What I remember of the first day

We got to Amsterdam about 45 minutes early. This is the only kind of flight where you don't want to get in early. Flights from them US go overnight and get in early morning, before rooms are customarily available at hotels, so early means more time at the hotel uncomfortably and at times desperately waiting. Even on the best of flights, and this one was fine, you sleep maybe a couple of hours, and when you get in you're dying to just lie down.

Ronnie and I both got a bit of sleep on the flight, which kept us from being completely miserable the moment we got here. Nonetheless, I've spent more enjoyable times on my vacations than waiting in a lobby for a room to become available. The Hotel Pulitzer, recommended by a friend, is a very nice hotel, and we were able to pass the time in not too uncomfortable circumstances.

I was concerned, though, because, as we Jews are inclined to forget, there's a segment of the population that thinks the Sunday after the first day of Passover is special in some way. And when we asked the concierge at the hotel, he thought that most things would be closed today. So the combination of no room and nothing to do was not too palatable. But was it turned out, there were a pretty decent number of things open. The Dutch are definitely not what you would describe as a devout people. In fact, when looking into what you could do on Easter, one thing I saw that you almost certainly couldn't do was go to church. Most churches here have been closed and put to other use.

So we got a canal view room

and took a nap, and it took me only about 10 minutes to find something that looked like fun. There's a Sunday market the first Sunday of each month, and they had lots of special activities planned, as translated from Dutch inimitably by Google,

Inside:
Making Easter workshop Candy Cottage at The Bread Art Club 
Easter workshop Chickens Hooks "and" Chick PomPom tinkering 'at Mill Girls 
Eggs painting in the kids corner 
Chocolate egg hunt over the terrain 
3D printing of egg cups at Foundation CRE8 
Free Buttons the designs of Nik-Nak design 
Live draw Luigi Jansen 
Let portraits in manga style signs in Tokyo Doll 
Have your face painted at Nida Jut 
let you predict future Karin Rabbit 
Let your funky cut by Judith 

Let feather extensions in your hair put in Feathers by Marieke 

Yes. Hairstyling. But ultimately, it was a big  indoor/outdoor street market with a least a couple of hundred stalls selling everything from kids' clothing to lamb skins to Tupperware to glassware and pottery and a bunch of food stands, which featured foods from around the world. We each had a plate of pinxtos, which are the Basque version of tapas. Very yummy. And we spent a very pleasant hour walking around the market and adjoining park.

Afterwards, we came back to the hotel and strolled around the neighborhood, which was about 50-50 open-closed. It was chilly out, but very pleasant. Back then, for another nap, after which I went for a long walk, past lots of Coffee Shops, which were 100% open. It ended up being a very nice day for an arrival day after an overnight flight that I'd expected to be nightmarish.

Dinner was at a local joint that we'd seen recommended that offered typical Dutch food. This, of course, brought up the inevitable question of what the actual name of this country is. Apparently, it's The Netherlands, which is a kingdom, of which North and South Holland are part. Amsterdam is in North Holland. Why the people are then called Dutch is another matter and far too confusing for this writer after this particularly long day.

So I had that typical Dutch main course, spare ribs, which by the way, was by far the most popular dish in the place based on what I saw the waiters carrying. They were fine. I also had a Dutch shrimp cocktail (hey, it's Easter, no kosher stuff for me) which was quite good and made up of a couple hundred of the tiniest shrimp I've ever seen. And of course, an indigenous beverage served in its indigenous flagon.

So all in all, a pretty decent day for a first day in Amsterdam. Off to the museum tomorrow.