After settling in at Chateau Gillooly Alexander it was time to head out for siteseeing, beverage and dinner!
The tram station right outside of Rich and Cathy's house is appropriately named "Brink"... always knew they were living on the Brink! LOL
Hopped on the tram and headed to Dam Square (love that name!) We strolled around the city and saw so much stuff I don't think I'll ever remember what we saw (although who could forget what you saw in the Red Light District??).
We stopped at a cool little place called a proeflokaal (or tasting house). There they serve jenever (Dutch gin, taken "neat", without ice). I'm not sure what we drank, but it was yummy! Custom decrees that you lean over the bar with your hands behind your back to take the first sip from your full-to-the-brim borreltje (small drinking glass)
http://www.wynand-fockink.nl/en/home.html is the place we visited.
After a few drinks it was time to visit Cafe Bern (known as a brown cafe) for dinner. They're known for their cheese fondue... if you like garlic you'll love it here! The steak "fondue" was also incredible... lightly cooked steak floating in a pool of bubbly green cheese sauce... cook it as little or as much as you'd like. HEAVEN!
I was warned about the horrible service and how badly the "staff" treated you at this place but they must have known we weren't locals because our waitress was very sweet! Guess they just had to prove Rich and Cathy wrong! LOL
After dinner we decided to head out and find dessert. We didn't have much luck with dessert but we did find alcohol! We sat outside and had a few drinks and I just couldn't figure out why it wasn't dark yet but it was 10:00 p.m.!!
After drinks we had to stop at a "coffee shop". Our stop was the Bulldog. Very interesting place! I especially liked the "US Customs" patch on the wall along with other police patches. LOL
