I want to tell you about a city that has stolen my heart. The first time I went to Amsterdam, I didn't actually see Amsterdam, because I was there on a quick over-night business trip to our offices near the airport. Schiphol is a 25 minute train ride from Amsterdam Centraal station and, after enduring a horrible drive up from Brussels that featured the worst hail storm I have seen in my life and a colleague whose driving left me decidedly car sick, I wasn't in the mood for exploring. My second trip to Amsterdam was a drive in from Eindhoven for dinner. It is a bit of a drive for dinner but I wanted to see the city and I was craving moules-frites (mussels with fries). I remember that dinner was good, though I don't remember where we ate. Mostly though, I remember how stressful driving in Amsterdam city center was. There are bicyclists everywhere, street trams, and tourists who seem to think that, because they are tourists, they can cross the street with impunity and all drivers will slam on their brakes to avoid them. Then there was my third trip to Amsterdam and it was on that trip that I fell in love - both with the city and with Michael, though it could be argued that I already was and just hadn't realized it yet but this is a travel blog, not a gush about love. Two of my friends from the States were coming to visit and they wanted to visit Amsterdam so they booked their flights into that city. They weren't due to arrive until Saturday though so I asked Michael if he wanted to come for the weekend. My ostensible reason is that I don't enjoy eating alone in restaurants but the real reason is that he is wonderful company and he likes food as much as I do. It was with him that I discovered Restaurant AS, a restaurant in a location you have to be lost to find. It serves homestyle food made from the freshest ingredients possible at communal tables. I could write a dissertation on the food, beginning with the homemade bread and continuing through the final course but skipping the dessert because I have never managed to find space when the server asks about it. However, as this is not a culinary blog, I will resist, except for the smoked potato gnocci. That particular course, eaten but once (and it might not have been on this particular trip - we go back to AS every chance we get), has resulted in cravings and dissatisfaction with every gnocci I have eaten since. Michi and I also discovered Latei on that trip, a café whose owners are surely left leaning to the point of communism, but who make cappuccino to rival the Italians and whose apple cake has become an ideé fixe with Michael. We also spent time exploring the museum of one of my favorite painters, Van Gogh, and just wandering streets next to tree lined, sun dappled canals. As I said earlier, it was on this trip that I realized I loved Michael so it only seemed appropriate that, after we began to date, we return to Amsterdam. We made it a long culinary weekend. Restaurant AS was our first stop, as it always is now, and Latei was our morning coffee destination each morning. Amsterdam probably has many good breakfast spots but we wouldn't know because we love this one so much that, though we talk sometimes about branching out, we never do. We wandered through more canal lined streets, drooling over antiques, laughing and thoroughly enjoying the eccentricities of the people, and giving the red light and coffee shop areas a wide berth except when going to Latei for breakfast because, if walking from Amsterdam Centraal (that is the main train station by the way and, for those of you who like architecture, it is an architectural gem… at least the parts of it that aren't covered in scaffolding are. For those planning a trip in the future, I think that the renovations are done now. The signs up in the area the last time we were there alluded to the fact that it was due to be done soon after we moved to the States), you have to go through a small part of the red light district to get to it. This area is very quiet in the mornings though so it is not a bother. In fact, I didn't realize that it was in the red light district until we happened to pass that way one evening. There are no women in the mornings and the “viewing windows“ are all covered by curtains so you would have to know where you were to realize where you were, if you know what I mean. We decided on this trip that one day, if we are fortunate enough to be able to afford a holiday home, it will be a houseboat in Amsterdam. Of course, there are so many places we would like to have a holiday home that it will probably never happen but it never hurts to dream. Our culinary weekend, since this is a blog at least partially dedicated to food (and because that is the thing I associate Amsterdam with most - good food!), began with an appetizer of mackerel with razor clams and a spring vegetable salad at Restaurant AS. Their menu is prix fix with an option of one of two or three starters, two or three mains, and for a bit extra you can add a middle course sometimes plus dessert. The middle course this particular day was the smoked potato gnocci that