Thanks to the combination of the sun not rising until 8:30AM and some heavy curtains, I got a much-needed 10 hours of sleep before heading out into the cold once again. Since I knew I was in for a very long night (more on that later), I decided to take it easy with a walk to the center of the city and some famous Dutch pancakes.

Proudly declaring itself the smallest restaurant in Europe, Upstairs Pancakehouse had a whopping total of 6 tables, which meant a solo traveler like myself had to share a table. In a city that mostly embraces tall people with open arms, this restaurant was a bit of a struggle, starting with one of the steepest staircases I had ever encountered. The building itself was from the 1600s but had been a restaurant since the 1950s.

I really didn’t know that much about Dutch pancakes so the vast selection was a bit daunting. However, after seeing my fellow patrons’ dishes, I realized basically they were essentially the Dutch version of a crepe, which explained why there were both sweet and savory options. I was feeling something in the more traditional mode so I opted for a sweet version – poached pear with egg nog and cream. It was also supposed to have chocolate sauce but I asked to have that on the side in case it was a bit too sweet. That turned out to be the right call because it was plenty sweet (and delicious) without it.

After a brief detour to track down an ATM (and get screwed with the rate) due to the restaurant’s cash only policy, I continued my walk into the Center of town.

As I made my way essentially around the horn of the Center, it became a lot more touristy and I quickened my pace to basically get out there. However, I had to admit I was curious about one of the most touristy options possible – the Sex Museum. When in Amsterdam…

That’s about all that would be fit to print (post?) from there. Google if you want to see more, pervs.

After several miles of walking, I was beat and headed back to the hotel to rest up for the big night ahead. The plan was to meet my old friend Chris, who has lived in Amsterdam for 10 years now, at his place in the hip area De Pijp and then head to the club after that. Fortunately, De Pijp was very close to my hotel, just past the main museum area, including the Van Gogh and Modern Art MOCO museums I planned to visit later in the week.

As I was searching for a potential spot for dinner in De Pijp, I came across a roasted chicken and beer pub that sounded great on a cold damp night. It turned out I wasn’t the only one thinking of such things as the place with rammed and had a 90 minute wait for a table. Fortunately, I could eat at the bar and lucked out snagging the last seat. I didn’t really want a beer so my server suggested this cider made with lime and kiwi. I recalled fondly my roasted chicken and cider meals at Casa Mingo in Madrid so that sounded great. The chicken didn’t quite meet the Casa Mingo’s standards (but then again what does?) but it was still very tasty.

I made the short walk to Chris’ place and after an hour or so catching up with him and his wife, we hailed an Uber and headed out to the club, which was in the far north part of the city, by the docks in essentially the middle of nowhere. The event featured one of my all time favorite DJs, Sasha, so I was really looking forward to a great night. It also allowed me to play around the new night mode in my Phone 11 Pro camera.

The show was great and just after 5AM, Sasha brought it home with the Hacienda era inspired Franky Wah – Get Me High.

We made our way through the gurning masses and took another Uber back to De Pijp. It was now about 6AM and my feet were killing me so the short walk home took a bit longer. It was slightly surreal that not only was it still dark but the moon held high in the sky. Although it was absurdly late, I was able to keep my streak of no clubbing after sunrise intact and crashed into bed still in the cover of darkness.