Amsterdam (Part Three): Culinary Delights, Windmills, Clog making, and more

People have commented that our travels revolve around food a lot. Some of our best travel memories stem from food. We don't necessarily consider ourselves food snobs, but we do gravitate towards more complex flavors and aesthetically pleasing plating. And to us, food plays a huge part in learning new cultures. Our trip to Amsterdam was no exception. We had an array of cuisines-even had Indonesian for the first time. Did you know that Indonesia was formally a Dutch colony? The influence is still around with many of its restaurants dotted around town.

Lobster flown in daily from Nova Scotia- closest I will get to Maine Lobster, YES PLEASE!

Don't get me wrong, I love European pastries but sometimes I just miss the buttery and fluffy American style cupcake. We found a cute little place that does just that with a Dutch twist. Super yummy!

Indonesian Rice Table- we got to try 25 different dishes

In between eating our way through Amsterdam, we did a half day trip to Zaanse Schans. It's a small little village just outside of the city. The village is famous for their working windmills and other Dutch traditions like wooden clog making. Sure, it's touristy but lots of fun.

video of the inside the oil windmill that was built even before the United States was formed!

Wall of clogs! And yes, we did bring home two pairs.

And to wrap up our trip, here are some other random things I saw around town.

Hobbit-sized doors all over the city.

LOVED the bicycle traffic lights!

Pedal-powered drinking bus (apparently, these are popular in Europe-we've seen them in London and Budapest also).

See the hooks on each house? That is there for moving purposes. Since the stairs are very narrow and steep, it would be impossible to move furniture or anything bulky from inside of the homes.