amsterdam, etc.

After a later-than expected awakening, breakfast was a noisy but happy affair in the house yesterday morning. Dutch and English flew back and forth over bread, tea, cheese, jam, eggs, and leftover vegetables from the night before (in accordance with Birgit's new paleo diet). After we all had our fill - and the boys had a good laugh out of my eating vla for breakfast - we trundled off to the Leiden central station where we hopped on a train for Amsterdam.

I took to staring out the window while the younger boys regaled Frank with their boating adventures in scouts the day before. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what they were talking about. It was all in Dutch, so I can never be quite positive, but the handful of words I picked out and the wild gesturing were enough to piece the basics together.

We arrived in Amsterdam under ominously cloudy skies. Still, determined to see the city, we took off down one of many streets we would walk over the course of the next three hours. Later, when Merlijn would ask me what we had done and what I had seen, I didn't quite know what to tell her. Come to find out, we walked basically the entirity of downtown Amsterdam without my ever really realizing it!

Near noontime, we stopped at a cafe in Leidspleine. Funny story: we all ordered a different coffee. A large carmel latte for Frank, a medium Americano for me, and a medium "bambino" (a latte but with chocolate milk, so basically a mocha) for Koen. Leon said he didn't want anything. We get our drinks and sit outside. I asked Leon again if he was sure he didn't want anything, and he intimated he didn't want to spend his money on coffee. When Koen told him it was paid for with money Birgit had given Frank that morning, Leon nearly fell out of his chair. As the three of us nearly fell out of ours in laughter (especially Koen), Leon tramped inside to get himself his own "bambino."

Walking around, I recognized again the tall, narrow houses, rising above tha canals. The odd, outward slant of the buildings - for lifting furniture to the top floors - reminding me of a sort of surrealist painting. We saw the myriad of people who are drawn to Amsterdam, from the eccentric to the tourist, all traipsing about the same narrow streets. Amsterdam is unique in its diversity, and it was wonderful to be back in it.

In the afternoon, we met Merlijn, Birgit, and Oma back at Amsterdam Centraal before walking to a small museum. It's called Onze Lieve op de Solder, Our Lord of the Attic. Apparently, when Catholicism was banned in Holland during the 16th century, Catholic parishes moved into hiding. This one was the largest and best preserved, built in the attic space of three buildings. Walking through this narrow house, maintained in the style and furnishing of the 16th century, you climb up one last set of stairs and come up into a long, thin church obviously stretching back much further than the space of the house you were just in. Clever space-saving devices were built into the structure of the alter and the galleries, and the place has become a museum dedicated not only to this chapel but also of Catholic regalia specific to Holland. It was definitely impressive.

Following that, we made our way over to the newer part of Amsterdam and the modern construction that encamps the old city. A brand new concert hall has opened there, near the discovery science museum, and we sat in their lounge for a coffee (again). Then it was off to Merlijn's for dinner.

Definitely a fun, full day, and more to come. The boys are off to school and the sun is shining for the first time since we arrived. I think a visit to Delft is in the air...