Another Beanie Trip

Well, Andrea took me to Amsterdam, Holland this past weekend (Sunday to Tuesday) and had a brand spanking new camera and took lots of photos. Since she wasn't sure if the photos saved straight to a thing called Memory Card, she pressed lots of buttons when we got home and accidentally deleted all of the pictures!!! She got so mad that she got an upset tummy and couldn't get to sleep until one in the morning ...... I got very worried about her. I don't understand quite why she got so upset because it was an absolutely terrific trip that we both really enjoyed!! Even the weather was fab!!!

We did so much while we were there..... we got Coach to a place called Gat Wick Air Port (I've never been there before!) and got a thing called Air O'Plane which flies - a bit like a seagull! And we did a Flying to Amsterdam which was really exciting!!!!! We even got there 10 minutes early which Andrea said was to do with Wind. I never knew that eating beans made you fly quicker....

Then we got a double decker yellow train into Amsterdam and then got Tram Five into town. Tram Five's are fun!!! They make a loud Ding Ding noise!!! We got off at a place called Leidseplein and walked past a fountain, over Canal with lots of boats on it, and down to Vondel Park to stay at a StayOkay, which Andrea says is just like a Youth Hostel!!! They had muriels on the walls and I had a top bunk again!!! We had a view of the Park too!! After we unpacked, we had a walk up the road to Leidseplein again and bought some wonderfully smelly Italian soaps, that smelled of poppies and cyprus trees and olives and oranges!! They're lovely!! When we got hungry, we went to Mayur Restaurant, which is Indian. We had the Red Menu which has tandoori chicken and beef (which were totally yummy!!) and a yoghurt dip, a spinach curry dip, a potato and lentil dip and a couple of other ones too, and some pilau rice and a little nan bread and a little salad!! And we had a glass of mango juice which was completely yummy and we had icecream with chocolate sauce for pudding!!!! (Andrea says that since we don't have pictures, to say to look at http://www.mayur.nl/ for the restaurant).

On Monday, Andrea said we were doing something special. After breakfast, we walked through the park up to a Canal Boat company!!!! It's called the Blue Boat place (http://www.blueboat.nl/) and we got a ticket for a boat ride!!! We thought we'd get the 10 o'clock boat but we were the only people that turned up, so they had to cancel. We went for coffee in Leidseplein - and I found some special things on the way!!!! I found three green pull string bags from Holland Casino, that are exactly the right size for Beanie backpacks, a brown and cream braided wool thing that's exactly the right size for a Beanie scarf for when it's chilly, and - AND!! - a Holland Casino 100 coin!!! Andrea said that's worth lots and lots of money and I'm a Very Special Mouse to have found it!!!!! I was jumping up and down squeaking at the top of my voice for ages!!!

After coffee, we went back to the Blue Boat place for the 11 o'clock boat, and luckily other people turned up too, so we got to go on a boat ride!!! I had a seat right next to a window, and it was SOOOO exciting to watch us sail past all the house boats and under all the bridges!!! It was so much fun!!! After we got back, we walked up to a place called Dam Square, and stopped at the Flower Market on the way and found a lovely little Chinese art shop called Tah Wa, (http://www.tahwa.nl/) that sell chinese ink sticks and rice paper!!! Andrea said I could buy whatever I wanted because I was a Very Special Mouse!!! Then we went to Dam Square where we stopped at the Nieuw Cafe for lunch. We had French Onion Soup, which warmed us up perfectly! We also met some horses that were paid to pull little coach things. Andrea said that one of the horses looked just like a horse called Tanis that lives with Traveler in Nevada. Maybe they're related...?! We then walked over the square to a shop called Geels that sells tea and coffee. The shop smelled wonderful and we also bought some tea and coffee too!! THEN we walked down past a Post Office where I posted some of my postcards, and then to the Anne Frank house. There's a little statue of Anne near the Westerkerk which is near her house.

Then we walked back to Leidseplein, losing lots of art along the way - mostly tied to bicycle handlebars!!! They have lots of bicycles in Amsterdam!!! We stopped in the Grand Cafe and had an Irish Coffee which has whipped cream on the top. I got a big moustach of cream all over my nose and mouth!!!!!! On the way to dinner, we had a walk through the Vondel Park just as the sun was going down. It was all orange - and we came to a little lake that reflected the light - gosh it was pretty!!! When we got hungry, we went to a Chinese place that we'd passed on the way to the Indian restaurant on Sunday - called Tong Ah (http://www.tongah.nl/). We had Kong Po shrimp in a black bean sauce with Egg Fried Rice which was the bestest fried rice that I've ever tasted!!! We had jasmine tea that came out of a never-ending tea pot (it never ran out of tea!) and then we had profiteroles with icecream - the yummiest meal I've ever had ever!! They even have a dragon in the restaurant too!! Andrea says they dance at the Chinese New Year!!!

On Tuesday, after breakfast we had a slow walk up towards Dam Square again, stopping for coffee on the way. We had an early lunch at the Nieuw Cafe place - onion soup again!! - and then walked slowly up to Central Station. We got another double decker yellow train up to the Air Port, and then we had a chat with two moo cows at the Air Port. I never knew they had moo cows at Air Port, but they do in Amsterdam!! Our Air O'Plane got delayed by 15 minutes, and then they were slow telling us which gate it left from, so we had to make a mad run to make sure we got there on time!!! (we did!) We got another window seat coming back, and ended up being 30 minutes late on take off - but we still got back in time to get Coach back to Brighton!!!! We had such a wonderful trip!!!!!

Andrea was very upset at losing all the pictures though, but we got talking over coffee this morning. Andrea says that now she knows how to use the camera (she rang up the free helpline, who told her how it works!!) and she knows how much it costs to go to Amsterdam, it's possible that if she does some hard "money saving", maybe we can go again later this year. Oh that would be SOOO much fun!!! I hope we can!! Andrea said she'd even help me make a Beanie backpack specially for me out of one of those green bags I found!!!! Oh magic!