Sunday 1 August 2021

A family day out

Only kidding, it's Heineken time again. Lots and lots of tedious details that no-one gives a toss about. So much fun we'll be having. Just like me and the family yesterday.

Dolores had got her hands on four free tickets for the Maritime Museum. Off were trolled at 2 PM. Which is usually before Andrew's getting up time. He got up early, especially. Both the kids are interested in history.

The museum is a bit of  walk from the suggested bus stop. Just as we got off, it started raining. Lovely. We kicked off outside, where there's a reconstruction of a VOC ship parked. It's not a 100% accurate copy. They've made some of the decks higher.

I won't bore you with all the details. Stuff about the Ditch genocide on the Banda islands was particularly refreshing.

Museuming done, our next destination was de Prael. Deciding ti walk, we passed through a bit of Amsterdam new to me. East of the Geldersekade. Streets mostly still lined with the typical tall, narrow houses of the 17th century. Rather a lot of them.Very scenic, very quiet.

It's very residential. Few shops and not many pubs. Not a part of town I've had the need to visit.

Our route took is through the Red Light district. Though any route to de Prael would, as it's smack in the middle of it. It was noticeably quieter than usual. But not totally dead. Some tourists have slipped in. The bastards.

"The last I ate out was last September with the Germany. We sat on that table there." Dolores remarked.

"For me it's much longer. March 2020 in Bangkok with Mikey." 

Wow. It was that long ago. I rarely visit restaurants in Amsterdam. They're mostly poor value for money. Quite a lot of dosh for mediocre food. But in a normal year, I'd spend four or five weeks travelling. Mostly the US. Then I dine out every day.

Two burgers, beef stew and a portion of chip. In the highly unlikely case that you're interested. Not bad and not too ridiculously expensive.

Beer-wise, I went for a Quadrupel. A big one. As I've said before, I don't do halves. Not even of Imperial Stout.

Damn. I was supposed to be telling you all sorts of fascinating* Heineken details. And I've just been rattling on about a rainy day out. Time is ticking on. It's almost beer o'clock. Saturday 16:30 at Butcher's Tears. I hope the rain holds off.

No time for me to do justice to Heineken and cook myself a decent lunch.  No contest. My stomach is always going to win. That's why I'm such a fat git. Heineken will just have to wait. I hope tou're not too disappointed.


* Fascinating to me and three others.


Brouwerij De Prael
Oudezijds Armsteeg 26,
1012 GP Amsterdam
https://www.deprael.nl/


Het Scheepvaartmuseum
Kattenburgerplein 1,
1018 KK Amsterdam.
https://www.hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl/

2 comments:

Greyer Ghost said...

Its been four years since I made it across that side of the globe. A visit to Brouwerij De Prael would be magical. Stupid covid.

Mike in NSW said...

Are rijsttafel places still popular?

An endless procession of little bowls containing delicious portions of all sorts of Indo dishes. I got defeated by mine, zonked out on bowl #14 IIRC.