Day 12 Amsterdam

Its 10am, queen and I discussed about meeting up for breakfast.  Since we don’t have cell phones, that’s our best way to figure out what our agenda of the day.  We have a whole day to tour around.  Poor queen, she couldn’t eat a lot of stuff there so she just end up with fruits for breakfast. 

We then decide to “bike the boat” aka paddle boat on the canals right next to Ann Frank’s house.  Queen was very pleased.  I think it is one of the few activities around that she really wants to do.  So Amsterdam isn’t that bad after all uh?  At least she liked the paddle boat and Ann Frank’s house.

After 1 hour of paddling, we end up at Rikki museum.   I think the governator of California went to this museum and recommended everyone to go.  Queen and I didn’t end up going inside cause this place is still under construction.  We then decided to check out Van Gogh museum since Charlotte suggested it.

On our way to Van  Gogh museum, we walked by this beautiful park.  The park has a huge sigh of “Amsterdam”.  The queen decided to take a picture next to the letter “D”.  However, we had to get in the line for it!!  There were two girls doing different model poses while taking pictures with the “D”.  And this is when the queen told me “Look, ‘D’, is so popular.  But it appears no one is taking picture of the ‘S’”.   So this is like the first time queen acknowledged that she is popular. 

We then finally arrived at the Van Gogh museum.  We pretty much spent like 2-3 hours there.  There were so much to see and so much to know about Van Gogh’s life.  It was very interesting to see how his drawing style changed overtime.  During his career, he was influenced by many other friends who are also artists.   He had many pieces that represent different styles of drawing at different stage of his life.  However, his life was just sad.  He couldn’t really support his family and he also struggles with mental illness.  At the end, he took his own life with many struggles in life.  What a tough life to be a painter.  But it’s okay, we now have the queen supporting a lot of local artist around Europe. 

After this, the queen ask me why is everything so sad in Amsterdam?  First Ann Frank’s house and then Van Gogh’s story.  I was like.. “fine, let’s go to red light district then”.  The Queen turned silent after that.

We then walked a long way to a park that the queen really wanted to check out based on her copied guide book.  It was a decent park, with waters and landscape.  We saw a lot of people hanging out around there.  It was a very pretty sight.  Well… except almost everyone was smoking weed there.  We walked around a little bit but the queen wasn’t pleased.  She complains that the park is still under construction and it is not very pretty.  Hmm.. I really don’t know what park will please her.  We then took off soon after. 

Next, we walked into this street market.  It was almost like a traditional market in Taiwan.  They sell food, fruits or many things you get to see at the grocery stores.  It was pretty cool, I grab a lot of snacks around and had a good time.  Meanwhile, the queen doesn’t appear to feel safe eating the food around.  The last thing I got was the popular fries in Amsterdam where everyone dipped fries with mayo.  I was grossed out by the mayo, so I had curry instead.  It was quite good!!  Even the queen was pretty happy with it.  What a great find!

So I am supposed to try the “brownies” in Amsterdam.  So I walked into a coffee shops for the first time and have the queen wait outside.  She thought the shop looks too shady and refused to go in.  I didn’t find “brownies” in their menu, but they do have something called “magic chocolate cake, magic raspberry cake”.   However, I have to eat them inside!!  Ah… I don’t want the queen to be waiting for me.   She will be displeased.  So I left and never got into another coffee shop there.  Will I regret that I didn’t get to try it?  Hm.. I dunno, so far I don’t think I miss it. 

Next, we end up at a strip where there are just tons of restaurant and shops.  The queen developed a craving for pork ribs.  So we picked a restaurant that has all you can eat pork ribs.  When we were there, the queen was trash talking how hungry she was and she can get like 4 refills.  Then…. She couldn’t even finish the first set!!!  Oh queen, always talks trash but got no games to back it up.   I end up have to eat some of her stuff.  I didn’t get any refills later.  Oh well, it was only 13 euros for a good meal. 

Then we decided to take a tram back to the hostel.  This is our first time taking the tram and we were not sure how to do it.   We got on the tram with other people and noticed everyone who got on didn’t look to pay.  Hmm.. maybe we pay when we get off?  Then we got off at a stop where a lot of people got off, too.   We didn’t pay a dime!!  I am not sure we were supposed to do that.  But with the queen around, you get away with things.  That’s one of the benefits having her around.

I wasn’t sure where we got off the tram, but I decided to walk around to find any major landmarks.  And we end up around the red light district again.  Except this time the queen seems to be less scared.  Good for her!  We basically took a last minute tour around the city and head back to the hostel.

On our way back to the hostel, we saw 4 cops pull over and rushing to this guy.  Then I noticed there is a guy sitting on the side of the street passed out.  He had his mouth open when the cop examed him.  He had no reaction to anything the cops do to him.  It appears this guy OD’ed.  Man.. I feel bad for the cops in Amsterdam, they must have to deal with stuff like this every day. 

