Had our first funny smell experience 
at the pancake house. Someone on both sides of us was having a morning smoke with breakfast. We would have expected the afternoon before when the Leidseplein was packed solid, and not in the morning. Who knew? The funny thing about the boat ride was that it was the one and only time we ran into someone who didn’t speak English. The boat captain. Yep the tour was done via recording. There was someone on the boat who was from Oregon who sat by us. She didn’t complain about him, but she gave the impression that everyone should speak English. I know English is the universal language, but it seems really selfish to make that assumption. On the other hand, we must have blended enough with the locals because we did run into a few people who started speaking to us in Dutch and once they realized we don’t speak it, actually apologized and said they thought we were Dutch.
The Van Gogh museum was absolutely fascinating. All most of us know off-hand is the work he did when he started going insane – that was marked with the bright colors and broad brushstrokes. That was only the last couple years before he committed suicide. The work he did before that period is vastly different. He went through a still live phase, and other phases that was nowhere near impressionistic (is that a word?). Other work featured where from many of his contemporaries, and those who studied under him. After seeing the bigger picture of Van Gogh’s work, you can see his influence on other artists of that time period. One that stuck out was “Skull of a skeleton with burning cigarette” painted between 1885-1886 before he really started going mad. You could buy postcards of many of the paintings, including that one. I could think of a few people I would want to send that postcard to.
Regarding our dinner, we are the type who don’t really want to hit the touristy restaurants when we go anywhere different. “Bar American” just didn’t appeal to us, and neither did Burger King or McDonalds (though I did peek through the windows and the menu wasn’t as different as I expected – just that mayonnaise is a bigger condiment than ketchup, but we already know that). It’s just that even in the areas we went to that seemed less touristy had either an Indonesian or Argentine restaurant on every corner. I can understand Argentine – Gaucho chefs are masters in steak preparation and the Dutch love their steak. It was good, and the malbec (which was their house wine – funny) was very good (and freeeeeeee).