Awesome few days with the Dutch-Kiwi connections in Amstelveen. Friday night was enlivened by Eurovision, or more precisely by a Cambridge-Holland live vote-off with Ruth and Alastair. The wonders of the internet. The remainder of the weekend was miserable weather so we pottered around at home with the boys. Sunday was Mother's Day - lucky Khanum got a lie-in and breakfast in bed and I did too! You don't get that kind of service in the hostels...
On Monday I was planning to go into Amsterdam to see about a more waterproof waterproof. Instead as we went to pick Sam up from nursery my phone slid out of my pocket into an innocuous-looking flat surface, and the screen shattered completely. After a tip-off from the locals we found a repair shop at the local mall. They told me it would be 89 euros and I gasped and said no. Having googled the alternatives I hastily went back and had them do it. As I was waiting a guy came in and asked how much it would be to repair his phone screen. When they told him 89 he gasped and said no... He'll be back.
So that was unfortunate. While I could probably live without phone contact it would bother me to live without a camera and t'internet. On the positive side, while at that mall I found a great new breathable waterproof on sale for 40E, marked down from 100. So maybe that offsets the phone annoyance. (Though I notice on later photos that my camera has indeed been cracked by the fall.)
Happy to use the excuse of a guest, Khanum and Alle Meije hit up their local teenage babysitter and took me out one night to their local eatery, which is the most amazing Japanese restaurant. Eating out is quite expensive here (everything is) but this is all you can sushi etc for 25E and it was really top quality. An odd thing to find just down the street in quite a suburban area but an excellent local to have.
Yesterday K had daytime appointments so I took the tram into Amsterdam and, armed with her annual museum pass, took on the two biggest museums and the two oldest churches in a day. As someone who is largely stuff-free at the moment it was funny to see so much Beautiful Stuff in the Van Gogh and Rijksmuseums. The old church had amusing / rude carved choir stalls; the new church (also v old) was exhibiting the world press photographer of the year awards. All in all a lovely day.
The weather has been improving gradually and today has dawned bright and breezy. I'm about to bid a fond farewell to the Wink household and head off. With few maps and sleeping plans the next 24 hours are about to get tougher! But what a nice day for it.
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K tests out her Mother's Day presents
Sushi!
Sadly cracked camera - can you guess where I am?
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