4 days in Amsterdam - a few questions
 

My husband and I will be in Amsterdam at the very end of August. We're in our early 60s. We arrive early on Friday morning, and leave for Bruges on Tuesday. We're staying at the Sir Albert Hotel, in the Pjip district because it seemed to be pretty well located for us.

Since we get in early, I figure we'll go to the hotel to drop off our luggage (maybe, if we're very lucky, our room will be ready). The hotel is very close to the Albert Cuyp Street Market, so I thought we'd go there first, eat, look around etc. Maybe a canal ride the first day? I always have trouble that first day until my body clock regulates and I get that first night's sleep.

We'll want to visit the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum and Ann Frank House. Other museums are maybes depending on what else we do and how time works out (I don't like to RUSH).

I read about a Jewish Amsterdam tour that I thought we might consider for Sunday. We like walking tours in general, so I figure we can find others.

Here are my questions:
1) I have tickets for Ann Frank house, and even though I thought I was WAY in advance, we ended up with evening tickets, on our LAST night. Which is fine, but I was quite surprised. Should I buy tickets ahead for the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum? As far as I can tell, they aren't timed, or even tied to a particular day, but save you waiting in the ticket line. Is that right? I have looked at the various passes you can get, but I'm not sure we'll see enough to make a pass worthwhile. Also, I did not see special senior prices - do they not do that in the Netherlands?
2) Weather for late August - certainly cooler than where we are in Wash DC. Will a jean jacket or short rain jacket be enough? I'm trying to pack light and can't figure out if it will be 'summery' or more fall type weather.
3) Food - I know to go to an Indonesian restaurant, but where's a good source for nice neighborhood restaurants and cafes?
4) Other specialized walking tours or canal tours - any recommendations?
5) The other museum I'm considering is the Dutch Resistance Museum, and also Our Lord in the Attic - worthwhile?

With Vondel park nearby, I think we'll be able to fill up 4 days pretty nicely. And help is greatly appreciated, as always.

Alice

A thin rain jacket (the tissue kind) or a light sweater should be plenty for evenings (put the two together if you get some oddly cool weather).

Definitely check out one of the merchant mansion museums - there are several, each small, but representative of the ruling class of the Netherlands in the 17th/18 century. Really fascinating.

"I'm trying to pack light"

Layers! And FWIW, I find that a really lightweight silk scarf and silk gloves can make the difference between feeling chilled to the bone and feeling warm enough to keep moving.

"Our Lord in the Attic - worthwhile?"

I thought so! I found it fascinating, But maybe that just shows what I did (or rather, did NOT) know about Amsterdam's history.

"Other specialized walking tours or canal tours"

I haven't been to lovely Amsterdam since 1991, but at that time, the tourist information office had some great walking-tour recommendations that they tried to match to one's interests. For a canal tour, I just went to the nearest pier. I also took a day-long tour to Volendam, Edam, Zaanse Schans, etc. -- I enjoyed it! I don't know if you have time for it....

Enjoy!

Ben de Jong, a retired history professor, leads a WW2 walking tour of the city. It focuses on the Jewish experience in the war. Excellent tour.

http://www.historywalks.eu

"Maybe a canal ride the first day?" If you are coming from the DC, a canal boat ride would be quite soporific and helps you go to zzz.... while on board.

A definite yes to the Dutch Resistance Museum. While it's possible to see the exhibits in a half hour or so, I spent nearly 3 hours there. I learned so much about the innovative and creative ways the Dutch resisted the Nazis, and in a few cases, collaborated with them. This place is well worth a visit.

Does anyone have some more walking tour recommendations?

Dear Alice,

We are planning to be in Amsterdam next July (we are also in our early 60s) and we are planning to stay at the Sir Albert Hotel. Can you tell us your experience with this hotel and the neighborhood? Thanks.

Gustavo

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ite-things.cfm

Some locals diss the idea of the rijstaffel - a mainstay of Chinese-Indonesia restaurants - in this long thread I and others say about things we like and dislike about Amsterdam.

Weather an be very cool and rainy - 50s highs or it could be nice and it can change very quickly - layering - bring a sweater or warm outer garments and bring rain gear - all those Dutch elms lining canals have green moss growing on their sides for a reason!

Well, locals may diss rijsttafel, but it's delicious and plays a role in Amsterdam's history. Plus, what else ya got? Pea soup? I've had some good food in a"dam, but most of it is ham, ham, and more ham, and cheese, cheese, and more cheese. Rijsttafel hits the spot after a few meals like that.

I agree - rijstafels I've had were a real treat though jaded locals may not think so.

The comment by St.Cirq is quite misleading - there are plenty of options in Amsterdam besides ham, cheese, pea soup and rijstaffel. Hopefully she was kidding (or ignorant) of the current dining scene in Amsterdam. We ate at a great Italian restaurant, Cinema Paradiso, and there are other options galore including brown cafes that can have a wide variety of cuisines.

Indonesian restaurants, yeah if you can tolerate the smell of a Taco Bell. Pea soup is delicious, but only available in the winter. Holland is not culinary heaven, but it has a lot more than ham and cheese. Raw herring is one of my favorites.

