Posts filed under ‘Amsterdam’
Miffy’s House
Who doesn’t love Miffy? My daughter surely adores her! Dick Bruna created this little rabbit in 1955 and by now her stories have been translated to more than 40 languages! Did you know Miffy has her own website? It’s great to explore with children: there is an audio book, animation, music, games, and more! There are also links to a variety of webshops: the books are great and I can also recommend the DVDs!
Last weekend we decided to treat our children to a little trip to ‘Miffy’s House’ (a.k.a. the Dick Bruna House). (more…)
Pancakes!
What exactly are pancakes? In America they are thick and small and eaten for breakfast in stacks – the higher the stack the cooler the cowboy! In France they are called crêpes and are very large, thin and delicate and eaten for lunch or a 
snack from one of the little street stands. (This makes me wonder… Michela, is there such a thing as an Italian pancake)??
In Holland, ’pannekoeken’ are the size of an average frying pan, and are a bit thicker than a crêpe but thinner than American pancakes. Traditionally they are eaten for dinner, usually after the traditional Dutch pea soup called ‘snert’, with a variety of savoury (bacon&syrup, cheese&paprika) or sweet (apple, banana, icing sugar, sugar syrup, confiture) toppings. It’s a children’s favourite.
We just discovered a restaurant called Pancakes!, which serves, well, pancakes (in all different varieties) and is conveniently located in the center of the ‘nine streets’ in Amsterdam (a little shopping delight for the ones who don’t know it yet)! They have highchairs (I counted at least three) and a children’s menu that comes with a little surprise. Might your little one get bored after all, a toy-box filled with books, toys and games is present, or the staff can provide crayons and paper. There’s a microwave for warming up milk. And they also cater children’s (birthday)parties – age 4 years and up!
-Esther in Amsterdam
Babyccino
My daughter has known the meaning of a good babyccino since she was able to hold a spoon. I have known the meaning of a good babyccino since I discovered that it could keep a toddler entertained for at least 10 minutes at a lunch table. If one orders a second one (disregarding the occasional babyccino spilled all over the table) that’s 20 minutes of valuable, uninterrupted mummy time! What a great invention is that?!
While our children were happily messing about with their babyccinos, I think my girlfriends and I spent hours discussing topics like: the best baby/toddler products, fashion, recipes, films, websites, beauty products, shopping, expositions, restaurants, travel, practical matters, the occasional gossip (think Sienna Miller & Jude Law, Kate Moss & Pete Doherty), raising our kids, raising our husbands -and anything else that would interest us, (urban mothers). (more…)
Sinterklaas- A Dutch Tradition
Here in the low-lands, we have a funny holiday called Sinterklaas. I know I’ve been trying to explain the concept to you before, but I thought I’d give it one more try.
St. Nicholas was the bishop of Myra (Turkey) in the third century. He was known for his goodness and generosity: he was quite rich but used his entire fortune to assist the poor. Furthermore he was known for his love for children and as such he became their patron saint. Apparently he was also very concerned about the welfare of sailors and ships but that has nothing to do with this. He died December 6 AD 343, and the anniversary of his death has (weirdly enough) been celebrated ever since. In Holland, we like to be different and celebrate St. Nicholas day (‘Sinterklaas’) on December 5th. But for weeks leading up to that, Sinterklaas keeps everybody busy!
Can I give you a hand, madame??
After my absence of nearly seven years, I was afraid I would come back to a city of… ahem, I don’t want to insult anyone, but you girls know how I’ve been bitching about Amsterdam for, well, ever: no style, no customer service, no etiquette, no good food, no sun, no mountains, no…
But I must say, after being back for about six weeks now, I feel that the city has changed. People have been surprisingly friendly. Cool shops. Nice restaurants. Clean. Well organized. Luxurious even (at times)!
Fact is, it’s probably not so much the city that has changed – I have changed. (more…)
Da Bike!
OK, I first thought I should hold off with writing about this topic because it’s really so un-originally DUTCH, but hey – we do live in Amsterdam now, and it’s truly quite impossible to avoid it: The Bike.
I do have to give you girls some background information. After 7 years of cycling to High School, ‘through weather and wind’, as we say here in the Low Lands (meaning rain or shine), 9 kilometers to and 9 kilometers back (about 35 minutes each way – and that’s riding fast!) and 8 years of cycling to university (less far but with hangover – that’s equally bad), I thought I had had my fair share of cycling.
So. No cycling in New York. No cycling in Brussels. And No cycling in London. Seven years of no cycling, and no plans to change that situation. I actually quite liked our lil’ old Saab 93 that we had in London, combined with the occasional taxi!
Sigh.
Back in Amsterdam, things are different. I forgot. Everybody cycles. So, after the initial shock, I started to get used to the idea of cycling again. Especially when I saw these cool ‘transport bikes’ everybody has nowadays:
Not bad, I thought. And so practical! With a crate in the front (handbag) – brilliant, and so cool!