Over all, I think this city is fun to tour but kind of messed up.  I don’t think I ever want to raise a family there.  I am glad to be living in the state and I will be heading back tomorrow.  It should be good to be home and finally sleep on my own bed.   Poor queen, she wasn’t looking forward to go back since she has to work.  Well, there is a pwc office in Amsterdam.  She could’ve hung out there a little bit and stay in Amsterdam longer.  She then replied to me with a big “NO!”.

Day 11 Brussels -> Amsterdam

Ring Ring… the phone went off.  I was still half sleeping…

Queen picked up the phone, it is a call from the hostel manager.   It is past check out time and we are not even up.  However, queen was able to use her sweet talking skills and have the hostel staff giving us 30 mins to get ready.  Something that the queen do the best.

So we scrambled our stuff together with 30 mins and head out.   Its about lunch time and we decided to have dim sum.   Well, we didn’t know what to eat around Brussels anyways but the Chinese food around has proven to be decent. 

The dim sum was good, queen was pleased.  We then walked to the train station to catch train to Amsterdam.  The ticketing is very slow!  We waited like 40 mins to get our tickets.  But we end up getting the next train on time.

When I get on the train, I noticed something….. “our seats are too nice”  I think we are in 1 class cabin.  So I told the queen that, then she is like “na… we will just stay.”  This is when I realized that Queen has a habit of getting away from troubles.  Which we actually did, they checked our tickets and never said a thing.  I guess the queen just has that kind of power with her all the time.

It’s a 3 hour train ride, and we finally arrives Amsterdam around 5pm.  As we are trying to find our ways around, I told the queen it is probably a 20 mins walk from the central station to our hostel.  The queen actually wanted to tough it up and walk…. Wow, am I not impressed or not?

Even it is a Christian hostel with no drinking or smoking allowed in the room, the queen is still not pleased.  She doesn’t like the idea of sharing room with other people….  I guess we have to keep that in mind if we have another trip coming up.  No hostels for the queen.

Our first stop was Ann Frank’s house, which queen insisted to go.  So we did.  I never really know much about Ann Frank’s story.  This is my first time to get to know more details about it.  Their story was very touching.  You can easily get emotional with their stories.  But the one person I admire is actually Otto Frank (Ann’s father).  He is actually a very smart person.  The way he put 8 person to hide from Nazi’s was very smart.  If they weren’t betrayed, they will probably be able survive to the end of the war.  He was also the only one out of the eight to survived the concentration camp.  I don’t think it was by luck, he just knows how to increase his chance of survival in those situations.  It was too bad that he couldn’t save his whole family.

After Ann Frank’s house, we decided to hit the main strip.  Queen and I had dinner at this Argentina food place.  It appears that there are many Argentina restaurants in Amsterdam.  Well, that means competition and good food.  She then ordered a steak but I ordered BBQ ribs.  She end up liking my ribs and stole some from me…..

I then led the queen to red light district.  It actually caught the queen by surprise as she wasn’t aware that we were already in red light district.  She actually was kind of freaked out when she saw a window with a hooker dancing around.  She then acted a lot better after that.  But I think that actually haunted her for a while as she kept talking about it afterward.

As we walked around, the queen said that she think all the hookers there have fake boobs.  We also talked about how tall and big some of the hookers are.  Wow.. I never thought we will ever have a conversation like this.  I guess the queen is not as pure and naïve as we think she is…

That’s it, our first night at Amsterdam.  The queen is expecting me to try a brownie tomorrow…

Day 10 Barcelona -> Brussels

We checked in to our flights.  Queen and I had to say goodbye to char.  *very sad*.  I always felt like my time with char always comes and goes very quickly.  Queen is very lucky to be living in the bay area and see her often.

While Queen and I waited at our terminal, someone walked by and took my backpack.  I reflected and screamed “HEY!”  few seconds later, I noticed it was char.  She found us at our gate and we chatted for a little longer before we head out.  Poor char, she has a very long flight home coming up.

Queen and I arrived at the Brussels airport few hours later.  Man… this is like one of the more confusing cities.  The train stops doesn’t matches the name listed in their book.  We wondered around for a while.  But with the help with few very friendly people, we finally arrived at the Brussels central station. Otherwise, we will ride past the station and who knows what will happen.

Our hotel is suppose to be close to the a subway stop, but queen insisted that she can walk.  So we did, we walked past the street market, grand place, CHINATown and finally arrived at our hotel next to a church.  It was a cute nice hotel, we have sky lights! 

After settling down, we walked around the street.  I have like 3 waffles today as Belgium is suppose to be famous with their waffles.  It is a very relaxing city, a lot of shops, restaurants.  All the major sights are within walking distance from each other.  And of course, queen spent more money on shopping.  We bought a lot of chocolates as gifts and few other items. 

