Eirik Stavem – to whom it may concern…

“Doing” Amsterdam in 2.5 days sounds like a huge task, but our attempt was made a lot easier by great guiding and entertainment by Jesper and Katie. Here’s a summary of our weekend:

Friday: arrived at Sciphol airport around 16.00, jumped into a taxi that took us to the hotel, and was installed in our room before 17.00. Our room at the Okura was really big, and of good standard. The bed could have been softer, but I don’t think I’ve ever stayed at a hotel where the standard rooms have really comfortable beds.

20.30: we’re sitting in our chairs in restaurant Ciel Bleu, toasting in a smooth dry champagne, waiting for the first of four (well, turned out to be six, after two “compliment of the chef”) courses. Here they are, in order:

Langoustine, langoustine and langoustine :
Langoustine Tartar style with pickled cucumber and Perle caviar.
Crostini with flattened langoustine, passion fruit and vanilla sea salt.
Avocado cream with langoustine and tepid custard of langoustine.

Turbot and black truffle:
Slowly cooked turbot with parmesan and black truffle, beetroot mousseline and dressing of “Villa Manodori” aceto balsamico.

Beef fillet and veal cheek
Fillet of Black Angus beef with veal cheek lacquered in lemongrass, potato cooked in chorizo oil and gravy of Jamaica pepper.

Dolce de Leche and banana
Ice mousse of dolce de leche and bronze tuile of banana, warm fritters of black chocolate and banana caramelized with brown rum.

Each course was accompanied by a wine chosen by the restaurant, all of them perfect matches.

We were really happy, extremely full, and quite tipsy when we made our way back to the hotel room to get some sleep before getting up early saturday morning.

Saturday: we had agreed to meet Jesper and Katie around 14.00 at their place, so we started the day walking around in the area surrounding our hotel. We stumbled upon the Albert Cuyp market, which was an experience in itself. Later on, after a tour of Jesper and Katie’s place, they gave me a perfect birthday-present: a Bodum coffee-maker and a bag of Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee. Me and Marianne are making ourselves a cup of this delicious and exclusive coffee tonight!

We got a guided tour of the Vondelpark, the museum quarter with the Van Gogh museum, Rijksmuseum, the Diamond musem, to mention some. We then proceeded downtown, and I can’t mention everything we did, so here are some short points:
• Walked through lots of streets with both known and unknown shops, lots of fun stuff to see.
• Saw the canals, with the great architecture of the buildings and houses near the canals.
• Had a couple of beers and bitterballen at Bar Arc.
• Saw some more of downtown Amsterdam, and of course the Red Light district.
• Walked past some coffee-shops, but never entered them.
• Had a great meal of venison steak at 18twintig.
• Rounded off a fantastic day with a glass of champagne at Jesper and Katie’s, before walking back to the hotel to get some sleep. We hope we can repay the favor by showing Jesper and Katie around Tromsø and the rest of the north some day, thanks guys!

Sunday: got up “early-isch” to get out to the airport early, so we had plenty of time to do souvenir- and taxfree-shopping. Used the airport express train, after spending 20 minutes figuring out how to pay for the tickets, since the machines only accepted local pin-cards, and there was a 30 meter line to the information-desk.

To sum it up, we really really enjoyed our stay, lots of it thanks to our great guides, but also because Amsterdam is a nice city to visit, and because the hotel and restaurants we visited were just magnificent.