On a recommendation we went to check out the city of Leiden - which is about 30 km southwest of Amsterdam.
Once we got there the first thing we saw was a bucket bike made to look like a clog. How Dutch.
We stuck to the centre of Leiden and loved the small streets, markets and how it all opened up to large canals.
Like so much of Holland, Leiden is so pretty, postcard perfect and whatever other cliches you'd want to use. I'll just say it's a nice place for a day trip than to sound like a guidebook. :)
In the evening we went to hang out with cousin Merlijn and his girlfriend Saskia at their apartment in the east of Amsterdam. Learning our lesson after visiting Niek - we drove.
Merlijn and Saskia were having us over for dinner and had prepared a the classic Dutch dinner party thing of 'gourmeten'. This is a hot plate on which you cook meat, served with bread and a variety of sauces.
Its an enjoyable way to share dinner time, but I get frustrated with how long things take to cook on the grill. It was when we were about to finish that I discovered that Merlijn had the heat switched on 2.5 when it could have gone all the way to 5. Aww man. Apparently at '5' it caused too much spitting. But I could cook faster and eat more if it was at 5...stuff the spitting.
Still - its a fun thing to do with a group and we enjoyed eating and chatting.
I think we will buy one, and when I have it in my own home I am going to crank the thing to the max.
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