Cindy makes some friends!  There was a place in Amsterdam called The Bulldog.  I wasn't sure what it was, so I had to guess.  I'm pretty sure it's a boarding house for lots of cute little Bulldogs who run out the door and jump up to give passersby a kiss hello!

Cindy loves loves loves Eggs Benedict!  At the hotel breakfast, there was something amazing I have never seen before in my life at any breakfast buffet anywhere.  Eggs Benedict galore, just waiting for someone who loves Eggs Benedict to come along and swoon!  The way I remember it, there was a conveyor belt just like this, but they might have been on a silver tray...

Cindy writes a letter to Aunt Marcella!  Life far from home for a whole winter can make you homesick sometimes, so every time I'm on a long trip I thank heaven and my lucky stars for my wonderful Great Aunt Marcella--aka Aunt Meowcella to Tiki!  She writes amazing letters to us all the time we're away and there is nothing as heavenly on a long day in a cold, dark, snowy place when you're looking out the hotel window and feeling a bit lonely and far from home, as hearing the sound of a letter being slid--pfffffft!!!--under the door, and knowing it is a letter full of love and news from back home!  During our stay in Cologne the winter before Amsterdam, I wrote to Aunt Marcella and shocked her with the news that you had to pay for a little packet of ketchup at McDonalds, so in my Christmas present the next Christmas, as a joke, just before this trip, Aunt Marcella stuck in a bunch of little McDonalds ketchup packets she had saved up for me to take with us!  I love you so much Aunt Marcella, you're the best!

Cindy loves Chocomel!  Chocomel is this fantastic chocolate milk drink that you see just everywhere in Holland, sold in every sort of bottle, box, and can and even on tap, I think!  You can drink it cold, or you can drink it hot, and they even put it into the blended hot and cold espresso drinks called "Bambinos" at the little coffee place on Dam Square, the Coffee Company.  You haven't lived until you've sipped a cup of hot Chocomel on a bitterly cold and rainy Dutch day, along with a hot just-made Belgian waffle from Pinky in Maastricht!  I want someone to import Chocomel to America so I can drink it every day again, and of course bathe in it like I did at the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky whenever I had a chocolate craving.

Cindy or Eloise?  Sometimes I'm not sure myself!  Living in a five-star hotel for a whole winter, I sometimes feel just like Eloise, the girl in the famous picture books by Kaye Thompson who lives at the Plaza Hotel in New York.  Here I am as Eloise ordering up some room service in total Eloise style!

Eloise has her dog that looks like a cat, Weenie--and I have my cat that looks like a dog--Tiki!  Tiki had to get in on this Eloise fun, because she is even more like Eloise than I am.  Her first two winters as our pet she stayed in five star hotels in Europe, and had no idea that wasn't completely normal!  She ran up and down the long carpeted corridors for fun and exercise, ate room service tidbits made by fine chefs, and even snacked on gourmet delicacies in the Lufthansa Business Class lounge at the airport!  Was she impressed?  Yes--with hiding in the cubby hole for shoes in our room and jumping in and out of the empty bathtub for fun!  Tiki may be the only cat in America who, when she sees anyone walk into a room with any sort of bag that might hold a cat, takes off running so she doesn't have to go to Europe!  She loves going, but cats can't be seen to be agreeable, it's bad for their brand.