I was talking about Dutch "cuisine." I've been to Amsterdam quite a few times and have had good food - Italian, French, Indian, Thai, and Chinese. I've eaten at many a brown café and never had anything I would consider special. The best meal I've had in Amsterdam was at the terribly expensive MOMO, and while it was good it wasn't particularly reminiscent of Dutch food.

Maybe if I could spring for a dinner at the Intercontinental Amstel, I'd change my mind.

Raw herring kind of proves my point.

If folks are interested in healthy foods try the cafe at the famous Melkweg (Milky Way) - a legendary municipally run youth center in Amsterdam- at night it is a concert venue but in the daytime the cafe is one of the more interesting places in Amsterdam to relax and have healthy real Dutch food- whatever that is.

https://foursquare.com/v/melkweg-caf...6fb713e1eaabdf

In all my years in Amsterdam I have rarely noticed a Dutch cuisine restaurant but there is a myriad of ethnic restaurants so that Amsterdam is a foodie heaven - lots of these are 'Petite Restaurants - small intimate places.

Amsterdam has tons of great food choices no matter what you are looking for.

for real Dutch street food stop by any FEBO dotting the city's streets - like Frikendel and of course Frites - they even have some Chinese-Indonesian fare in their slots:

https://www.google.com/search?q=febo...HeOGAf8QsAQINw

There's decent street food to be had at the Albert Cyup street market in Amsterdam, better than anything I had at a brown café.

For good traditional Dutch cuisine and a pleasant ambience, you might try Haesje Claes on Spuistraat. It gets very busy so you should reserve. I'm sure you can get pea soup, but there's much more to the menu than that.

http://www.haesjeclaes.nl/home

Dutch department stores, usually on the upper level, have cafeterias with down-home Dutch foods - there is often a view over the town too. Inexpensive, quick and not tourist-oriented.

I have a reservation at The Pantry. From what I have read they have traditional Dutch dishes. For Rijstafels I have a reservation at MAX. We will be in Amsterdam the first week of July. If you are interested I can report back. In the meantime you can read reviews on YELP and Trip Advisor.

Good luck and happy planning! :)

<i>StCirq on Jun 2, 16 at 3:42pm
Raw herring kind of proves my point.</i>

Exactly.

spaarne, your attempts at humor are amusing, as always.

>>>Ben de Jong, a retired history professor, leads a WW2 walking tour of the city. It focuses on the Jewish experience in the war. Excellent tour. <<<

Such a shame, because Amsterdam has a deep jewish past, stretching back centuries. Excellent though de Jong's walk is, it kind of skews jewish history. The Jewish Historical Museum also does guided tours and includes a visit to the Esnoga and the Libreria Etz Haim. I'd go on a tour for the latter visit alone.

PalenQ, which Dutch departments stores? As of this spring, V&D has closed, Bonneterie closed a few years ago. Hema does indeed have the peasoup that spaarne yearns for, but Bijenkorf is much more upmarket and does "international" food.

For lunch places, restaurants etc, check reviews on iens.nl. You can search by area. So, for instance, in De Pijp:

http://www.iens.nl/restaurant/amsterdam/de-pijp

And people, it's not rijstafel, or rijstaffel or whatever, but rijsttafel. (and Tropenmuseum, not "troppenmuseum")

Very good Eurasian restaurants are in The Hague, not Amsterdam.
If you want a modern spin on eurasian (NOT Indonesian) cuisine, there's Blauw:

http://www.iens.nl/restaurant/23577/...lauw-amsterdam

the classic way to dine is: order rice as a base (can be white rice, or fragrant, cold sticky rice (lontong) for hot weather etc. Then: a "wet" vegetable dish (sayuran), a sweetish dish (semur) a slightly spicier dish, sweet and sour pickles (acar campur or acar ketimun) and something crunchy like kerupuk. The idea is that all flavors are balanced on the plate: sweet, sour, astringent, spicy, salty, and also that there is a good variety of textures. "white" beer, which has coriander seeds as part of the flavoring, goes very well with this. Blauw does it a little bit differently, but they'll be happy to advice you. Usually, with rijsttafel dishes, the quality is lower, because they have the components in chafing dishes and nothing is cooked to order. If you order a la carte, they'll cook for you, instead of reheating what they made at mise en place earlier that afternoon.

personally I'd never go to a place like Max, but their reviews at Iens are pretty good.

StCirq, we're a nation of traders. Amsterdam is a city of trade. Incredibly high level Dutch contemporary cooking can be had here: http://www.iens.nl/restaurant/36076/...usje-amsterdam
It's not peasoup or herring...

FEBO: bad idea, but PalenQ touts it in every Dutch, food related posting.

PS, both the resistance museum and our lord in the attic are excellent choices.

FEBO: bad idea, but PalenQ touts it in every Dutch, food related posting.>

Well I love it and many others do too - the automats like used to be in NYC are novel and the ice cream or whatever it is is devine. Frites are good too with a mind-boggling variety of toppings.

Dutch folk mainly flock here menachem - tell me why? Food snobs used would diss it but the average bloke seems to love them. Helps perhaps to be stoned perhaps but if I lived in Holland I would probably rarely eat there too - just like I do not do fast food here at all - but this is a Dutch institution that should be experienced for the experience.

