Cappuccino, Croissant, Museum, Repeat

There were still more museums to see. We got to sleep in late and enjoy a coffee, orange juice and croissant at a café up the street from the hotel. Let’s take a moment here to discuss these three items.

First, the coffee: every establishment from the kiosk in the train station to the finest restaurant has a kick-butt $5,000+ Cappuccino/Espresso/Coffee machine. The coffee is no foolin’ around; more like an espresso than anything resembling Dunkin Donuts. The espresso is like coffee-zilla and the cappuccino (which is always served with a little cookie) is the stuff I expect to drink in heaven.

 

 

 

 

 

You won’t see anyone hustling down the street drinking out of a paper cup either. You actually sit down and enjoy your coffee. I know, crazy right?

 

Next, the orange juice; it’s always fresh. They have a contraption with a hopper that feeds oranges down to meet with their potential perfection. Most cafés serve it in a wine glass.

 

 

Finally, the croissants; there was a shop down the street that baked fresh pastries every morning. I’m tearing up a bit right now just thinking about it. The croissants were so flaky and amazing that they made me realize what a LIE those crescent-shaped bread rolls are from Au Bon Pain!

 

 

On to the Van Gogh Museum. As I headed to Museumplein it was looking a bit gloomy, then the skies opened.

 

I toured around the museum and all the while it was pouring rain. Of course I left my umbrella in the room. I stopped in to the museum café for some fortification and to decide what to do.

 

And watched some kids going bananas outside in the rain.

 

 It’s hard to see, but the boys have ripped their shirts off and are spinning them around like barbarians.

 

But alas, just as I finished my beer the sun broke out, crisis averted.

 

As I headed back towards the hotel, I ducked in to this church for a bit.

 

When suddenly I became ravenously hungry (I guess dark beer doesn’t have as many nutrients as I thought) so I stopped into a little convenience mart and made bad food choice number one:

 

I know, I know, a boxed sandwich, really?   The yogurt drink was good though.

I wandered back to the room to wait for Jeff,  then we went for a walk about and settled on a restaurant that turned out to be bad food choice number 2:

 

 

It looked cool but it was kind of weird. I should have been tipped off by the fixed price three-course menu, which is quite unusual for around here. Granted, I had just hours ago eaten a plastic sandwich from a quickie-mart, so I might not be a good judge, but Jeff agreed everything tasted like “just ok “ catered wedding food.

 

 

 

I forgot to take a picture before I started. Sorry this is so graphic. I didn’t take any other pictures, I just wasn’t feelin’ it.

But then the evening was rescued! We found a bar not thirty steps (yes I counted) from the door our hotel that was awesome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spoiler Alert!!! This pub will appear again in this trip report.