Day 15 – 30 Dec : AMS

I was pleasantly surprised by an early morning exit from the apartment. In all fairness we were home last night and didn’t have a particularly late one so there really isn’t anything to shout about but still, I’ll take this little victory. Ash had found a very cool coffee spot called Back to Black on Weteringstraat about 10 minutes away so that was the first stop off. The coffee was excellent but the highlight for me was the delicious, moist (yes, I used the word) and textural cinnamon bun, while the fresh butter croissant wasn’t too shabby either.

After breakfast we headed north towards “De 9 Straatjes” (translated as the 9 streets). It’s an intimate shopping area with picturesque streets connecting the canals and filled with boutiques, stylish cafés, galleries, vintage clothing stores and gift shops. Although a lot of the side streets don’t feature cars, they are accesible to bikes and you need to be switched on if you want to leave with both legs intact. I’ll just say locals who are using those streets everyday often tend to be in a rush and don’t feel rocks for some stoned kid who’s on his first overseas trip away from mom and dad. They will ride, toot their bells (if they can be assed) and proceed forwards at pace so be on the look out for that when crossing roads in the Dam… or die.

After a lot of browsing and some purchases (I’ll highlight my CATAN purchase – very stoked) we walked to SOJU Bar to meet Jonts & Cait for some Korean fried chicken and beer. I think it was on our travels to Asia back in 2019 when I first fell in love with Korean chicken so I was really looking forward to this. The menu is simple… it’s Korean style chicken pieces served as 8 or 12 pieces in a selection of flavours or you can get the lunch combo which comprises 5 pieces of chicken in the flavour of your choice and a beer.

We all went for the 5 piece chicken combo with myself and Cait opting for “Spicy sweet” (Dads famous Korean spicy sweet sauce) and Ash and Jonts got the “Soju Gangnam Style” (boneless chicken topped with Gochujang mayo sauce). It was the incredibly delicious bone in, spicy sweet flavoured chicken taking the unanimous win across the table. I’ll be back I promise!

We did a little more shopping that afternoon before heading home to shower and get ready for drinks at ARIE in De Pijp. Jonty had booked it for drinks pre the gig and invited Gareth to join. When we arrived Gareth (and Bulldog Steve) were already there with Jonts and Cait and we settled into a few Heinekens. A few too many I think… we had plans of eating at Bird (Thai) in Chinatown but by the time we arrived the queue was already snaking outside and onto the street.

We queued for roughly 30 minutes at Bird and were the next table in when we reached a last minute consensus to ditch our position and forage on towards the music. We walked at a pace towards Het Scheepvaart Museum where the gig was starting at 21:45 and made a beeline to “Sotto! pizza” to try and salvage a couple pizzas before the show. Gareth ordered 4 for takeaway which were all ready inside of 10 minutes for us to devour. We sat outside and folded those pizzas down our gullets like a pelican to a school of sardines.

2 minutes later we were scanning our entry tickets and making our way into this beautifully candlelit courtyard in the centre of the Het Scheepvaart Museum. The performers were the Lucerna Quarter – a string quarter comprising 3 ladies on violins and another on a cello. The setup resembled a boxing arena with the quartet at the centre and 360 degree seats surrounding them for a quaint and intimidate hour-long mash up of Rock 🎸 classics. Full set list below:

• Thunderstruck – AC/DC
• Paint It Black – Rolling Stones
• Kashmir – Led Zeppelin
• Nothing Else Matters – Metallica
• Smoke on the Water – Deep Purple
• Crying – Aerosmith
• Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd
• Under the Bridge – Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Come as You Are – Nirvana
• Everlong – Foo Fighters
• With or Without You – U2
• Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen

It’s difficult for me to describe just how talented they are when I have absolutely no prior experience on a violin or any string instrument. I had a brief stint on the saxophone in junior school which lasted about as long Liz Truss as PM before I realised I wasn’t going to be the next Charlie Parker let alone get into the school band.

For a little taster I’ll leave a video of them closing with Queen for you to be the judge.

We all walked down to the Centraal station and got the metro home for some rest. Tomorrow brings the last day of 2022 so it would be good to get about and about a bit before the joll begins 🎉. Thanks for an amazing trip Ashes x loved every minute.