Amsterdam!!

So far this was one of my favorite cities on this trip…even though it rained the entire time I was there. It’s been the wettest year in recent history for Amsterdam! Unfortunately I didn’t get the newsflash until just before I got there and had to run out and get a rain coat in Milan.

Even throughout the rain, I spent a lot of time walking around the city, seeing the sights, checking out museums and generally getting to know the city. It’s a beautiful city built around canals…but not like Venice, as they aren’t the primary mode of transportation for Amsterdammers. Bikes are. They are everywhere. There is a bike parking lot right near the central station that has more than 2,500 bikes in it most of the time. When the weather is good it’s a fantastic city to bike around…and when its bad they just hold an umbrella in one hand and bike with the other. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a picture of that, as I wasn’t fast enough with my camera.

On my first day, I did what I usually do, and walked around the area and got the lay of the land. The one thing that’s a problem is the language. Its really hard to pronounce and remember the names of the streets and made it easier to get lost. I had to rely more on my terrible sense of direction, and got lost and turned around a lot.

Since I took my mom’s advice and stayed in Amsterdam for 4 nights instead of the originally planned 3, I spent the next day going around the city on foot as I was going to get a 48 hour I Amsterdam card that includes transit, admission to some museums, and discounts around the city for the last few days. I did a bit of shopping, because up until then I had been in t-shirt and shorts weather…the weather was a rude awakening for me. Average 10 degrees and raining. I went over to H&M and grabbed a sweater, shirt and a wintery jacket as the weather in Paris and London were supposed to be pretty cold. I picked another area of downtown to walk around, shop a bit and just check everything out. The city has some great clothing stores, and if I wasn’t on a budget I would have bought a few things as they were pretty expensive.

The next day was when I bought the 48 hour transit and city pass. I went to the Van Gough museum, which I found really interesting to see how Van Gough lived, and all the problems he had before he killed himself. I had never realized that he had only been painting for 10 years , and wasn’t recognized until much later as an incredible artist. That day I also went to the Heineken Experience, which is a marketing ploy/museum/gift shop for beer drinkers. It was cool to see how the company has changed since it’s inception, and different ways they have marketed their product to consumers over the years.

That night, I went for a walk and found a little noodle place for dinner. They did fast food noodles that were fantastic. It also helped that I found a guy playing the guitar in a square down the street that was fantastic. It was a cold night (about 6 degrees) but the guitar and good food made it worth sitting outside freezing my butt off.

The next morning I went to Anne Frank Haus, which was one of the best museums that I went on, over the entire trip. They were really good at teaching you the story of Anne Frank, and what her family went through during the war and how the survived in that apartment for 2 years. It walked you through how Anne Franks father changed the ownership of the company to a friend, because Jews weren’t able to own property, who lived in the apartment (there were 8 of them) and who was fighting with who at different times. Anne Frank wrote a lot about the family, and how everyone was feeling at the time.

After the Anne Frank Haus, I went on a canal cruise for an hour. It was part of the 48 hour card, and was a nice way to see the city. The tour was good, but again it was raining so my pictures weren’t turning out that great through the windows, so I didn’t take many. That night was a simple night in, eating the fantastic noodles again and relaxing as I was off to Brugges, Belgium the next morning.