Day 23 - Book Fair and Spareribs in Amstherdam

Jim and I woke up and took our time getting ready...we are on vacation after all. I was able to wake up to some warm croissants and coffee. We left our cozy little houseboat and walked to the Book fair taking place in a square near the flower market. Jim wanted to take care of some business on this trip and needed to sort through some books. I looked through briefly and then walked into a few shops along the streets. I
also found an internet cafe to entertain me. About an hour and half later, Jim was done with the book fair and said he was able to get enough books to feel satisfied.

We had decided the night before that it would be really fun to go to a football (soccer) game in Amsterdam, so we were on a search to find tickets. We walked all over for a long time on a little bit of a goose chase to find tickets for tonight's game. We walked down the major shopping streets and saw the Queen's palace. We made our way towards where the tickets would be on sale, and stopped for a quick lunch. It was delicious, we just found a cafe overlooking a canal and Jim had a soup which he loved. I enjoyed a nice salad and we were happy to rest where it was warm. After our cozy little lunch we walked around a market right across the canal and Jim found a few buckets full of swiss army knives, wine bottle openers, etc for €1. He was very excited to walk away with a bottle opener/corkscrew/knife with a wooden frame. We walked around the market for a while looking at all the interesting things. We finally found the shop called Primera where they sell football tickets, but the cute British behind the counter told us the game was sold out and you have to have a special club card to get in. :( So we purchased a Time Out magazine for Amsterdam and the cute British boy told me to have a good holiday and said Cheers as we left. So we made the walk home through sand to drop off Jim's books.

It felt great to get inside our cozy little houseboat and we relaxed for a little while. We flipped through the Time Out magazine to find what has happening that weekend, but we striked out on things to do. After a little while we left to walk around before dinner. We intended to take the street car to make our journey a little easier. We waited for about 10 minutes in the cold before we finally gave up and decided to make the walk to where we were going. We stopped in a cute little art gallery to admire all the art. Some of it was quite interesting and some of it was really great. They had a really cool hand sketch of three ostriches, it was so cool! I couldn't bring myself to buy it, but I thought it was the coolest looking thing ever!

We walked down the main street and stopped in some shops for shopping. I wanted to admire the boots, which Jim quietly went along with. We made our way to what Jim suggested was a really cool postcard shop with all kinds of different postcards. We got lost for a little while, but Jim was able to find the location. But when we arrived we saw the cool postcard shop had been bought out by a card store chain, and it just wasn't the same. I was really disappointed.

We walked back to the main street and found the little ice rink Jim had admired the night before. We decided on a nice Irish Pub next to the ice rink for a drink. I had an Amstel beer and Jim had some whiskey. We soon found out a promotion for Bushmill Whiskey was happening and they were going around to each table offering free whiskey. Jim and I took them up on the offer, while we listened to a good looking Irish man explain the whiskey to us. Jim decided he liked him previous Jameson better, and I decided I didn't like Bushmill at all. But while the man was talking to us, they took video of our conversation and picture after picture of Jim and I drinking the whiskey. So who knows, Jim and I might end up in a whiskey commercial sooner or lather!

After the Irish Pub we made our way to Jim's favorite Argentine restaurant for some spareribs. On the walk over we walked passed many men in football uniforms cheering loudly in the streets. I think it was a little glimpse into Amsterdam during the summer months. We walked there in the cold and we were both happy to settle into our seats for dinner. We sat next to a large table full of very drunk men. We each
ordered a plate of spareribs with French fries and a half lither of wine. It was delicious, it didn't taste like ribs from home but it was still delicious.

We went next door to a coffee shop to hang out for a little while before we finally made the cold walk home. Once we got home we intended to rest for a while and go out lather in the evening to see the red light district. It was about 10:00 now, but we still had time for lather. But once we were curled up on the couch with our wine glasses and time was nearing 11, we decided to stay in for the evening.

I was a little relieved to be home for the night as the day progressed I started to not feel very good and my cold was starting to get worse. I had a sniffily nose and I was happy to be curled up in my big fluffy blanket. We stayed up a bit lather and finally went to bed. I took some medicine to help me breathe and I was out for the night.