365 days of awesome: Banff Marathon Training

I don't have a lot to recap for week 10/11 because I did almost nothing!

Week 10...

Tues: nothing? Went for Covid tests.

Wed: more nothing. Went for more Covid tests, because I was confused.

Thurs/Fri: Flying forever. I spent the whole week panicked over Covid testing: I understood the testing entry requirements for NL to be a negative PCR within 48 hours of your flight. I did not consider that it could be from the connecting flight, not the originating flight, and the Verifly app (which is HOT GARBAGE) wouldn't accept our original covid tests because they were 48 hours from our AUS-DFW flight, but more than 48 hours from our DFW-AMS flight. In a panic, we went and got a second test on Wednesday, but we didn't have results by the time we had to leave for the airport, and we still hadn't checked into our flights 3 hours before we were scheduled to leave. B was acting like I was a crazy person, but I was like 64% sure we wouldn't be getting on a plane that day.

But, the agent checked us in with our original tests and everything was fine and we had a generally easy flight, and I even managed to sleep for a few hours. For some reason, B didn't wake me up for breakfast (why??), so when we finally landed in Amsterdam, I was famished.

Passport control was easy, we figured out the train and metro super quickly, and made it to our hotel within an hour. We spent the day wandering around with no specific plans.

The crookedness of these houses freaked me out all weekend.

We ate at Ter Marsch near the Bloemenmarkt. Every chance I got, I ordered french fries, bitterballen, and beer. I liked this beer so much I bought some to bring home.

B: Are you really going to pet that dog?
Me: ....do you even know me?

I like him.

Sat: We'd booked a tour of the Anne Frank House and a canal cruise this day! We picked up delicious mini pancakes with nutella on our walk over.

The tour was hard, but moving, and even though I feel very familiar with the story of Anne Frank and the circumstances that led to this space, it was well worth the time.

After that, we walked around for awhile, through Dam Square, and then into the Jordaan neighborhood and we ran into a giant farmers market where I ate so much cheese.

We grabbed lunch at Bar Kartel where I had (surprise) more bitterballen and more beer.

Oedipus came highly recommended from a couple friends, and they were right, it was delightful!

After stopping at the hotel to pick up our coats, we headed back out to get to our canal cruise! I took a ton of pictures, but they all essentially look like this:

Canals, boats, skinny tall buildings.

We booked an evening cruise during sunset, and it was lovely - by the time we were heading back, the bridges had lights up and everything looked beautiful.

I'd booked an Indonesian restaurant for dinner - and ordered literally everything.

Rijsttafel

The dishes are all Indonesian, but the concept of this gigantic spread of things is colonial, from the days when the Dutch plopped themselves in Indonesia and wanted to show off and impress visitors with the bounty of this land they colonized. This meal was so good, and everything I hoped it would be - the dark tiny dish on the bottom right is some sort of chicken that my grandmother used to make for us, but she died before I could get the recipe from her. I tried, but she always avoided the question, and would only say, "chicken, there's soy sauce, a lot of things". At dinner, I tried asking the owner of the restaurant (it was a very small place, he was very chatty), and he was like, "Chicken, soya sauce, that's it, things!". IDK what it is with Indonesians and this specific dish, but it's apparently a big secret. As was their "house cocktail - a tropical delight".

Anyway, if you're in Amsterdam, and specifically looking for traditional Indonesian food, Srikandi is great.

Sun: Sunday we moved from Amsterdam to Utrecht for a few days! Even though 48 hours in Amsterdam was not nearly enough, I was excited to scoot to somewhere a little quieter and less chaotic, and it was a good location between our Monday plans and the airport Tuesday. We had no real plans for the day, and just spent the day wandering around again and popping into whatever looked interesting.

idk

We had dinner at another Indonesian restaurant, Spice Monkey.

I haven't had a spekkoek I didn't make in 20 years?!

Another mystery "house tropical cocktail"

I really liked Utrecht and it's worth a day trip!

Mon: One of the reasons Netherlands has been on my travel bucket list was because my grandparents lived here for a long time, and they always told us how much they loved it. They were both Indonesian, of Dutch & Swiss descent; during the Japanese invasion of Indonesia during WW2, they were lucky to both survive and after the war were able to eventually repatriate to Switzerland and then the Netherlands, and settling in The Hague. I've seen so many pictures of their home there, and on their visits back when I was little, they always sent postcards from the Hague, the beaches, the miniature village park nearby. So even though this was a very short trip, visiting the place they considered home was a priority for me.

After a quick train ride, we hopped on a tram down to their old neighborhood and like a creepy creeper, I stood outside their old home and took pictures.

Sorry, new homeowners.

Then we spent the rest of the morning wandering around looking at all the embassies, palaces, and fancy buildings.

Binnenhof, Dutch Parliament

After lunch, we hopped back on the tram for our second destination of the day, the North Sea! B only asked for two things this trip - to see the Red Light District (eyeroll) and the beach (what), so we headed to the beach town of Scheveningen. The water was very cold, and it very sandy. I do not like the beach in Holland any more than I like it in the States, but I had a nice beer on the pier and more french fries.

Then we headed back on the tram to the train for our third stop of the day, Gouda - home of the delicious, delicious cheese. We only had a few hours here, so we did a quick loop of the city center around the canal and then stopped in the town square for dinner.

I'm not linking to where we ate because the food was good but the service was exceptionally bad even by European standards and we didn't get everything we ordered after a two hour wait. What we did get was good, especially the beer.

Plus fries and bitterballen, of course.

By the time we headed out, it was dark and cold and we had to rush to catch the train before it switched to every hour service. I spent the rest of the night watching Texas weather in a panic because there was a tornado breakout in Austin and my kids were all at home in my brand new house and I was freaking out.

I shared this with my kids, and they were not as amused as I was.

Tues: Woke up early for our Covid tests at the train station before we headed back to the airport. Tried to use the Verifly app again, and somehow this time it was just fine and we got checked in for our flight on the train en route.

We got to the airport in plenty of time for breakfast, and then some time to lounge in the lounge - I've never lounged in a lounge, and I know this was not a pre-Covid lounge experience (super crowded, some minimal food choices) but I'm never mad about free snacks and beer.

I was able to get an upgrade offer to business class for our TEN HOUR flight, and it was the best $300 per person that I've ever spent in my life. I drank a shitton of champagne, napped, watched movies, and drank more champagne. It was A DELIGHT. The only downside is that now I'll forever know what I'm missing out on when I don't upgrade.

ice cream sundae!

A million years later we landed in Dallas then Austin and then came home. The end.

I'll summarize the rest of this week as: a fuckton of work catchup and nothing else.

Sat: I was supposed to head out of town for a girls' weekend with my running group for a half marathon, but decided I was too exhausted and wiped out to do anything, so I didn't go, and spent Saturday cleaning the house, watching tv, grocery shopping, and arranging flowers. It was nice for me.