The Jordaan, Dinner on the Canal, Concertgebouw

Posted by Chelsie on Aug 17, 2012 | 1 comment

Today we had lofty hopes of taking a 15-mile bike ride to Waterland across the river from Amsterdam, but unfortunately we slept in a little too late for that. On the plus side, we had a wonderful day riding the bikes around The Jordaan, making our own dinner, and seeing a classical music concert at Concertgebouw instead. As soon as we got up, we headed to a highly-rated breakfast cafe near our hotel called Lunchcafe Nielsen where we had some amazing omelets, coffee, and orange juice. By the time we were done, it was almost lunch so we decided to walk around a little and get some ice cream nearby. Andrew had pistachio and I had almond cookie, both in cones, and both delicious. After that we walked back to the apartment and consulted the internets about what to do today. We discovered that the top rated thing to do in Amsterdam was to visit Concertgebouw, a famous music hall, so we immediately booked two tickets to this evening’s concert Brahm’s First and Second Symphony by Nezet-Seguin and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. We then headed over to Albert Hein (the local market) again to pick up a few things for dinner. After dropping off the groceries at the apartment, we rode the bikes around The Jordaan enjoying the views and the beautiful scenery. It was fun to see the neighborhoods where people actually live around here and it was great to ride around in an area that didn’t have tons of tourists milling about. We then had to turn in our bikes before heading home to make dinner.

Since we knew we had concert tickets at 8:00, we decided it would be best to make our own dinner and eat alongside our canal like we did two nights ago. I made some pretty delicious smoked salmon, dill, and cucumber sandwiches and we ate them with Kettle Chips and sweet wild strawberries with our legs hanging over the water. It was fun to watch all the boats pass by. After dinner we decided to try our luck at the tram system here in Amsterdam to get over to the concert hall. We read online that you could buy tickets from the tram operator so we boarded the right tram (Number 5) and Andrew headed up to the front to buy tickets. By the time he was able to get up there, we were almost at our stop so the guy let us off the hook and didn’t make us pay for our tickets. Like I said before, everyone here is so nice.

The concert hall was just stunning. Built in 1888, Concertgebouw (Concert Building) has showcased some of the best orchestras in the world and is known for its first-class acoustics. Tonight the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra was playing Brahms First and Second Symphony. What an amazing treat! Andrew and I love music, but I don’t think we have ever gone to the symphony before. It was something we will never forget. The whole time I wished my Aunt Nancy was there with us because I know she would have really enjoyed it. Since we had such success with the tram on the way there, and our concert ticket included a free tram pass, we decided to take the tram on the way back to our canal after a quick walk in the park in front of Rijksmuseum. We took our time enjoying one last stroll through the canals as tomorrow we leave for Germany on the train first thing in the morning. Tomorrow is another travel day so I suspect we won’t have much to post, but we will try to take at least some pictures from Munich.

Cheers,

Chelsie & Andrew