Amsterdam ABC's: Amstel, Boats, Canals

I started off my first full day in Amsterdam with a visit to TMC office and had a great meeting with Arthur de Ruiter - Europe manager of TMC. He showed me his office with a beautiful 10th floor view and introduced me to his team of 12. We had lunch at a small cafeteria nearby, and in true Dutch fashion every piece of meat was deep fried and covered in mayo or tarter sauce. No thanks! I opted for salad and some kind of soup that tasted like it was made with leeks, parsley and onions. Arthur informed me that the chef there was a retired chef from a famous restaurant and that he really takes pride in his food. The TMC employees make it a point to compliment him on his skills regularly, which results in VIP treatment from the chef at every cafeteria visit. :)

I returned to headquarters for the afternoon and spent my time meeting with Jason Knox, the Amsterdam trans branch manager (new as of 2012) and after that, the sales guy from Supply Chain Movement magazine. The sales guy got really heated up when I asked him how they measure the success of their magazine. He said "You Americans! It's always about "click rates" and "open rates" and all that rubbish. I base my success on personal relationships with all my subscribers. I KNOW what they like!" ;-) As he continued to hard sell us on his networking abilities, Sophie and I watched all the other people in the office take off early into the bright sunny day, wishing we could join them. One and half hours later, we thankfully got out and into the sun ourselves!

Sophie showed me her cool new scooter and I took my first tram in Europe back to the hotel. While riding through the city, I saw that there was a sand volleyball tournament going on right in the middle of some big festival going on. Wish I would have jumped out to watch for a few minutes. I never turn down a good sand vball tourney!

After we freshened up, I walked up to Sophie's apartment and she and her boyfriend, Nick, took me out on their boat for a tour of the canals.It was great to see Amsterdam from the locals perspective. I also learned that you don't need a license to drive a boat here, unless it's a really big one. That is so reassuring, isn't it? All the cool kids were out with their boats, their 90's neon sunglasses, and their sound systems blasting dance tunes as we went by. Lots of people also sit alongside the water, dangling their feet over the edges of the canals while they eat ice cream and soak up the sun.

We stopped at a landmark windmill brewery and picked up another colleague, Alex, and the four of us boated around the canals for a couple hours. Boat parking is a tough business because there are no reserved parking spots in the canals. You have to be territorial and push boats out of the way. When we got to Nick's spot, there were two boats already parked there. We proceeded to untie them and double park them outside of Nick's boat so they could still get out. Soon after we parked, another boat tried to triple park outside of the other one! Unbelievable.

After the boating adventure we walked all over town across cobblestone streets, dodging crazy bicyclists, looking for a restaurant that had available seating, but they were all full. We finally found a cute little place called Nel, nestled on a large outdoor terrace, that had seating available at 9:00pm and we finally had our dinner in hand by 9:30pm. I was so hungry I would have eaten the table itself. Thankfully, I didn't have to! I had a lovely lemon sole fillet with veggies, mashed potatoes and an apple cake for dessert, called "Appleschnitt".

After dinner, I walked the 1.5 miles back to the hotel, enjoying the evening air and sounds of the city. Amsterdam is the type of place where you can feel very safe walking around by yourself. I really like that because it saves so much money on taxis and trams. 

A note to my sister, who thinks I am gorging myself on food while on my "European vacation": I promise that I will still fit into that bridesmaids dress when I get back! :) I probably walked 4-5 miles today after 5pm, and I'm avoiding a plethora of deep fried meats. I think my arteries will also thank me later.