Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Dam Square

We headed up the narrow Dam Straat toward Dam Square (That's pronounced "Dom" for the American readers) looking in some stores along the way.
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Dam Square is always filled with people and pigeons and street performers, and a trolley runs right through it - it is a very exciting place to be. On one end stands the National Monument, which is in memory of those who died in WWII, and at the other end is a royal palace which you can see behind the orange street performer below.
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In 2003 we stayed at the Krasnapolsky which is on the Square. This time, we ate at a restaurant next door and had a very festive time in there keeping dry and discovering what fun things we ordered.
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When we left, the rain had stopped, so Paula burst into a musical on the steps of that restaurant on Dam Square.
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We walked down to the Rijksmuseum after lunch which I blogged about a little before. I could have stayed there for days, but time only allowed us a couple of hours. We saw the Night Watch by Rembrandt and The Little Street, Woman Reading a Letter and The Love Letter by Vermeer. I think they said The Kitchen Maid was out on loan.

7 comments:

pearlie said...

I see there is this Chinese shop in the street :) I can't read Chinese but I got so curious I took some time to try to figure it out - I think that is a restaurant. If I am not mistaken it should read Hai Cheng Da Jiu Lou - literally Sea Town Big Beer Building (combine 2 words, beer and building = restaurant), I think - coz I may be wrong!

Jewels said...

Pearlie- The Chinese restaurant we ate at in Heerenveen was called Lotus - did you ever hear of that? They had excellent food!

You're probably right about the big beer building in a sea town. They are by the sea and they love their beer!

pearlie said...

Nope, have not been to any Chinese Lotus restaurants. The Lotuses here are Indian fare.

I now realise what Hai Cheng means :) Cheng I think also means "walls", thus sea walls = Netherlands!

Jewels said...

Very clever Pearlie!

pearlie said...

Thank you thank you thank you ... I thanked my mother, my father, my brother, my ...

pearlie said...

thank! Pearlie, thank!

Jewels said...

You are too funny, Pearlie! :)