us as long as we could limit our visit to an hour. 45 min later, we’re back in our apt. (BTW – the Dutch allow pets in the restaurants, even pets who crap right in there. Kathryn was not pleased.)
Day 7 (March 29th)
Rain and more rain. And taxes! Needed to file our taxes.
Feeling hungry, we decided t venture out in the rain for lunch. Big mistake, mostly due to the wind. Giving up on our quest for something new, we resigned ourselves to eating someplace known – Wagamama. Sure enough, that chicken katsu curry hit the spot.
Ventured home, and stayed in for the rest of the afternoon, trying to catch up on tv. I bought a Slingbox in the states in order to get real TV here. All of our DVRed stuff is mounting up. I upgraded my Verizon DVR to 6 tuners and 100 hrs of storage, knowing Dutch TV would not sustain me.
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Anyone who has Verizon internet and complains should be shot! Spend just a week with European internet and you will immediately be homesick. I pay for 75/75 Mbps at home, typically getting 85 Mbps. Here, I’m paying for 120Mbps download, and until today, average about 60Mbps.
Something else that’s different is the DVR and Router are one single box. Works ok since I sit about 15 ft from it when I work, but the bedrooms are downstairs, and the antennae aren’t broadcasting a strong enough signal to reach down there with decent bandwidth.
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A break in the rain! – Having cabin fever, we went for a walk. Realized how small and walkable Amsterdam is. I wanted to walk somewhere new, so I looked on a map and saw the Bloemenmarkt (floating flower market) that looked to be a decent walk away. We could have lived in an antique building (old warehouse) right on Singel, but I knew Kathryn would not have liked the lack of natural light. I wanted to show her the location, so she would know how close we could have been to a true tourist trap.
I led us through Rembrandtplein to what I thought was still the Amstel river and another 10 minutes to walk; but nope, it was the Singel, and the market was sitting right there in front of us.
Walking through the market, we hoped to find actual flowers to bring home. What we saw were tourist tchotchkes and tulip bulbs but no actual flowers. The rain was restarting, so we high-tailed it back home.
Restaurants Visited
Rembrandt Corner
Gusto
Cafe Dorst
Olijfjes