Books, Tea, Time, and The Droste Effect in Amsterdam

Day two in Amsterdam was recovery day. I did a little grocery shopping at the Albert Heijn, made sandwiches, and did a lot of napping. I blogged about finding a copy of The Olympia Reader and the famous scandal surrounding Lolita. Day three however after enough rest this wicked girl was ready to hit the town a little bit.

So I headed to Centraal Bibliotheek. It's located between Centraal Station and the NEMO Science Center in front of the massive floating Chinese pagoda restaurant. You can't miss it. It is afterall the biggest library in Europe.

Inside I managed to discreetly snap photos for the purpose of this blog. See the world's best reading/writing chairs are inside the Amsterdam central library. I tried to find online who designed them and how to get my hands on one, but so far nothing has turned up. Here are some pictures, if you know who made them or where to buy them I would be most thankful for the tip.

I headed up another level to take a look at some of the books in the Centraal Bibliotheek's "Amsterdam" collection and ended up finding a book (in Dutch, English, German, and French no less) about the pews of the Oudekerk (The Old Church, Red Light District) and learned a new word in the process.

miserichord: (sometimes named mercy seat, like the Biblical object) is a small wooden shelf on the underside of a folding seat in a church, installed to provide a degree of comfort for a person who has to stand during long periods of prayer.

I also had a seat to enjoy the view, another reason besides books to visit the Centraal Bibliotheek.

One last snap of possibly Satanist magazines in the religious magazine section, and I was back out on the street.

I wandered around and fell upon this creepy, creepy thing I had made a note in my notebook to try and pass by again for the purposes of getting a photo for my blog. Isn't it horrible and yet quite amazing in it's own way? It's in the window of a Dutch restaurant on Zeedijk.

Another random Amsterdam window, this time instead of taxidermy there's a tiny world beyond the glass.

I had lunch again at Thaise Snackbar (Zeedijk) and it was as delicious yet again. I will eventually eat at another restaurant and possibly one day vacation in a different city. Until then, the pad thai was too good for words.

The plan was to first go to the Waterlooplein market to find an old Droste Dutch coccoa tin. I saw about seven the other day and could barely find one when I went back specifically to find the damn thing. I finally found one and a cute little milk jug and sugar bowl set. Total for everything was 5,00 euros.

I wandered back up towards Nieuwmarkt towards a secondhand bookstore called The Book Exchange because I wanted to browse for some books, but I found the passage of books again (on the same street at TBE, but before Ruusland street) and bought some there first. Then I went to The Book Exchange and bought some there too.

The new plan was to find an art store and buy the supplies necessary to make my Tardis themed notebook while having tea and Dutch brownies. I planned to make from scratch meatballs and spaghetti sauce for dinner. I found the supplies (less than 30,00 euros and will probably be enough materials to make several Tardis themed notebooks) and then it started to rain so I popped into The Bushdoctor Coffeeshop to have a smoke and wait it out.

Once home I did have tea and brownies and homemade spaghetti and meatballs with foccacia bread and I did watch Monty Python and The Holy Grail, but didn't get to the Tardis notebooks. Tonight I suppose will be leftovers and Tardis. Will have to watch some old episodes of my favourite Doctor (I guess it's probably David Tennant).

Enjoy some random A'dam photos:

Swans and bicycles on a bridge near Waterlooplein.

Near this bridge. (See above.)

Postcard I personalised for a friend.

My moleskin pages from yesterday with my spirograph.

Another postcard (Nirvana) to send to my neighbour's son.

This might be a bad translation, but "Bread has a point"? Please help if you speak Dutch!

From under my umbrella...

Yes Pizarro, what have you done??

Odd car.

Books bought. A few Tardis supplies.

Tea, books, Droste tin, tea set, Tardis supplies.

Yummy.