Well been a few years since I was in Amsterdam - department stores are on the way out.

<i>menachem on Jun 3, 16 at 1:20pm
spaarne, your attempts at humor are amusing, as always. </i>

Honored to be complimented by the Master.

spaarne, you're so welcome!

PalenQ: you go to febo if you've spent a night on the town, and you need to get an instant fix of fat and salt. I think that hetismij will concur that febo and similar are for "een vette bek halen", to "get you a greasy mouth".

febo may be a pleasure, but it's a guilty one. McD is busier.

however, fries at febo are of pretty good quality. but not the blocks of fried cholesterol that they have in their automats.

and lastly: what experience? the experience of inserting 1.50 and getting a bamihap from a window?

at spaarne: "are those chicken satays?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ky1QU8OMt0

<i>menachem on Jun 4, 16 at 3:32am
at spaarne: "are those chicken satays?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ky1QU8OMt0</i>

How is that relevant? Wasted 5m57s of my life watching the rubbish.

We stayed at a hotel a minute away from your hotel. The whole area around your hotel (Pjip) is bursting to the seams with every possible kind of restaurant. We only ate in another area one time (we were in Amsterdam for a week). Use Yelp, TripAdvisor or the Dutch site ines to find them or just walk down the street.
The Albert Cuyp Street Market is noisy and crowded. If you're going to be tired after your flight, it might be better to take a canal cruise. You don't have to go to the city center. Right near the Rijksmuseum, there is a canal cruise company.
We walked into the Rijksmuseum without any trouble, but reserve a time for the Van Gogh museum. We bought the museum card at the Rijksmuseum (we went to many museums during the week and it was a bargain for us.) and the salesgirl told me that I must reserve at time for the V.G. museum. It's a good thing that I did because the museum was packed (and it was only the beginning of May.)
A museum that I highly recommend is the Maritime museum (not Nemo). I found that more interesting than the Dutch Resistance museum (which is good for WWII history buffs IMO).
You'll definitely fill up 4 days with your plans!

Here's a second for Haesje Claes. After tasting my husband's first course of pea soup, I changed my entree order to pea soup alone (a few years ago in July).

We also had excellent pizza one night: http://www.pazziamsterdam.nl

Last time around we also walked right into the Rijks without difficulty. The Van Gogh the last time was filled with cruise ship passengers but I suspect that's an infrequent event.

Personally, I wouldn't allow myself to get too caught up with the "debates" above about rice tables and all the rest of the "I'm smarter than you are" routine.

You'll find PLENTY to do in that city; just try not to overthink it.

spaarne, the whole piece is a litany of febo type food. super relevant. the dutch humor, of which you are a connoisseur, is contained in the fact that the entire order is a chat up line to the febo owner.

menachem - I never meant to say eat at FEBOs or take out as a meal - just as a treat while walking around - and for us at least a bami or nasi goreng from a slot could be exotic.

And the Dairy Queen type ice cream in a cup hits the spot sometimes too - but to eat a lot there often no way Jose - just for the experience and convenience while walking or coming back from a night out on the town - FEBOs are packed late at night IME.

But don't get me wrong - I was not saying to eat at FEBO as a meal choice - no not at all.

Cheers!

The relief, PalenQ.
That aside, it always surprises me if visitors to Amsterdam claim they have difficulties in finding good food. I always point to iens.nl, which is a fantastic resource and much better than the reviews on Trip Advisor.

Now, if people complained of very bad service in restaurants, that would stand to reason.

<i>menachem on Jun 4, 16 at 11:03am
spaarne, the whole piece is a litany of febo type food. super relevant. </i>

Super irrelevant for me. You have me mixed up with the other Michigander on Fodors, Mr. PalenQ. I've walked past these "febo" holes in the wall a thousand times but never ate any of the stuff.

My fast food for Holland is
a) haring from a vis wagon,
b) kaasbrood from a bakery,
c) uitsmijter at a bar,
d) a peanut butter sandwich I packed from my B&B.

Speaking of peanut butter, I confess to having a fondness for one Indonesian dish, sat&eacute;, also known as satay.

As for <i>very bad service</i> in Dutch restaurants, it is legendary. The only place where I've seen worse is in former East Germany just after the wall came down. And, of course, in the realm of fiction, you have the John Cleese comedy series "Fawlty Towers."

I always thought Amsterdam to be a culinary heaven with all those neat small intimate ethnic potpourri of restaurants. Forget Dutch cuisine if you want but Amsterdam is a foodie's heaven.

Another thumbs up for the Dutch Resistance Museum. We were in Amsterdam last month, hadn't reserved tickets for the Anne Frank House (our second time in Amsterdam and still not able to see the AFH!)

We went to the Dutch Resistance Museum, thinking it would be a "second choice" --- it was very impressive and interesting. I think we stayed about two hours, and we were very glad we hadn't missed it.

The only place where I've seen worse is in former East Germany just after the wall came down>

The service in Eastern Europe was even worse before the walls fell down - literally throwing stuff at you in stores which were not self service.