I raved about earlier. If I were to be granted a last wish before I die, it would be for this dish. For our main dishes on this particular day we had roast beef with artichokes and dorado with fennel, a greatly under-rated vegetable, by the way. Then, because neither of us could breath, we had a glass of Calvados for dessert. Calvados is an excellent apple brandy (with a percentage of pear) from the Normandy region of France. Calvados is a protected name under EU law, which means that, legally at least, a producer of apple brandy outside of the portion of Normandy that holds this particular protected name cannot call their product Calvados. The next day we, of course, enjoyed breakfast at Latei and we were so stuffed with apple cake and croissants, not to speak of the fresh whipped cream (we ordered it for Michael's apple cake - a magnificent pastry that featured a cake-like crust that was at least 3 inches tall on the sides, completely stuffed full of apples mixed with cinnamon and sugar. It was essentially an apple pie inside of a cake - but I managed to steal several spoonfuls on the sly) and the cappuccinos, that we decided on a very light lunch of charcuterie at Envy. That wasn't quite enough for Michael so he stopped for a snack of thrice-fried fries at VleminckX, which is so good that the line inevitably stretches around the corner of the tiny alley on which it fronts. Our culinary weekend ended at Fyra (well, actually it ended with breakfast at Latei on Sunday morning but you would soon become bored if I told you what we ate there, as it always seems to be the same thing) with a five course dinner. We enjoyed lobster with apple and celery. It should have been scallops with apple and celery but I seem to have an allergy or some other food issue with scallops, which, while you don't probably care, is important to mention because, if you do have any food restrictions for any reason, this is a great restaurant to visit as they begin the five courses by asking you about anything you don't or can't eat. You may find that some restaurants in Europe simply don't get it, though most of them will accommodate you if you tell them it is an allergy. Back to our five courses though. The second was fish with a lobster sauce, followed by veal slow cooked for 48 hours, black angus steak with black truffle wine sauce, and, finally, a chocolate soufflé for Michael and a cheese plate for me (my worst allergy is to eggs. It makes trips to France an exercise in denial!). My most recent trip to Amsterdam was a two week work trip in the summer, a wonderful time of year to visit this country if you want sunshine and relatively warm weather. We - my colleague and I - stayed at the Citizen M, just across the street from Restaurant AS. For us, the hotel was a brilliant choice because it was just down the street from one of the regional train stations that made the trip to Schiphol in 8 minutes and just next to the tram stop that takes one into the main city center in about 15 minutes. The one thing you should know about hotels in Amsterdam is that, unless you are paying through the nose for a big international brand in the city center that has air conditioning, you will find that it can be quite loud at night. I stayed in the city center once while dropping a friend off for a flight. We stayed at an NH hotel and there was no air conditioning so we slept with the windows open, if slept is the right word for it. The hotel was right in the middle of one of the main tourist areas and it was incredibly loud until incredibly late. Because the Citizen M is so far out, it does not have this problem. It is a unique hotel though so, in order to help you choose this hotel or not, I will say that the rooms are small, though set-up for maximum utilization. The room features a king-sized, built in bed against the window (that doesn't open, if memory serves). The TV is mounted on the wall above the bed. There is a small desk and the rest of the room is dedicated to the bathroom facilities. There is a curtain that you can close to obtain some privacy. The sink is on the wall opposite the desk and next to the toilet cubby-hole, which features frosted glass doors that can be closed for some privacy (as I was staying there alone, this didn't particularly bother me but I can see it being uncomfortable for some) and across from that is a round, glass walled shower with a rain-head shower and lights that can be changed for mood lighting. I found this hilarious and would play with the lights before getting into the shower. I particularly enjoyed the purple. All of this means that this hotel is ideal for singles or couples without kids. The hotel would still be good for couples with kids, if they were old enough to have their own room but there is absolutely no room in the hotel rooms for an extra bed so, unless you fancy sleeping with your toddler, I would suggest a stay at a more traditional hotel. The biggest selling point for me, besides the purple lighting in the shower, is the price. My company had pretty tight controls over what we could spend on hotels in various countries, which