I was looking for my Ronaldo jersey, but none of the stores have them.  One of the guys in the store keep calling me “Christino” to make fun of me.  Oh well, I end up getting a Kaka Brazil Nation team jersey instead.  Only 12 euros, good find!

We had no idea what to buy for lunch, since Belgium wasn’t famous with any main dishes.  We end up getting siu lon bao and Chinese noodles in Chinatown.  Their stuff is actually good, we believe we will go back for dim sum tomorrow.  Ah… getting Chinese food in Europe. 

The night comes really fast, we wanted to see how the grand place looks like at night.  So we walked there and they didn’t turn on the lights until 10pm.  We chilled there for a while and at 10:30am, we started to hear music.  We were first surprised and not knowing what’s going on, but then we realized they are having a light show here at the grandplace.  The lights shifted and changed color according to the music.  It was very beautiful, a good way to end our only night in Brussels.

Day 9 Barcelona

Today is our last full day at Barcelona.  Also our last day to hang out with Char *sad*.  Our plan today is to visit the Guadi park.  It is the park full of Gaudi’s designs.

After asking the hotel receptionist, we found that the park is only 20 mins walk.  I then follow the map to guide us through the park.  It was a long walk including some inclines.  The queen is falling behind most of the time, she is still sick… poor queen.

After a while, we finally arrived at the park.  We were not disappointed, the park is full of amazing structures that are similar to Sagrata Familia.  It is indeed one of the most unique park I have ever been to. 

I found a spot to have a picnic while there was a guy playing Spanish music next to us.  I felt very relaxed.  The food, the park, good weather, music and two wonderful friends, what else can you ask for?  We enjoyed this moment so much we end up buying the CD from this local Spanish artist.

It is hard to describe Guadi’s design.  It is very colorful but also blend right with the nature.  Unlike many other structure designs, you can put Guadi’s building right next to a flower garden and the two themes will match each other.  Very impressive.

We then packed up and decided to head to our last hotel next to airport.  We had to stop by la rumbas because queen wanted to pick up a Christino Ronaldo jersey that I have been looking for.  Dang queen, always steal people’s good ideas.  But I let her do it because I didn’t want to spend 30 euro to buy it.  My last Jersey only cost me 10 euro.  Let’s hope that this will be a good gift for the queen.  She always gets what she wants anyways.

Finally, we arrived at our Best Western Barcelona airport hotel.  It was very nice!  We especially like the modern design of their bathroom.  The water from the shower head comes directly from the top of you!  Very good pick indeed with a very reasonable price.

We then just chilled and played those “how well do you know” games in the hotel.  Good times.  I think I always enjoyed our time hanging out in the hotel just to chat and relax.  We stick around until 2am, slept for about 2 hours and then finally it is time to say goodbye and head to the airport.

Day 8 at Barcelona

I don’t remember what time we woke up, but it took us forever to get ready.  The queen is feeling better today and we decided to hit the la rumbas area again. Our mission: go to the beach and find the bracelet that the queen didn’t buy the first time.

We ate our super late dinner at the tappas tappas restaurant that we walked by the last time.  It was a great meal!  The queen really liked the mussels they had there.  I got a grilled mix seafood dish and it had excellent squids.  We liked this restaurant and will recommend to others who will come to visit Barcelona.

After meal, we walked to the street shops where local artists are selling their crafts.  The 54 euro bracelet the queen wanted was GONE!!  Someone else already got them and the queen was really disappointed.   It is okay, as we comforted her.

Two stores down, we found a store of a local artist that sells very colorful design of eat rings, bracelets and necklaces.  The prices are 15 euros and less, we really like his designs and we pretty much stayed there for one full hour.  After looking around, I end up getting 2 bracelets as gifts.  Then I walked away to chill around the area.  5 mins later, char called me back.  I wasn’t sure whats going on, but this is a starting of another drama.

The queen really liked one of the bracelets I bought and has demanded to exchange with me.  After few discussions, I end doing her bidding.  *sigh* my life of a servant.  She always gets what she wanted.

After that, we started to walk down to the beach.  The queen tried to apologize to me, but I’m like… you are not sorry!!  You are happy to rip me off….  Oh, this is what happened when you go on a trip with the queen.

After a very long walk, we finally reached Barcelona beach.  It is a sand beach but the water was not as  pretty as the beach in Nice.  Queen complains. 

We then settle down at the beach and I head into water with the queen.  It was fun!  I haven’t been to a beach for a while, it was great to try to catch a wave and land myself with many scratches.  Totally worth it!!

We then ended our night at two of our favorite restaurants by la rumbas and our hotel.  Somehow, when you find a good restaurant, you stick with it.