Whelp, thanks to some noise canceling headphones we made it through King’s night and I actually slept ok.

In the morning we got up and got stuff packed to head out to our next stop: Delft.

We exited our houseboat with all of our bags, and I turned to close and lock the door for the last time. When I turned back around, Jimmy was gone.

I looked up and down the street, and just when I was starting to get annoyed that he had left me (and confused about how he had powered away so fast with all those bags), I saw him.

He was across the street at a makeshift coffee stand laughing away with the guys working. I drag my bags over and find out that these guys are the neighbors who live in the building across the street, and they set up a coffee stand on the sidewalk in front of their house to make some money on King’s day.

Apparently yard sales and lemonade stands and all similar endeavors are illegal in Amsterdam, except on King’s Day, where the tradition is to throw anything you want to sell out in front of your house and yard sale it up.

Our Airbnb host, Rinze, who lives on the houseboat in a different unit from the one he rented out to us, saw us and was really excited to get us celebrating. He told us a bit more about how people celebrate, and gave us some great recommendations for how to spend the rest of our time in the Netherlands.

After that, we dragged our bags to Centraal station, which wasn’t too busy yet ( Rinze had warned us the area around Centraal station can be wild on King’s Day because “people pour into the city, but they don’t know where to go, so they just go straight and party there”).

We made our way to our next destination, which is Delft. Is a very cute city, with a small but historic district that makes the town feel small.

Everyone was enjoying King’s Day celebrations in Delft as well, so we dropped our bags at our hotel, and walked into the main area to find some lunch and enjoy people watching.

We ended up at a great lunch spot that is famous for their sandwiches (they win awards for them), which they call bread rolls. Those were tasty. Jimmy enjoyed his roast beef, and I got vegetables and burrata.

At that point we had thought about going to Rotterdam to see if we could spot the Royal family who were celebrating there, but Rinze had told us that we should make sure to devote a full day to Rotterdam since it was so different than Amsterdam. We’d gotten a late start, and wouldn’t be heading out until 2pm, so instead we decided to slow things down a bit and head to The Hague, the location of the museum the Mauritius, which houses the most famous Vermeer painting The Girl with the Pearl Earring.

The Hague isn’t a big sightseeing city, but we enjoyed people watching in a square, and the Mauritius is a beautiful museum.

It’s located in an old mansion, which was built by a Dutchman who made a lot of his money by transporting and selling enslaved people, and it was interesting to see how the museum tried to own up to that.

They had a few Rembrandts, including his last self portrait, and lot of beautiful paintings from mainly Dutch masters.

In the last room you find the absolutely bewitching Girl with the Pearl Earring.

She is a truly amazing painting to see in real life. The colors are so vibrant, her gaze is piercing.

And they had a really pretty ceiling

And some quirky light fixtures

After some museum time we were feeling pretty hungry, so we went hunting for some food. I’d heard of a small Indonesian place in The Hague from a local blogger, so we headed across a busy outdoor shopping plaza filled with people in orange singing the national anthem until we found it.

It was called Waroeng Padang Lapek, and though the interior was unassuming, it didn’t take long to figure out we were in for an unexpected experience. First of all, the menu wasn’t in English… or Dutch. I’m guessing it was Indonesian?

The waiter came up and noticed our confused faces, and asked “is it your first time in?” We nodded and he was kind enough to walk us through the menu. He said multiple times “the food is very authentic, which means it’s spicy. But it’s good and it’s authentic, but it’s spicy.”

Being fairly warned, we ordered the rijsttafel, or a sampling of a bit of everything with a giant pile of rice, and dug in. Here is it is in all of its beautiful glory.

First thing to note, they don’t refill your water glasses in The Netherlands unless you ask.

Second thing to note, the waiter was not lying.

This dinner was SO spicy. I’m a lightweight, but Jimmy usually does ok with spicy and he was sweating. I figured out that if I just kept going, I didn’t feel the heat until I stopped. When I stopped, it all caught up and was like fire on my face until I cooled back down.

The food was amazing.

The meat was so tender and the sauces were delightful, but when I stopped eating my whole face was numb. And we had a limited water supply.

Honestly, it was delicious, and unlike anything I’ve ever had. The website proudly states that they make Sumatran food just as they would in Indonesia, and do not cater to European (or American) tastes. Their trip advisor and google reviews are filled with Indonesian ex-pats happy to find something that actually tastes like home. They import all of their spices.

So if you want the real deal, I would highly recommend this place. Just be prepared.

When we checked out the owner was super sweet and told us that they have won awards and were number one in Indonesian food in Europe on TripAdvisor last year. I thought she was just building the place up to us, but when I looked it up they had one a travelers choice award last year.

Indonesian food is a big thing in the Netherlands (because, you know, colonization), but this was a truly unique experience from other places.

My face regained its feeling, but my lips were numb the rest of the night.

After such an exciting dinner, it was time to head back to our home base to let our tummies recover. We picked up some baked goods for later, and after eating them it’s bedtime.

Here’s our cute little room

And our nice view of the church spire

Until tomorrow.