Bikes on a boat.

I love the last light on the canal waters. These three guys were transporting their bikes on the boat.

Typical canal view

You'll see a lot of this type of view if you wander through the canal belt. I never tire of the charm. This is a nice time of year to get shots of the buildings, while there is some sun on the facades but the leaves aren't out masking the view of them. There are two little sight-seeing paddle boats in the canal, and a Tuk-Tuk bike taxi going over the bridge.

The Sun Grabbers

deHerengracht Cafe on Herengracht at Leidsestraat has hit the season in full swing. People braved the cold in their coats and there was not a seat to be had, which is usual for this sun- and-be-seen Amsterdam favorite spot. Next door a couple of gentlemen enjoy their own sunny spot.



Here is a woman and her dog relaxing outside a home on the canal belt, grabbing some afternoon gezellig in their personal spot of sun. After a long Dutch winter people are desperate for sun, and this is a common sight. Even though it's still scarf and boots weather, people will drag little bits of living room onto their stoop and soak up their sun right smack in full public view. An interesting mix of public and private mindedness, the Dutch. While it's perfectly acceptable to conduct your private relaxation time on the public street, it is not acceptable to stare, nor take a picture, which I did very discreetly and hastily.

The tourists are coming! The tourists are coming!

The days are finally getting longer. Europe just went through daylight savings time last night. And the streets of Amsterdam are starting to fill up on weekends. Here is Leidsestraat, a main shopping street and artery of central Amsterdam, on the past Thursday afternoon. Thursdays the shops stay open later than normal, till 8, 9 or even 10 pm, so it's a big shopping day or kickoff shopping weekend for out of towners. Yes, we've had a bit of sun lately, though it's raining at the moment. Still, look at what people are wearing. Still plenty chilly here.

Gable Stone

I love looking at the different gable stones that adorn many of the Amsterdam houses, particularly those along the centrum's canal belt. They depict something of the original building, either a family crest or a symbol of the business within. In this case, what looks to be a 17th century Dutch washing house. These gable stones are carefully preserved when a building's facade is demolished, and reinstalled with the reconstruction. It would be a great subject for a book, with the history of each one.

The VVAG society translates roughly as "Friends of the Gable Stones," and they are committed to preserving these wonderful architectural details. They have a large collection of photographs on Flickr, here.

I saw the Richard Avedon at FOAM, a gallery in Amsterdam.  I  liked that the first image one encountered was the famous portrait of Martha Graham with the elephants. I was sort of glad to get it out of the way. The most startling image was one of Katherine Hepburn, who I was sure was David Bowie until I looked at the title. The shot of Marilyn Monroe almost moved me to tears. it's so simple, and I've seen it a million times, but she looks so vulnerable and lost when you see it lifesize. Interesting. I was glad I saw the exhibit. I was not glad that i had to wait in the rain for 10 minutes. Awnings are often prohibited by the city building code, and that's the case at FOAM, so bring your brellie!! Speaking of which, I've changed my umbrella loyalty from Knirps to Senz---made by a Dutch guy, but more on that later.

La Naranja

We have floor! Whee!!!






A man and his model...and did I mention floor?

Your Hotel Checker in Amsterdam

One thing I love about living in Amsterdam is the plethora and range of hotels found here. One thing I dislike about said hotels is that so many of them are poorly kept. Shoddy. Tattered. Filthy. Understaffed. Ill-equipped. And that's a three-star.

HOW CAN I BE SURE MY ROOM IS A GOOD ONE: If you are really, really concerned about your room in Amsterdam, then you probably need me to check it out for you. I will spend the night in the hotel of your choice and utilize whichever services you are curious about, then give you a detailed report via telephone the next day. You pay my expenses, i.e. the room cost plus the cost of extra services you request. If you want me see what 100 euros will get me in the dining room I'll do that. If you want to see how efficient their laundry services are, I'll check that. Beyond the expenses of what you want me to investigate, you pay nothing. I'll also email you at least two quality digital photos, one of the hotel's exterior, another of the room I'm staying in.

WHY WOULD I WANT TO PAY YOU MONEY TO STAY IN A HOTEL ROOM: Only if the stakes are high, obviously. If you are coming to A'dam for a wacky weed weekend, then this is a bit over the top. But if your superior just instructed you to arrange a perfect fortnight in Amsterdam and the quality of the hotel is paramount and you don't have the time nor inclination to wade through a sea of internet reviews and hotel promos, then paying me to check out the facilities before you book is an efficient way to either ensure a good choice or ward off disaster. Or, if you own a hotel and you need a spy, I'd be perfect. I'm detail-oriented, and I notice everything.

WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS: Because I simply love staying in hotels, and I love Amsterdam, and I know a lot of visitors are unfamiliar with the hotels here, so I see this as my way of shining some light on the whole situation. I'm not so flush that I can justify the expenditure of a hotel room in a city where I already have a perfectly good place to lay my head at night, so that's where you come in. I don't want to be a full time hotel inspector, but I am a great believer in consumer reviews (I am gonow at epinions), and this seems like a way to get more savvy about the very city I'm living in without breaking the bank to do so.

HOW CAN I TRUST YOU: Well, I've had this blog up for a while, and I'm not a secret blogger, you can figure out who I am, where I am. I'm opening a shop in Amsterdam, so I'm not about to ruin my reputation for the sake of one night free in a hotel room.

WHAT IF I NEED THIS REVIEW IN WRITING/MORE PHOTOS: That can be arranged, but there would be a fee involved, which would be upwards of 25 euros, depending on how much detail you want in the report or how many extra photos you want. Email me; we'll work it out.

BUT I WANT FREE INFO!: And I'm happy to oblige. I'm familiar with (i.e. I've seen the room and bathroom) the following hotels in Amsterdam: Quentin Leidsesquare (AVOID!); Quentin Leidsekade (good location, other problems); Le Coin (recommend); The Sphynx (shudder), Smith (not great) and a few B&Bs that unfortunately are out of business. Culture tip-google search tip: In the USA B&B usually implies a rural house or an inn, but the way the Dutch use it does not signify the same thing; in Amsterdam a B&B simply refers to any apartment that's been made available for renting. All in all, I think you get a better bang for your buck staying in what they call a B&B here, and of course I'd investigate those the same way, but I know of none to recommend at the moment.

I WANT TO ARRANGE THIS: email me at xannaziskey@gmail.com and we'll get it started.

Unusual Merchandise

"Welcome to our shop."

Our shop, La Naranja, will have unique things for sale, but the giant two-story cat is not one of them! Brett made a model of our shop here, so we can play with different arrangements of our goods. Our youngest cat Quila decided it was a perfect spot to sit pretty. Good girl.

Cooking in a foreign language.

Do you have a dictionary in your kitchen? I have learned most of my Dutch on the back of boxes in the kitchen. My husband is now quite accustomed to the sight of me, mid dinner-prep, rushing into the living room in a flour-covered apron to grab the dictionary and frantically leaf through it to get the meaning of some Dutch culinary instruction or listed ingredient. 

I picked up this box of chocolate mix cake on a lark, and was mid-prep when I noticed that the box said "Homeade." Cha! So, when I gave it to my beloved I told him it was homeade. Then, I whipped out the box and pointed to the word, "homeade." Clearly, I am a domestic goddess. "See? would I lie?"

But isn't it funny that the English word "homeade" crept onto a Dutch baking mix box? That they would opt for this word instead of a Dutch word meaning the same thing is just one little example of how English is woven into the language here.

So back to the Dutch bit. It was a downright lesson in Dutch sociology, this box of baking mix. At the end I was instructed to remove the cake when the word "sateprik" in the instructions tripped me up. What, you don't have sate sticks in your kitchen? The influence of Indonesia, a former Dutch colony, is most evident here at the culinary level. Many native Amsterdammers will point you to the nearest Indonesian place when you ask for a local restaurant recommendation. The most basic grocery store in Amsterdam will have a workable selection of Indonesian goods on their shelves. So, I suppose it was not that much of a stretch for the creator of the baking mix to assume I'd have a bag of sate sticks in the kitchen. This is what they suggested I use, not a toothpick, to test the doneness of the cake. 

The result? Okay for a snaking cake, but the Dutch "Dr. Oetker" brand cake mixes are the ones you want for that luscious Duncan-Hines almost as good as from scratch yumminess.

flowers of early march 2009

early spring flowers

Not much foliage about in these early days of March. I suppose this is some sort of crocus.

Searching for spring.

The road along Singelgracht from Kookjesbrug toward Leidseplein is lined with fantastical flowers in the summer. I made a point to go there now so I would have a "before" picture for contrast. Huge hollyhock type flowers grow along these vines in the warmer months. It's still very wintery here, but since the cafes are opening their terraces for the year today I tried to find little signs of spring about. At the bottom of these vines are little snowdrops and crocus flowers, but all and all the foliage is still pretty bleak round these parts.

March 1 is a very important day here in Amsterdam because that's the day the cafe owners put out their tables and chairs for the year. Just yesterday this sea of tables at Leidseplein was a skating rink flanked by stalls serving comfy Dutch winter fare like warm waffles and oliebollen. These chairs will remain until the last of the summer tourists pack their tulip bulbs and go home. Not many takers today. Evidently nobody informed the gray skies over Amsterdam that today was March 1.