Queen's Day and a fork

19 May: fork in belly image removed. email me if you want to see it!

Yesterday was Queen's Day here in the Netherlands. It's a day off, usually great weather, lots of drinking, and the free market. My favorite is the free market. In a land where garage sales are not done, once a year, people gather in town to spread their old stuff on blankets and tables in order to sell it at cut rate prices. At least it's usually cheap. I loaded up on a bag full of baby clothes, poker chips, a printer for two euros (hope it works), and an umbrella stroller rack for my bike. The rack you can see on this site, it's called a "buggy drager."

So basically, I had a good day. Not so for others. In Apeldoorn, someone tried to ram an open bus carrying the royal family, killing a number of bystanders in the process. It was a horrible and shocking incident and as a consequence, a lot of major Queen's Day events being either canceled or scaled down. The driver died overnight in the hospital. It's a shame that a holiday that I always think of as fun, hopeful (it is spring, after all), and benevolent will carry a shadow from now on.

Closer to home, someone drank too much on the night before Queen's Day and decided to swallow a fork. See evidence above. As a result, someone in our family spent all day working. It's an IKEA fork.

Amsterdam Saturday

*x-mas_queens, originally uploaded by rbrtdotbiz.

We arrived at the Bijenkorf in Amsterdam at the same time as these fabulous ladies were turning up in three separate horse drawn carriages, if you can believe that. We would have been late if we'd tried to plan it, but since we were there on a mission, we were right on time for the madness. Our rare and daring trip was to return our espresso machine. We love it, but it's recently developed a rust spot that I'm hoping they will fix so the machine doesn't slowly fall apart. But there's a real story to tell here.

Our first dilemma was deciding whether to go by train or car to the store. We had to move the espresso machine (weighs 12 kg) and Peanut (current weight 6kg+) and ourselves. With the car it's easy to move stuff and bodies, plus you can park at the Bijenkorf. Costs an arm and a leg, but you can park there. Unfortunately, driving into downtown Amsterdam is a miserable experience and probably worse with a crying baby. With the train, you have to move all the stuff, but no driving hassles, the tram stops in front of the Bijenkorf, and it is a bit nicer for ye olde environment. We opted for the train. So, that's F with the espresso machine, nicely packed up in its original box, on the back of his bicycle walking next to me and the stroller to the train station in Haarlem. One train to Amsterdam central and a tram to the Bijenkorf.

When we arrived, the entrance to the store was mobbed. It was confusing at first, but then we figured out that there were these lovely ladies arriving. Unfortunately, we've 18kg of stuff and baby to deal with and however lovely they are, we'd rather just get into the store. F was much more mobile than me and made pretty good time, although he apparently did get caught in the photographic cross-fire at one point. I got told off a couple times for daring to move (off the street, towards the door), wrestled with a tiny revolving door, and made it inside, hoping to find F. Once we found each other, our goal was to find the elevator and get upstairs to customer service.

Needless to say, on the first Saturday of December, department stores are packed. It was a challenge to move forward at all, but we managed with a bit of patience and a couple nice loud "excuse mes". We stopped to ask a store employee where the elevator was when the bottom fell out of the box - and the espresso machine, too. There we stood with our stroller and empty box and espresso machine and parts all over the floor, just steaming with frustration. Suddenly, the rust spot that prompted this whole trip seemed immaterial. The fall broke a piece off of the plastic reservoir and bent part of the metal casing so that the back flap would not close anymore.

We picked up the machine and box separately and made our way through the crowds to the elevator and up to customer service where we told our story. Clearly, the fall and resulting damage were not covered by the factory guarantee that would hopefully cover the rust damage. We argued that had there not been any rust damage, the machine would have never left our house and therefore never been able to fall and, lucky for us, they agreed. If the company does not cover the damage, then the Bijenkorf is going to pay for the repairs.

So there you have it. The story of how our weekend intersected with three lovely models and why we love stores with good customer service!

Three Friends

We went out for dinner yesterday evening in Amsterdam. They took us to one of their local favorites, De 3 Vrienden, or the Three Friends. Of course, on the walk over we thoroughly exhausted the really bad joke that we were each with three friends and therefore allowed to enter.

All bad jokes aside, we had a great dinner experience. The restaurant is a cozy place with book lined shelves, old fashioned wooden tables, and plenty of candles. The menu had about 20 different options, all priced at €8.50 each. Each option was labeled as a hot, cold or hot/cold dish and could be ordered in any combination or order our little hearts desired. We decided to order two courses each.

For the first course, I had a salad with crayfish tails and avocado with a piri-piri dressing. Delicious. It was fresh, light, and full of flavor. My second course was a confit de canard served with mashed potatoes and peas. Yeah - I actually got mashed potatoes and peas at a fairly serious food restaurant, and enjoyed it! There were some sauces on the plate that jazzed up the mash (I suspect truffle oil) and made it yum. But the shock of seeing that combination next to my innocent piece of duck was fantastic. I'm going to have to venture they've got a cook with skill and a great sense of humor!

Well mannered people would have stopped there as we had plenty to eat and had all enjoyed our meal. However we decided to go for dessert as well. I had the spekkoek (see borrowed picture above), nice thin slices, with cinnamon ice cream and it was a delicious combination. F thinks of any dessert with ice cream as an tribute to my father... who loves to add ice cream to dessert when we have it! Friends also tried the whiskey and liqueur tastings and both were also yum. Their whisky selection (you could choose from 6 options) was actually quite good and F tried the Talisker, Oban, and one other that we liked less so don't need to remember. The Talisker remains our favorite, though.

All in all, a wonderful evening. Good company, delicious food, and a completely reasonable bill. I'd gladly to back to De 3 Vrienden, especially since I just saw on their website that the menu changes every month! If last night was any indication, you can rely on a good meal and great service!