So, I decided that for now, I wanted a bike with a crate. Maybe after a while, when the children are a bit bigger, I would convert to a ‘bakfiets’:
You can easily fit in 3 children, as you can see, maybe even 4! All the SATC mums in Amsterdam have one similar to this one, so it must be ingeneously practical!
After browsing the Internet, I found out that the best-tested ‘bakfiets’ in the Netherlands (by Dutch cyclers club ‘fietsenbond’) is ironically this one, the ‘Nihola’ from Denmark:
(see also http://nihola.info/).
So, I send my husband en route (he studied industrial design engineering so he must be an expert) with the assignment to find me a cool bike with a crate, if not a bakfiets, preferably the cute one from Denmark.
Of course, I neglected to look at prices. How much could a bike be? (I have never paid more than 50 euros for a bike).
Prices:
Transport bike, as in picture: from €1145,-
Bakfiets, as in picture: from €1579,-
Nihola, as in picture: from €2195,-
End of story: after two hours of anxiously waiting for my cool bike to arrive, my husband called to say he got me a decent second hand Gazelle bike, (€200), which would be fitted with 2 children’s seats and a basket on the front.
Please don’t tell anyone.
♥
-Esther in Amsterdam
Albert.
We all know it: supermarket shopping in London is GREAT because, well, you don’t have to leave the house to do it!
Sitting on the couch in sweatpants, without make-up or hair-do, but with top-secret glasses (-5.5), drinking red wine, white beer, or whatever I fancy, I could surf (don’t you love that word-sounds like you’re burning calories on the go!) to www.ocado.com and order everything our little family needs and more, comme-il-faut organic, delivered by handsome men right to the kitchen and seemingly without cost.
(The system remembered our Amex number, so not only is there no need to go through the hassle of paying – just press next-next-next and it’s done! – but hurray, halfway the year hubby congratulates me on spending the colossal amount needed for that free flight with BA! A reward for grocery shopping! Ain’t we clever! NY here we come! All shopping half price across the ocean! Pay with Amex! Earn free flights!)
Alas, after London bankrupted us, we decided to try our luck back in hometown Amsterdam. It’s been seven years since we last lived in the Netherlands. And… things have changed. Upscale supermarket ‘Albert Hein’ now does the Ocado thing. Yes, delivery right to your kitchen! OK, there is a small delivery fee (around 6 euros), but how much would driving to the supermarket be in gas (hypothetically spoken of course, since we haven’t bought a car yet).
So, after three live trips to the supermarket last week, where, besides going crazy over the amount of great cheese, Zwitsal, Drop, cute Miffy cookies etc., I also went insane from my two screaming children in the Phil&Ted (and so did the rest of Albert Hein). So I decided last Saturday to try out Albert (www.albert.nl).
And today he came… (more…)
Amsterdam! Dah… Dishwashing!
Can you believe it? This morning I spent at least 30 minutes of my very valuable 2KAAT time (2 kids are asleep time) on typing this/our first blog entry ever, and, of course, to make a long story short – I lost everything when I tried to include a hyperlink in the post. So far for trying to be a nerd!
Anyway, this was my first day alone (well, as far as alone goes with an 8-month-old baby boy and a 2 1/2 year-old daughter). Meaning – it was hubby’s first day at work here in Amsterdam. (He’s now sitting on his favourite spot playing with his new blackberry and laptop – thank god it’s a laptop – I keep hearing ringtones from that little room)!
I spent most of the day cleaning up our (well, Frank and Silke’s) little flat - kids in front of Baby Einstein – which is why I initially wanted to write something about a product I dearly miss (besides my dishwasher): my Dishmatique Scourer Washing Up Liquid Dispenser. It’s a truly brilliant invention Courtney got me hooked on about 2 years ago, and for some strange reason it can only be purchased in the UK. And mine is at the moment tucked away in one of our many moving boxes waiting for our new Dutch p(a)lace! Aaargh!
What it is? OK, it’s basically just a dishwashing sponge. But it has a reservoir that holds the dishwashing liquid and dispenses it as you wash! Brilliant! You can buy replacement heads that come in green and white – I prefer the green ones.
My mum is hooked as well, she has brought them with her to France and Belgium and has given them to all her sisters here in Holland. Because, as I said, it doesn’t seem to exist on the continent!
So I was nearly going to ask one of my London based girlfriends to send over a Dishmatique with a life supply of replacement heads, until I found this site:
British Sweet Shop
WoW! Michela, isn’t this GREAT? Not only do these people sell Dishmatique, they also sell our favourite organic baby food like Plum Baby, Hipp, even Ella’s Kitchen! For only 8 pounds you can shop for up to 30 kilo’s of British food and they will send it right to my doorstep here in Amsterdam!! Hurr(a)y!!!
-Esther in Amsterdam
Recent Comments