David and I had a fantastic day off this past Monday, and in great part because the weather was beautiful and we spotted signs of SPRING! Crocuses sprung out of the ground and green buds have appeared on trees. There is more sunlight in a day, it seems, and we can just taste warmer, sunnier times ahead with some green on trees!We spent Monday morning doing our usual Monday domestic up-keep: sleeping in (self up-keep), grocery shopping at the Natuurwinkel and other local food shops, catching up on emailing and the like. Boring, perhaps, but we find having the time to complete these tasks very exciting and their completion rewarding. These days, we calibrate the "success" -- use-wise -- of our time outside of the theater by the activities with which we fill it.
And we got a lot done on Monday --
(David with an interesting statue near my Indiana Jones Osteopath's office...)At noon, I had an appointment with an osteopath, whom I decided is like a Dutch Indiana Jones in professor mode: handsome, scholarly (seeming), slightly mysterious. His name is Wijbe Reijenga, which means I will never call him by his full name. I can just kind of pronounce his first name enough to hint at his name. (VEE-BA) He does not speak much English and mumbles various things in Dutch to himself during my examination and treatment, but he is thorough, nice, and has given me an interesting insight into my chronic back problems: my colon is turned in, thus pulling my back muscles. What Wijbe does is to deep massage my stomach (colon, intestines, etc.) -- it hurts a lot, I never knew how tense my stomach was. But I did feel more opened up afterwards, and I don't think one should have a tense stomach, so the deep tissue massage is a good idea, I think. I have seen him twice now, and most recently, I had been suffering some severe stomach aches and cramps. After my appointment with my Dutch Indiana Jones Doctor, I felt much better.
(People eating outside De Belhamel... one would never know from this photo that it is still a bit chilly outside!)Our day continued on in a lovely fashion -- we had a wonderful late-afternoon lunch at De Belhamel. In Amsterdam, if there is sun and no rain, people come out to eat outside, even if it's still a bit chilly, even downright cold. Restaurants and households alike can be seen lugging out tables and chairs from inside to set them up along sidewalks. David and I did not eat outside, as we did not want our food to get cold... but we had a great table inside that looked out onto the Brouwersgracht canal. We ate basking in the early spring sunlight.
(David looking out from De Belhamel interior... very pensive...)And then off we went bicycling down Herengracht to the southern part of Amsterdam, to Utrechtsestraat, where there are various clothing shops. Here, we engaged in some retail therapy. Very nice. Then we cycled back home and headed out to the movies, where we saw Step Up 2. The dancing was fantastic in it -- AWESOME, in fact -- we very much enjoyed it. Much better than the first one. We then ate at Restaurant Visaandeschelde, which is a "fish restaurant" -- and so much more. I have decided that this is one of my favorite restaurants in Amsterdam. A little out of the way, but the menu is inventive and delicious, while being relatively light due to the fish-centric menu. The people are nice, and the restaurant is buzzy even on a Monday night. We came to Vissandeschelde last Monday, too, after seeing the movie Jumper. Last week, the Prince of Netherlands was just leaving as we arrived, and we sat where he had been sitting, to the excitement and apparent envy of our waitress. Strangely, we forgot to bring our camera on both of our trips to the restaurant, so we have no photographic records... but it is a fantastic place, and we had a great time both times. David feels that the creme brulee is one of the best he has had thus far in our extensive traveling and eating.
Excellent day off all around! And now it's full steam ahead through previews to opening night!
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