After checking out from La Lys and taking our bags back to the car in the underground parking for storage we headed for breakfast at Luv L’oeuf (love the egg). It was recommend to us by the owner of NOMAD in Bruges. We had oat cappuccinos and very glutinous waffles 🧇. Ash ordered the fried chicken – crispy fried chicken on a cheddar waffle , fried egg, Canadian maple syrup, chipotle mayo and homemade pickles. I went for the crispy bacon and melted Brie on a cheddar waffle with truffle honey , walnuts and balsamic-marinated pears. Yummy!
Feeling the need for some cultural stimulation we signed up for the self directed audio tour of the Gravensteen Castle in the heart of the old town. The current castle dates from 1180 and was the residence of the Counts of Flanders until 1353. It was subsequently re-purposed as a court, prison, mint, and even as a cotton factory. It was restored over 1893–1903 and is now a museum and a major landmark in the city. What we didn’t know about the tour was that the audio would be so absurd and strange. It was the voice of an older Flemish man (speaking English of course) who kept banging on about what he believed happened in each of the rooms in the castle.
There were 18 audio stops along the tour and although some were informative and factually depicted history, quite a few of them were him trying to be funny, but actually just being creepy and prompting uneasy/confused facial expressions from the visitors who sat or stood in each of the rooms with the audio devices pressed against their ears. In one room he droned on about the count and his wife (they were 13 and 14 years old at the time) engaging in a love scene at the fireplace and in another he recounted his top 5 torture scenes which were carried out in the basement level torture chamber and on the city streets for public view.
Needing a drink after this we exited the tour and took some steps down to their winterbar on the castle site. It was beautifully lit down their and Ash and I had some Belgium blondes while I blogged a bit and she planned our run for Amsterdam before we found ourselves in one of those torture chambers.
I called Jonty to let him know we were hitting the road and greeted him with a hello “bokkie” (soft, loving word) instead of “boychie” (strong, masculine word) which I had been trying to say. We had a laugh about this because I had had one Belgium beer and in classic Jonty fashion he accused me of having a one beer screamer. In my defence I was actually feeling fine and proved this by driving the next 3 hours to Amsterdam. The roads were surprisingly open for a Friday afternoon , especially given it was the last of official work day for many of 2022. We did a bit of rush hour traffic on the outskirts of Antwerp but other than that it was smooth sailing into Amsterdam. My highlight of the trip was Ash’s music playlist derived from all Shazam’s she had done as well as the 5 lane highway entering Amsterdam. It has to be the greatest joy of driving when you pick a lane, a speed and drive uninterrupted for a lengthy period of time.
Once in the city we unpacked our bags at Murray and Cara’s apartment. They are in CT for the holidays and kindly offered up their beautiful apartment to us for the week. We then parked our car in yet another underground, this time it was Weesperzijde, located along the east side of the Amstelriver, a short 25 minute walk from the apartment. Not having the car right outside doesn’t bother me as, much like London, everything is accessible by public transport or a short stroll. Also the amount of cyclists on these roads is no joke and flattening one of them like a pannenkoek just before Christmas isn’t a gift I want to give. We ordered an Uber Eats delivery of Tom Ka Kai, spicy beef noodles and a chicken Pad Thai from Baibua Thai and settled into the new “Knives Out – Glass Onion” movie on Netflix.
We weren’t even half way through the soup starter when Jonty messaged and said we should pull in for a drink down the road (500m away to be precise) as they were having dinner at Five Brothers Fat Zuid with Em Puggia. Let me just mention now that I only learnt the name of the place much later on in the night. Not wanting to disappoint an old and dear friend we scoffed down the food so quickly it would cause indigestion for most, and messaged him back for directions and the name of the place they were at. Jonty, being a bit of a phone addict, had enabled Sleep mode on his phone which kicks in at 20:45 each night. His initial message was sent to us at 20:43. So when I responded about 10 minutes later saying we are ready to pull in he didn’t get the notification on his phone and therefore didn’t respond. I tried him several times over the next hour and even messaged Cait. Guess what? She also enables Sleep Mode. What’s going on with the world? I was all but changed into my pyjamas by the time he responded with the name and address of the place and Ash was in a deep sleep with a face mask on and cucumbers over her eyes. Ok I’m being a bit dramatic but it was a long, quiet wait for a response. Here I am spying on Jonty at the restaurant waiting for him to look at his phone … see below.
Being the great mates that we are we sprung into action, grabbed our things and walked the literal 6 minutes to the restaurant. It was that close! Jokes aside, It was awesome to see them all again as the last time we saw Jonts, Cait and Em was at Easter when we visited. We settled into a couple Moscow Mules and chatted for a good couple of hours before calling it a night. Em was off to the south of the Netherlands for Christmas and was then heading back to SA and Londolozi Game Reserve for new years, while we were all opting for the colder Dutch winter “hell week” (joll week after Christmas) but I was ok with that. Let the festivities begin.
KEEP RIGHT PASS LEFT 