Shame on you, Pulp Fiction!

Dan and I first watched the movie Pulp Fiction when we were in college. In the movie, a character returns from a trip to Amsterdam and explains to his friend that Amsterdam is on the metric system, so a Quarter Pounder with Cheese at McDonald's is called a Royale with Cheese.  He also explains that they dip their fries in mayonnaise instead of ketchup.  Dan and I have quoted that line for years, assuming that it is true. I mean, why wouldn't you trust pop culture on the facts of McDonald's cuisine overseas?  We passed a McDonald's today and popped in to see "Royale with Cheese" on the menu.  (No, we didn't let our kids eat there.  We are operating on a no-fast-food-chains-from-America rule while we are in Europe.)  Well, we were EXTREMELY disappointed to discover that we were misled by Pulp Fiction for all these years.  Here is a picture as evidence.  The quarter pounder menu is in the background.

Luckily, that is really the only disappointment for the day.  We did start off with a slight hiccup, when Jack and Hadley both got sick at their stomachs this AM due to jetlag and not eating enough. They managed to only get sick on ME multiple times (which required multiple showers on my part and three loads of laundry in a Dutch language washing machine-- very funny to watch me try to operate, by the way), but they bounced back by lunchtime and had a great afternoon and evening.

We did confirm that the fries dipped in mayonnaise were accurate from the movie, as evidenced by our afternoon snack of frites from Chipsy King.  Don't judge...I didn't say we wouldn't eat at local fast food chains.

 After lunch, we toured the Van Gogh museum.  It was fabulous!  The kids were able to follow a self-guided audio tour just for children and they learned a lot.  It is interesting that sometimes genius goes hand-in-hand with madness.  Jack said his favorite painting was "the guy cut his ear off".  We think he means one of Van Gogh's self-portraits, because there are no paintings of the severed ear.

We spent the evening on a canalboat cruise.  We had perfect weather and it was great to sit down for a while and watch the scenery go by.

We capped off the night with dinner at one of my top five favorite restaurants, Wagamama.  It is an authentic Japanese restaurant that Dan and I discovered in London the year after we got married.  We happened on one today and the three girls liked it as much as we do.  Hadley cleaned her plate and begged to eat there again.  Jack ate Trader Joe's peanut butter pretzels.  That was one battle I wasn't going to fight tonight.  Tomorrow, we are headed to Paris!  Yay!