A special day today for the employees of a restaurant in Noordbeemster: they received a visit from Barack Obama. The former president of the United States will give a lecture in Amsterdam tonight and came to the restaurant for a bite to eat this afternoon. According to the manager, the choice fell on “an ordinary goat cheese salad and green iced tea”.
NH Nieuws writes that prior to the visit, five security people came by to ask if there would be room. “They said that a very important American person would soon come for lunch,” says manager Micka van Westen at the regional broadcaster. “We had to show the escape routes and then we served the table. We were not allowed to know who it was.”
Then seven large black cars drove onto the grounds and Obama suddenly stood in the doorway. “It was a great honor. He’s just as friendly and approachable as you’d expect. Just like on TV.”
According to Van Westen, the former president said that he had also celebrated King’s Day a few days earlier. “I’ll leave it at that”, he is said to have said. An hour and a half later he left again. Tonight Obama will give a lecture in the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam.
