Birding with Rein

We hired a birding guide and went out to several hotspots. He picked us up EARLY at our hotel.  Not the most chatty fellow along the drive to our first location, so we weren’t sure how the day would go. We all warmed up to each other as we got in the groove of birding on a very drizzly morning. We were at the dunes first and got to see the ocean which felt nice! That’s where this photo was taken of us.

We then drove to find the owl. And our last stop for shore birds was a place they store water when there is an abundance- so it did remind us of other birding hotspots that are often water filtration or reclamation spots. It was a very long day but highly productive- we saw about 71 different species!

When he dropped us back at the hotel, he said we had been good company - so that was nice to hear. We can be a bit intense in our birding pursuits, but he was a serious but fun birder as well. A good day indeed!

Oh, we both bought rain hats here on our second day. They are coming in very handy! I call mine my Vera Stanhope hat - it was a British crime series I loved, and she always plopped on a green hat like this one. I had to get purple of course.

Here are some of the best photos

Yellow wagtail

Black-tailed godwit


 Great crested grebe


Northern lapwing


Bluethroat- for once, a bird with a name that is perfectly fitting! It was so unusual looking and sort of reminded Chris of a frigate with the red pouch.



Sedge warbler


Tawny owl. This was our second stop, a quick one just for the owl, after a long morning at the dunes. Fortunately the owl cooperated and got itchy and had to scratch so we got its face.


Northern wheatear

Red-crested pochard. This reminded Chris of the way kids dye their hair unnatural bleached blond. Cute duck!

Pied avocet



Lesser whitethroat- with the interesting addition of a tick on its bill. We have never seen this before. Rein said it is actually common.

Dunnock

Common chiffchaff. We think it is at time of posting anyway. A lot of the birds were what one of our guides back on our first trip to South Africa called “little brown jobs” so it can get confusing. The chiffchaff was a VERY vocal bird which we heard everywhere almost constantly but they were not always easy to spot.



Common chaffinch. Not to be confused with a chiffchaff 😵‍💫

Houseboat museum

We left enough open space in our itinerary for some spontaneity- which meant this morning on our walk back from acquiring pancakes, we were able to pop in the houseboat museum when we saw it with no line or crowds.  Chris had read about after we arrived here, so we just stored it mentally and fortunately ran into it.

It was super cute and quick with a well done audio tour. 

All the current houseboats do not move, but every seven years they have to be inspected. Some no longer have a mast or an engine and they have to be tugged. Some have additions on top which make them too tall to fit under the non opening bridges; so things have to be removed from their rooftop decks and, for some,  barrels of water have to be added to lower (sink) the boat more to get it under the bridges.

The boat that houses the museum was built in 1914 and some rooms are of that period and some from the 70s with bright orange.

The sleeping areas are tiny! You have to crawl down in to see them- I think I laughed out loud when I heard this side was for the adults!

Dining in Amsterdam: Bolenius, De Kas, Ron Gastrobar, Brasserie Marie, Oriole (and Pho Ga via UberEats)

Mike explored restaurant options in the Michelin Guide and made reservations several weeks in advance.  Here’s our opinion

Bolenius, 

This is a one Michelin star restaurant with a tasting menu. We got the six course menu with wine pairings. It was Mike’s favorite.

We arrived at 1:45 PM, and the last reservation was for 2 o’clock. There were only three guests when we arrived and the other tables left shortly afterwards so we have the restaurant to ourselves.

This course had 20 different vegetables in it. 

This asparagus dish was interesting. They really transformed the ingredients.

De Kas

This is a two Michelin star restaurant.  It’s in a beautiful location inside a greenhouse. They grow their own vegetables either on site or at a farm nearby.

This dish had an interesting combination of strawberries and beets, that Unexpectedly went very well together

The restaurant was a bit crowded, and the service was attentive, but not exceptional.

 Ron Gastrobar

This restaurant used to be a two star Michelin restaurant, but they decided to be more casual and do now just a one star. The food was supposed to be unchanged just a little bit more relaxed atmosphere.   The first dish was delicious with a mango hummus. Unfortunately, it took an hour for the second dish to come out a, Seabass, which was not warm when delivered. Perhaps they shouldn’t be so casual.

Brasserie Marie

This was a last minute reservation at a bib gourmet restaurant.

The fresh blini was excellent (and convinced Chris, we should be trying pancakes the next morning).  

It must be asparagus season, we got it at every restaurant. This was particularly good with the hollandaise sauce.

We got the Seabass again because they would only give us a pound and a half of steak and that seemed too much.

Unfortunately, they left a few too many bones in particularly on Chris’s portion. The service was lacking as well we had to pour our own wine.

Oriole

This was another bib gourmet restaurant, one we had reserved in advance.  We also got a late lunch reservation and had the restaurant to ourselves after a while. The service was exceptional, and the food was very good. The portions were a bit large.

 Pho Ga via UberEats

After a long day of birding and 27,000 steps Some in chilly light rain, we ordered Pho via uber eats.

It was just what we needed.

Barely time for blogging!

Hi to Lynn! We are either sightseeing or sleeping, wining and dining, tipsy or tired so barely sit down to blog. Here’s a few quick ones from last few days. Mike will say it’s out of order, but we will eventually finish in some sort of order with proper stories. For now; we are alive and kicking and having fun!

Heineken boat!! Who would have thought 😝

Birding Vondelpark

Vondelpark is the “Central Park” of Amsterdam and right next to our hotel.  We take walks there most days with our birding gear, similar to our jetty walk in Marina Del Rey.  We ran into many new birds but are missing some common ones too. The park is a birding hotspot, but it’s also a dog walking hotspot, a biking hotspot, a smoking hotspot, a jogging hotspot and a smoking hotspot.

We go out with a real bird guide tomorrow to other parts of the Netherlands.

Rose-ringed Parrokeets

Great tit

White Stork

Song Thrush

Tufted Duck

Common Chiffchaff

Eurasian Blackbird

Eurasian blackcap 

Black-headed Gull

Mike’s flower photos

Mike has an expensive Canon camera.  The photos aren’t thousands better than the ones Chris took with the iPhone.