Photoessay: You can fool me, but you cannot fool Ernest Hemingway!

On Thursday morning, my mom came up to Amsterdam to spend the night at the apartment. It’s so nice to be able to go home to my family in the weekends, but my mom wanted to come up and explore Amsterdam for once. So I decided to take her to a few of my favorite places. The first place on the list, Singel 404 for lunch on the Prinsengracht…

From there we biked to Museumplein and visited the Rijksmuseum for the exhibition, “Rembrandt & Degas,” on display till the 23rd of October…

And the Van Gogh Museum, although the exhibition we had wanted to see, “Van Gogh in Paris and Antwerp: New Perspectives” was only on display till September 18, and the next one, “Snapshot: Painters and Photography 1888-1915″ isn’t on display until October 14…

And from there we took our bikes…

To the bridge between the Haarlemmerstraat and Haarlemmerdijk in the Jordaan. Even though I bike down these streets almost everyday, I had never really explored the shops along here, so we walked down the Haarlemmerstraat and back, and then down the Haarlemmerdijk and back, before grabbing our bikes and heading home. I’m posting a whole feature on the Haarlemmerstraat/dijk in the next few weeks but I thought I’d share some of our favorite shops. The first, Sukha (Haarlemmerstraat 110), an absolutely beautiful shop of prints and pillows, expensive clothes and accessories…

We had a great laugh at Het Grote Avontuur (Haarlemmerstraat 25), where you can find the most random knick-knacks and home decorations, like this old French poster…

There are also a few great cooking/kitchen-related stores on the Haarlemmerdijk, including DEKSELS (Haarlemmerdijk 129), and a restaurant across the street…

Jordino (Haarlemmerdijk 25A) was one of the last shops we popped into that afternoon, but everything looked and smelled so amazing, we couldn’t help but buy a few chocolate and champagne truffles for dessert that evening. How amazing do these macaroons look…

We then made a lovely dinner at home, a large “salade philosophe” like the one featured here…

And headed to The Movies (Haarlemmerdijk 161-163), a great little movie theater that’s been around since 1912 (!) to see Midnight in Paris (click here for the trailer), the reason for the photoessay title, and oh, did we love it…

Friday morning, after class, I met my mom at the Jewish Historical Museum, around the corner from the Waterlooplein. I was so impressed by the exhibition, “Unguarded Moments: Photographs by Marianne Breslauer” (I’ll be sure to post more about it later)…

We were going to go to Soup en zo for lunch, but decided to bike to Bazar (Albert Cuypmarkt 182), the quirky restaurant in the middle of the Albert Cuypmarkt that serves North American and Middle Eastern dishes (their homemade falafel is so delicious, as is their mint tea with a dollop of honey)…

And from there, we biked to Museumplein (again) but this time for the book sale (see more photographs here) at the Stedelijk Museum, that I mentioned in this weeks’ Amsterdam Insights: Coming Up (#3). I was able to find some great 1 and 2 euro steals, so be sure to check it out tomorrow if you’re in Amsterdam…

Thanks mom for coming up to visit, can’t wait till next time!