made staying at a comfortable hotel in Amsterdam problematic. The Citizen M has very comfortable beds (and, when you travel 50% of the year, this becomes a huge deal!) and is very economical, especially if you book early and pre-pay. One other thing of note about this hotel is that they do not have a traditional restaurant but they do sell food to go and they offer a microwave - the food is actually quite good and the bar mixes up decent cocktails. The area around the lobby has been organized to be as much as possible like your living room, if you living room is decorated in mid-century modern style and has a small library. As for the staff, they are wonderful and the hotel intentionally hires internationals so language shouldn't be a problem. Staying in the Citizen M allows one to explore the Amsterdam far from the crowds. It sits on a quiet side street near their World Trade Center office buildings. These buildings, by the way, feature one of my favorite features of the city, an underground garage for bicycles. Finding parking for your car in Amsterdam can be a challenge but finding parking for your bike is a breeze. Theft, they tell me, is an issue so you never leave your bike overnight and everyone owns several, just in case. Amsterdam has always been a city that has struggled with such problems. Traditionally it was known as a seedy city, a haven for non-conformists, starving artists, and the like. The government has changed a lot - prostitution is regulated and made safe for those practicing in it (as safe as such an occupation can be, that is), no drinking is allowed in the coffee shops, and the city in general has been cleaned-up. There is still some progress to be made but I think that this is the same in every big city. Michael came to Amsterdam for the weekend while I was working there and, besides enjoying a great deal of additional amazing food, including the small plates at Vyne, which is owned by the same people who own Envy, we discovered yet another aspect of Amsterdam that made us both love it even more, the sheer lunacy of its citizens (lunacy in a good way). As we left Latei Saturday morning, we were stopped by a mini-parade of musicians, for lack of a better word, who were playing traditional, ancient Chinese instruments and were accompanied by several other people who had dressed up in a bright orange dragon costume and were dancing to the music. It reminded me of scenes from old movies set in Hong Kong during the Chinese New Year, except that August is a long time from the Chinese New Year. Once these people left, we walked to the Daam Platz (the square that features THE cathedral of the city) and encountered a woman who had driven her piano there attached to the trailer hitch on the back of the car and then proceeded to play for the tourists - Only in Amsterdam! Sunday we were again delighted by the sheer unexpectedness of it all when our walk through the canal lined streets took us to Prinsengracht, the street on which many of our favorite restaurants are located and which happens to run alongside one of the more popular canals, and we found a concert in full swing. This being Amsterdam though, the concert wasn't being held at just any open air pavilion, it was being held on a pavilion on the water and the majority of the concert goers had come in their small, private boats. We stayed for some time and listened and watched the sea of humanity and took several dozen photographs. If you have never been to Amsterdam, I hope that Michael and my blog entries have whetted your appetite to see this beautiful city. It is a city I enjoy visiting in all weathers. I have seen it under a driving rain. I have seen it under sunshine. I have seen it cloudy, grey, and dismal, as well as airy and bright, and it charms regardless. The canals are beautiful when the rain falls on them and beautiful when the sun creates pools of light between the shadows cast by the trees and houses. It is a city and a country lived out of doors. All of life is visible at all times. The bikes roll by, rain or shine, summer or winter. The flower sellers are there in all weathers. People walk, stop to visit, window shop, and pop in and out of cafes every day of the year. It is one of those rare cities that is as beautiful under clouds or in the rain as it is when the sun is shining. Certainly it has legalized prostitution and marijuana but the whorehouses and coffee shops cannot take up more than 5% of the city's buildings, if that. The other 95% is made up of houses that lean forward over brick streets and that look out over canals. I found out why the houses lean, by the way. They lean and have hooks on the roof peaks, in order to allow furniture to be hoisted into the upper floors, as the stairways in The Netherlands are universally steep and narrow. It is a nation of sailors and they built the stairways on land exactly like the ones on their ships (which makes going up and down stairs for someone as short as I am, a real workout). Try maneuvering a grand piano up the steps on a ship and you will understand why they had to hoist things through the windows.