We flew into Amsterdam on 23rd of August in an 8 am flight. The weather in Amsterdam was beautiful warm and sunny. We were staying at a hotel near the museumplein. Since the film wasn't ready we sat at an outdoor cafe having hot chocolate, some lunch and warming ourselves. After that we walked down the museumplein towards Rijksmuseum and sat on the benches outside watching the world go by. According to the sightseeing books Rijksmuseum is closed for renovation for the next two years. The room in a hotel and large windows and the sun came in all day making it extremely hot which meant keeping the windows open fully all the time. In the evening we had dinner at an Indian restaurant called Mayuar just on the edge off Leidesplein. The food was fairly good but the best thing was the desert which combined kheer and kulfi.
On Monday we checked out the route to Vrije University where EARLI 2009 conference was being held. Since it was warm it continued on a lazy day. In the evening we found yet another Indian restaurant called Dosa. The food was reasonably good as this was the first time I found dosa in Amsterdam.
On Tuesday I got to the conference and got my pack and badge. The session started from 8:30 AM and finished at 6:45 PM. This is a very long day but I managed to attend many sessions. Most of the time an early start was difficult as I need time and medication to get moving in the morning. It was good to meet and talk to people with similar interests and thinking. I was part of a team presenting one paper and leading a second roundtable discussion as well.
While I was attending conferences Paul did some sightseeing of open-air large sculptures, ArtZuid exhibition, one of which could be seen on our way to the University. most evenings we found different restaurants, an Indian called Anmol where the food and service where average, a Mexican the food was okay but not actually Mexican as I understand it. on the last day we went to a Spanish restaurant just a block away from the van Gogh Museum with the service and the food were very nice. On Friday and Saturday nights there were massive thunderstorms which brought the temperature down a little bit.
Sunday came too soon and 10:30 AM saw us back in Stansted. At least we had sunshine for the morning. Now it is back to work and daily life with no plans for any more traveling in the near future.
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the artzuid exhibition:i did enjoy the large wasps which were eating a pomegrante, very daliesque!
ReplyDeletei managed to get kinda lost up at the edge of vondelpark, i figured out exactly where i was but dutch being dutch nothing to say where it actually was, why do street names end at the canals? if they didnt not i could have saved on back tracking.
thats mexican meal was hardly mexican carots and peas i think not, the spanish meal on the last night was a good find and really good tuna