Amsterdam food

Fries were apparently first made here and they are sold all over Amsterdam.  I bought these from a food truck.   They put mayo on their fries, and it is supposed to go in that cup at the top.  I ate mine plain, just like I always do.  

I follow some random food accounts on Instagram, and one of them posted a picture of one of these cookies, so I put it on my list of places to go.  There was a line out the door.  

And of course, waffles are everywhere.  I am not sure what was on these waffles, but I took a picture anyway.  

One of my friends told me to go to this pancake place.  I planned to go once for a savory pancake (see below) and again for a sweet one, but I never made it back the second time.  

It doesn't really look like anything in this picture, but it was ham and cheese in one giant pancake.  

Amsterdam part 2

Tulips are everywhere in Amsterdam. This is a picture of the flower market in the middle of town.

On my last day in Amsterdam, I went to the tulip gardens about 45 minutes outside of the city.  The tour guide said that they plant the tulips in layers so that when the early bloomers die, there is another layer popping up.  Here is a video of the whole garden .

This is a garden that the tulips are planted to look like a Mondrian painting.  Since it was at the end of the season, most of them were dead so it was a pretty sad looking site.

When I imagined the tulip gardens I pictured something totally different than what I found.  Something more like what I saw in this movie.

Or this...

It was basically a botanical garden with too many people taking selfies.  But then I saw on the map/guide that I could rent a bike to see them in huge fields.  So I left the garden and was told by the woman renting the bikes that most of the fields were past their prime but there was one field that had some tulips left and that field was about 45 minutes away.  I was disappointed about that, but I sped out there because I didn't want to miss my bus back into the city.  When I went past this field, I thought "If this is it, I'm going to be pissed."

But I kept going and found this one field of red tulips.

Someone is enjoying the tulips. She was dancing in the field for the whole time I was there.

One lonely yellow tulip left at the end of the season.

My bike. 

Amsterdam

 There is a section of the city that has several museums, including these two that I visited.

Rijks Museum

One of my favorite paintings at the Rijks Museum

Van Gogh museum

I took many pictures of canals.  

Ducks visiting the houseboats.

It rained off and on most of the time I was there.  

A particularly skinny house.  Houses in Amsterdam don't have much width, but they do have height and depth.    

Main shopping street. 

Central Station (and construction)

Canals by night

New York Pizza -- I will be the judge of that!!  

(no, I didn't eat there)

NJ

Trip to the zoo

Feeding goats 

Riding the train around South Mountain reservoir -- the only part of the zoo that I remember from my childhood.

Cousins 

UWS

Outside of my favorite cookie bakery

I've always wanted to go to the Butterfly Conservatory at the Natural History Museum.  I have been to the museum a few times in the past couple of years, but haven't gone to see the butterflies.  So we finally went.  It was fun.  

You don't need binoculars to see the butterflies, but that didn't stop this kid.

And of course, dinosaurs....

Uptown

My sister and her family were here for Spring Break.  We went to do a few things I have never done before.  This is Alexander Hamilton's summer home:

Cherry blossoms

General Grant's Memorial.  I learned that more than a million people attended his memorial service.  Besides being instrumental in ending the Civil War and defeating the Confederate Army, he was seen as a major civil rights leader during his presidency and after.  He was very well loved at the time, especially here in Harlem.

Running in front of the memorial

Little visitor

My littlest nephew came to visit me... oh yeah, and my sister and brother-in-law too :)

Here he is with one of his cousins.  

Out to dinner

Helping me do my laundry while his mom and dad were touring the city.

Leaving the Big Apple!  

I saw this online and it reminded me of my nephew.  He's so cute and sweet, that you can't help but hug him and kiss him all the time, but he he will let you know when he's not interested.