Out of a daze, we awoke at 11 AM, ready to start our day and head to the city of Rotterdam, which is 1 hour away from Amsterdam by train. The only reasons we decided to embark on this excursion was so that my lady could purchase some latex outfits from Skintight and to see the countryside in Holland.
For breakfast, we had crossaints with egg & cheese from Rene's, but it wasn't New York style (to say the least). The egg was hardboiled and the cheese wasn't even melted. No warmth that I was looking for. I know...I know, more information than you asked for
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So, we get on a train heading for Rotterdam from Amsterdam's Centraal Station. This is what we saw:
We arrive in Rotterdam around 2 PM, and we are greeted with these sites when we exit the Rotterdam Centraal Station:
We have dilligently printed out directions from Skintight's website so that we can find it...but we proceeded to get lost. The store, Skintight, is 4 blocks away (10 minute walk) from Rotterdam's Centraal Station, but it took 2 hours for us to find it. Anyways, along the way we came across these sites while smoking blunts in the street, riding the trams & walking back & forth:
While trying to call Skintight from a payphone, 3 Rotterdam policemen came walking up. We explained that we were from America, trying to find this boutique in Rotterdam. They direct us on where to go and we ask to take their picture. They also taught us how to pronounce "Merry Christmas" in Dutch (Vrolijke Kerstmis).
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We FINALLY find Skintight, and meet Bram (the owner & head designer for Skintight) who is happy to have us there all the way from America. He is a gracious host, and I would recommend any fetishists to visit his store if you find yourself in Holland. My lady proceeds to go on a shopping spree, buying many different pieces. Bram, obviously thrilled by this, decides to throw in several free gifts as a token of his appreciation. On a side note, every single person we met in Holland was very nice & courteous, but Bram was extra cool. He even took our picture sitting in the store:
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So we leave Skintight around 5 PM, and continue to explore Rotterdam...but not too extensively, because we have a dinner reservation at the Supperclub all the way back in Amsterdam at 7:30 PM. We walk back to the Rotterdam Centraal Station (now that we know where we are going) and snapped these photos along the way:
If you are wondering, Rotterdam has coffeeshops as well...if we weren't pressed for time, we would have done the toking indoors...
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We are running down to the wire, trying to get back to Amsterdam in time for our dinner reservation. The train back to Amsterdam from Rotterdam (at this time) has to stop in Utrecht and we have to catch another train (which we almost ended up missing, by the way).
We pull into Amsterdam at 7:35 PM. I am worried that we might lose our Christmas Eve reservation at Supperclub that I planned far ahead to get. We call the restaurant, explaining that we would be 15 minutes late...in which they replied "No Problem".
So, we drop off our shopping bags and head straight for Supperclub. We didn't even bother to change into dress clothes, even though we knew the place would be chic.
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We walk into the Supperclub and were greeted by a queeny plump bald gay man and a tranny. I guess they were the host(s)/(esses). I knew we were in for something good right off the bat, because we all know European gays wouldn't be caught anywhere that wasn't faaaaaabulous.
We took off our shoes and walked up a fight of stairs to the second terrace and climbed onto our bed/table. This was our view:
I wish we could have got a better picture, because that one doesn't do the place justice. The concept of Supperclub is a nightclub where you are served a 5 course gourmet dinner in bed. The menu is fixed, and the waiter asked if we wanted to be surprised...which we agreed to. There was a DJ spinning downtempo breaks & minimal house downstairs on the main floor, with artistic visuals being projected onto the wall. Let me see if I can recall what we ate (we were in Amsterdam, so forgive me if my memory fails me):
1st course: Chicken Breast & String Beans
2nd course: Clam Chowder
3rd course: some sort of Whitefish & Asparagus
4th course: Filet Mignon
5th course: dessert (which we didn't stay for)
Everything was divine. The food, ambience, entertainment & service was superb. So when we received our 140,00 € bill, we weren't taken back. There was also an opera performance on the mainfloor which we managed to snap a few pics of:
We decided to leave before dessert was served because we wanted to try the hash milkshakes across the street at the coffeeshop, Abraxas. I also have been booked to dj there on January 2nd with some artist friends from EM411.com, so I wanted to check it out firsthand.
We order our milkshakes & roll up an Optimo with some of Amsterdam's finest. The milkshakes are fantastic, and since we ordered drinks, the barstaff hands us tokens to surf the internet for 15 minutes. We log on and e-mail our buddies back home to brag about what a wonderful time we are having. But by this time, the hash milkshake, the super strong blunts, walking around all day in Rotterdam & the night before tripping has wiped us out. We take a couple pictures in Abraxas & make our way back to the hotel room by 12 AM.
Goodnight Amsterdam. Tommorrow is Christmas. Hope the coffeeshops are gonna be open. Vrolijke Kerstmis!
