So, today was a bit of a mix of everything. It was our last day in Amsterdam, so we were more or less trying to shove everything we can into one last day.

We also had a couple of pre scheduled things, so we basically just hodgepodged what we could around those.

We started the morning at the Albert Cuyp market on a hunt for some good food and precious treasures. We found both.

First, we got some good food.

Including my new favorite Dutch snack, poffertjes. These are wonderful little mini, circular, puffed up pancakes that are traditionally served with butter and powdered sugar. You can get tons of other toppings on them, but trust me, traditional is the best way to go.

After having something sweet, we stumbled by a stand selling Gozleme, or Turkish pancakes. The woman making them was rolling out the fresh dough and fried them up once you ordered them. You can get all types of fillings in them, and we chose spinach with feta cheese. So delicious

She also asked if we wanted “plain or spicy”? I asked how spicy is spicy, and she gave a look that said, “if you have to ask, you can’t handle it”.

Another customer waiting said “Its Turkish so you know it’s really spicy”. I asked if she got her’s spicy and she laughed and said “oh no. I’m Dutch, we don’t do spicy”.

After that we went looking for some coffee, and found a cart that roasts its coffee. And they had fresh tea where they put in orange slices, ginger, cinnamon, and honey chunks and let it steep. It was pretty cold outside, and the drinks were perfect.

Then we spent some time just wandering the market.

The market was great, and I’d highly recommend it as a fun and easy experience in Amsterdam. I was also able to purchase a much needed scarf, which served me well the rest of the day. Be carful looking too hard at the scarf stands, though. The woman selling the scarfs saw I was interested in one and had me all wrapped up before I knew what was happening. She tied it in an intricate way that I think was designed to fuse me and the scarf together so I had to buy it. I was already going to buy it though, so no harm for me.

After browsing for a bit it was time to head back to the Jordaan district and visit the Anne Frank House.

The Anne Frank house is the house (actually an office building) where Anne, her family, and a few other Jewish friends hid for two years in a tiny annex from the Nazi’s after they conquered the Netherlands.

The house has been turned in to a truly incredible museum, with lots of historical information, and information about Anne’s family and the people who helped to hide them. You see parts of the outer office, then you walk through the movable bookcase that hid the annex from the outside world and see the space the people were living in.

This is an incredible experience to have in Amsterdam, but it’s also very emotional and difficult to get through. It really brings a very dark part of history to life.

A practical note about visiting the Anne Frank house: it’s a very popular site to visit, and due to the nature of the space inside it is not able to fit very many people. So you have to prebook tickets online. They sell out within a few hours to a few days of being released. If you come to Amsterdam, it’s worth the effort to get the tickets.

There is no photography allowed in the house, but I did commemorate our visit with a pic of the Anne Frank statue which is just a block or so away.

After the Anne Frank House we headed out looking for lunch. On the way we found some fun things.

And yet another beautiful canal.

It was getting late in the afternoon, and we were incredibly hungry, so when we passed a sign claiming they had won the best burger in the Netherlands three years running, we didn’t ask too many questions. We just ate the burgers.

They were good and there’s a special sauce they use that I’d never tasted before. We also got sweet potato friets with truffle mayo and an assortment of other toppings.

Oh! The hamburger place was right next to the bloemenmarkt, which is a flower market that we saw yesterday but I think I forgot to mention.

To me, “flower market” usually implies bouquets and fresh flowers, but this one sold bulbs and seeds. Some people we met later told us that no one local actually buys bulbs there, as they are just for tourists. But we enjoyed looking around.

After lunch, we decided to split up. Jimmy went to a gaming cafe (apparently those are all over the world) and I went to…

Drumroll please…

A CAT museum!!!

Amsterdam is such a cool place.

The kattenkabinet is a museum in an old canal house dedicated to art where cats are the subject. It has paintings, photography, statues, posters, and even a costume from the musical cats on a mannequin made to look like the character Grizabella. Was it super creepy? Yes. Was it super amazing? YES.

Also there are 3 actual cats who live in the museum. Two of them were wandering, but Oscar was so settled into what must have been his normal spot that there was a sign next to him telling his name and that he is grouchy. Which is maybe where the name comes from?

Also, I want to introduce you all to my new favorite historical moment painting. I can’t remember its actual title, but I call it “What if God Were a Cat?” I don’t he would be benevolent.

After finally dragging myself away from the cat museum, I found a cute canal and couldn’t resist a selfie.

It was getting colder, so I decided it was time to go find Jimmy. Beautiful scenes of my walk back to the houseboat ahead.

Our big event for the evening was to do a tour of the canals in a little canal boat, but we had some time so we went to a bar and got my first ever Heineken.

I actually don’t really like beer, but this was fine. It was basically fizzy water (sorry to anyone that I just offended).

We also dropped into a local cheese and baked goods shop to grab a snack. The cheesemonger was ridiculously friendly. He asked how he could help us and I vaguely answered, “I think we’d like some cheese.” He laughed and said, “oh I’m sorry we’re all out of cheese here.”

As you could imagine, the cheese shop was covered in stacks and stacks of cheese. He asked more about what types of cheese we like (Jimmy and I like all kinds of cheese but tend to favor opposite types), and after trying some cheese we found two we loved.

I noticed they were also selling the tompouce pastries, and they were on my list of must try food in the Netherlands. They are particularly special for King’s Day, when the top icing part becomes orange in celebration of the royal family. The shop owner was excited that I knew what they were, and gave me one with a flag on it.

We took our goodies home and had a minor feast.

Here’s what the tompouce looked like before we demolished it. It was really tasty. It was two thick wafer pieces on top and bottom, with whipped cream and a light custard in between. They were both very light and not super sweet. The orange bit is an icing glaze that added just the right amount of sweetness. Loved it.

Alright, it was finally time to hit the canal boat cruise. I’d booked it on Airbnb, and though I was excited, I was nervous about the weather. It didn’t specify that it was covered, and the temperature was down to 39 degrees.

We bundled up, then felt really silly when we showed up to find this gorgeous little boat that was both covered and heated, and filled with drinks and snacks. If I’d known that, I would have made my outfit a bit cuter. Oh well, I was super comfy, and my sweatshirt is one I bought in Amsterdam from a shop that sells clothing by local Amsterdam artists. Also, it has orange on it.

The cruise was a lot of fun. The captain was super funny and born and raised in Amsterdam, so he had so much great information. We comfortably sailed along with 10 other people, enjoying the beautiful canals.

We got to learn about why the houses are crooked (spoiler: the area is all marshland)

Look at beautiful bridges

And we got some cute pics of us livin’ it up

But eventually we had to leave our nice, warm canal boat, and hit the streets of Amsterdam to find out how the Dutch celebrate Kings Night.

It’s with beer. Lots of beer.

And a bunch of giant street parties with music and dancing. Also, did I mention there was tons of orange, as that is the color of the royal family.

We celebrated in our own way, which was mainly with food.

Those ribs. Those ribs were everything.

And that burger? I thought the sign reading “pulled pork cheese burger” was indicating two different dishes. No. That, everyone, is a glorious wonder of a nature: a pulled pork cheeseburger.

After some food and dancing to Dutch bands remixing “I want to Dance with Somebody” by Whitney Houston, we decided we were old and cold, and headed down a quiet street where we found a cute little whisky bar with some excellent whisky based cocktails.

By then it was below freezing and nearly midnight, so we went back to our houseboat, which was in the middle of all the partying. We spent some time listening to the sounds of everyone celebrating their holiday, particularly sporadic renditions of the Dutch national anthem.

When we were ready for sleep, we popped on our noise canceling headphones and went to bed.