Rutger and I were walking home from dinner at Sing Sing, a very trendy Asian fusion restaurant/bar in his neighborhood last night. I was taking pictures of some of the interesting cafes with their tables spilling out into the sidewalks that you see all over Amsterdam.

When I was taking a shot of the Ristorante Bellavista, on Johannes Verhulstraat, the most desirable address in Amsterdam, right around the corner from Rutger's place, there was Ruud Gullit carrying a football that one of his kids who was playing in the street had kicked into the restaurant. If you don't know who he is, check his bio on Wikipedia.

Rutger's neighborhood, south of the Rijksmuseum and just east of the Vondelpark is one of the most popular in Amsterdam, filled with local Dutch celebrities, TV presenters, games show hosts, footballers like Gullit and Marco van Basten. The lead singer from Golden Earring lives around the corner. No one bothers them. It's not like at home. There are no paparazzi, it seems, and they can live what look like normal lives with only the occasional overzealous tourist and football fan pulling out a camera at an inopportune moment.