Do you ever have days where you just feel so grateful to be alive? Well I had one of those today, more about this later in the blog,

We took advantage of another early start today to wander the streets before the city wakes up again, this time following a different route. I can never get sick of wandering around this city.

Once back at home we enjoyed an omelette for breakfast and I set about sorting out this blog transferring the first few days from the Find Penguins to this WordPress blog. Bit of a pain in the arse but it is what it is, hopefully anyone happy to read this can do so much easier now.

So today was a day Amy has been looking forward to for ages, the Sinterklaas Parade. The weather was sensational as we walked from home to Rembrandtplein. The sun was out and we wished we had brought our sunnies at one stage. It was great to finally get outside centrum and enjoy some more of Amsterdam.

We had arrived a couple of hours early so we wandered a bit further on to check out Waterlooplein as I wanted to visit the statue of Baruch Spinoza, a philosopher who lived in the 17th century. I have been learning about Spinoza over last few months and I am inspired by him. He is regarded as the first true philosopher of modernity and arguably the greatest philosopher of liberalism. He is described by Bertrand Russell (1945; 569) as “the noblest and most loveable of the great philosophers. Intellectually some others have surpassed him, but ethically he is supreme.” Before I go off on a tangent I will do special blog about my thoughts on Spinoza later today.

After taking in the canal views at Waterlooplein and taking more photos, just can’t help yourself, it’s just such a beautiful city, we wandered back to Rembrandtplein and enjoyed some delicious ghluwine and olliebollen at a pop up bar. It was about now that I experienced such a great feeling of gratefulness to be alive and felt so privileged to be be in Rembrandtplein today. Charlotte mentioned yesterday that her favourite Dutch word was gezelligheid, and I have to agree. Amy and I shared a feeling of gezellig as we waiting for the parade to occur. We were just so happy to be here enjoying each other’s company.

The crowds started to grow and there were kids everywhere, many dressed up as Zwarte Piet and the atmosphere and energy in the air was great for the soul. It was so much fun to watch the parade and see the joy on the faces of the kids around us. The emotions the parade invoked within me were very strong and had me thinking about our climate crisis and our moral obligation to make sure we ensure a future for these kids and future generations. We must put all our efforts into tackling climate change so these kids have a planet to grow old in. I believe a big part of addressing climate change and its causes it to rewrite our mission statement as humanity and as mentioned earlier this is something I am passionate about. Before I head off another tangent perhaps this may also be a special blog later in our travels.

After the parade we stopped in at a bar on Rembrandtplein for another ghluwein and some bittenballen and watched as the crowds dispersed. It was getting a bit colder now so the hot ghluwein was appreciated. We wandered back towards home, going a different route this time but found ourselves back in Dam Square where there was a sizeable crowd enjoying the musical show.  Amy was keen to suss out de Bijenkorf, a fancy department store on Dam Square, she was impressed by their Christmas decorations, lucky we don’t have space in our bags otherwise we may be lugging some around Europe! Ha!

Now back at home to put the feet up for an hour or so before we head out to Leidseplein where I have booked us in to The Pantry, a Dutch restaurant where we enjoyed some delicious food last time we were here.…

Back now after our evening adventures with sore feet, we managed to clock up over 20,000 steps today. This evening we grabbed the tram out to Leidseplein and arrived at the restaurant a few minutes early. Our table wasn’t available yet, this place is always busy, so we went for a walk around the block before returning and being warmly welcomed into The Pantry. The service was great, the waiters here are really cool. The food was sensational again. We started with snert or pea soup with rye brood and bacon. The quality of their soup has me comparing it to Oma’s, the greatest complement one could give! It was delicious. For our main course Amy had the Chicken Satay and I had the combination of hutspot, boerenkoolstamppot and zuurkoolstamppot served with a meatball. and for sweets we shared a Vlaflip. All very yummy. We will eat here again before we head back to Oz.

After our large dinner we grabbed a tram across to the Rozengracht because from here we could take a walk back through Jordaan, probably my favourite neighbourhood in Amsterdam. It’s feels like walking through a fairy tale book sometimes, it’s just so charming. We zigzagged through Jordaan soaking in its beauty, which is magnified at night by the street lighting.

We are home now and the bells have started to chime, I will use that as my cue for bed.

Tot Ziens.