Shopping Day & House of Bols

 A little controversy last night — we went to the Pulitzer Bar, followed by the Pulitzer Hotel Garden and we stepped right into a “who makes it better” question.  The Bar was great, it was awesome…. but the Garden bartender makes a better Mezzo Mezzo (rhubarb, vermouth, prosecco, and?).  Glad we could settle that, although I think the rivalry may outlast our short stay in Amsterdam. 



Faced with our last day in Amsterdam, we decided it was time to hit the “nine streets” shopping area.  This section of the city has smaller, local boutiques and fewer of the big international brands.  I’d sworn I wasn’t going to buy anything since I’d just pared down my possessions and Claudia had some items in mind.  Sounded good in theory anyway.  I ended up with a new shirt, a hat and a tin of stroopwafels from the oldest bakery in Amsterdam, Hans Egstorf.  They are still in the beautiful tiled shop that they say goes back to 1898.  Meanwhile, Claudia bought nothing.



We signed up to take a tour at the House of Bols, which claims to be the oldest brand of liqueurs in the world.  It’s an old name, anyway, but the many changes of ownership kind of make that a shaky claim.  The tour was really fun, with many, many different ways to experience the aromas of distilled or infused herbs, fruits and spices that are used to make their spirits.  They say Bols originated Genever (or Jinever, it’s spelled all kinds of ways), which is the precursor to gin.  As someone who professes to dislike gin, I am learning that what I truly dislike is tonic and that gin has a huge range of flavors. 

We did have our only “meh” food of the week this afternoon, after realizing we hadn’t had pancakes and Amsterdam is known for them.  A recommended spot had perfectly fine pancakes, but nothing to write home (or blog) about.  We had a quick dinner at the hotel restaurant in the next block, Lotti’s.

And now we are packing up so Claudia can go on to London and I can head to Madrid tomorrow.  What an amazing week we’ve had.  We did leave some stones unturned for a trip back someday.





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