‘When I’m in Holland I eat the pannekoeken.’  -Beastie Boys

Well, that had to happen.  Now I can move on.

This is set up to be the first in a series of five posts on our recent trip to Amsterdam, The Netherlands.  Z had a work trip scheduled for South Africa coming up and a couple of things happened as a result.  Thing 1.  I figured if he could get the health clearance to go, I would try to go too.  I mean, South Africa!?!  Thing 2.  The flights can be brutal.  Nothing direct from Orlando per se so we decided that since the trip fell around our so-called anniversary, that we would layover in Amsterdam for some tourist time.  We are not those people who can just hop the next flight.  We have to get medical clearances, tie up loose ends at work and find someone (thanks mom & dad) to watch our little beast, Walter.  But this trip should definitely be worth it.  

I recommend stopping in to the tourist bureau at the airport to get the I Amsterdam card-it makes museum and transit a breeze.  We walked out of Schipol and the gust of cold air took our breath away!  We caught the GVB bus into the city for €5 each.  Our foray into local transport begins!  We dropped  our bags with the hotel after pulling out jackets and headed out for the day.  Our first stop was the Van Gogh museum to get our fill of Sunflowers and his assorted portraiture of selfies.  He was the first master of duck lips, which I so don’t get.  After the museum we headed out for the obligatory I Amsterdam shots and then started our march towards Dam Centraal constantly OK Googleing for directions.

We made it to the unlikely Upstairs Pannekoeken house in about 15 minutes walking.  I looked at the said stairs and nearly didn’t make it.  Historically they they used to tax by window widths so the buildings  are crazy narrow and tall but often deep.  The near vertical stairs opened to a tiny four table closet sized restaurant that had one tiny two seat table meant just for us.  Sitting shoulder to my neighbors back and my back to the warm radiator we got the menu and chose our poison.  Giant plate sized pancakes that are super light and airy.  His topped with bananas and powdered sugar, hers topped with cooked unsweetened apple slices and salty back bacon cooked in.  Their was a bottle of super dark Stroop syrup on the table that went perfectly with the apples and bacon.   I’m pretty much in love with these pancakes.  Light, serious, interesting-like I’m beginning to find this city.