[Gill H]

When we exit the park and go straight down the nearest street, we soon find ourselves back at the Rijsmuseum, and realise what an easy walk it could have been! We jump on a tram back to Dam Square, and since we know the walk back from there so well now, we decide to strike out and take a different road through to our canal. But of course, it doesn’t work out like that, and we find we’ve ended up back in the red light district, so we have to walk back down to Oudekerk, Niewmarkt and back to the hotel.

Rachel comes up to see about the coffee machine but fortunately Peter has managed to get it working properly. We ask her whether she has managed to make the reservation for our meal tonight that we requested, and she confirms she’s booked for 6pm. We discuss arrangements for checkout tomorrow, which she says is 12.00 so we don’t need to rush – although we plan to be out and about well before then. We also explain to her about the luggage service we’ve booked. This is something we found on the iAmsterdam website. It’s a company called Leave Your Luggage. If you book them, you can leave your luggage at your hotel reception, with a label which you print and attach. The company then pick up the luggage from your hotel and take it to the left luggage office at the airport, where you collect it before taking it to bag drop for your flight. It’s cost us 17.50 Euros (for one suitcase) and means we don’t have to come back to the hotel later, but can just nip to the airport on the train without having to haul our luggage up there. Rachel hasn’t heard of this service before, and she asks us to let us know how it goes, so she can recommend it to others if it works.

Once Rachel’s gone, we commune with the inside of our eyelids for a little while before getting washed and changed for our meal.

Having checked our directions, we head out towards Rembrandtplein. We haven’t been here before, though our taxi driver pointed it out as he brought us here on Thursday so we know it isn’t far. And indeed, it only takes us about ten minutes to reach the square, with its famous statues depicting characters from Rembrandt’s ‘Night Watch’. We soon spot tonight’s destination – an Indonesian restaurant called Indrapura. The Netherlands has a tradition of great Indonesian food because of its trade history with the former ‘Dutch East Indies’, and tonight we intend to try what’s called a rijstaffel or rice table – an assortment of small dishes which enable you to taste a variety of Indonesian food. Indrapura has been recommended to us, and since we’re treating tonight as our 20th anniversary meal, we’re prepared to blow the budget a little and treat ourselves.

We reach the restaurant at 5.50 and they are happy to seat us a little early. We have booked an early seating because there is a 25% discount if you are finished before 8pm, and while this is a treat, we’re still on a budget!

We are welcomed in to the beautiful restaurant, and shown to a table. There is live piano music on Saturdays, and soon we’re relaxing as an excellent pianist plays Gershwin tunes and other jazz standards.