Sorry we kind of left you hanging on the last blog! As Drew mentioned, we arrived in Amsterdam early Saturday morning (of our spring break trip). We checked into our hostel and headed out to explore the city for the day. We spent most of the first day just wandering the streets lining the canals and the main city centre. We went to the sex museum because we were told that it was the thing to see in Amsterdam…it was interesting but not as great as all the hype, unless you’re really into pornography from the 19th century!
Our second day in Amsterdam was a full day of being tourists…absolutely wonderful. Drew decided that we should start our day off at the zoo so we headed to Artis Zoo in the centre of Amsterdam and spent some time with the animals! We were able to catch the feeding times for the seals and the crocodiles although we couldn’t see anything that was happening with the crocodile because it was so crowded. After the zoo we headed off to the Heineken Experience to learn all about the way that Heineken beer is brewed. It was a really neat brewery…they have a ‘ride’ where you get brewed as a Heineken beer which is pretty fun. Then, afterwards, they allow you to sample some Heineken and teach you the true art of drinking it. Not being a beer drinker myself, I’m not sure I got the most out of the taste testing. At the same time, I’m not one to pass up something free so after three free Heineken’s at the brewery we headed back into the city for a giggly (on my part) afternoon. After checking out the small garden at the Rijkmuseum we headed to Max Epstein for live, outdoor, giant chess. We sat and watched the chess match for a while (it was pretty intense) and then set off again to continue our day’s adventures. We were in search of the narrowest house in Amsterdam and ended up getting terribly lost in our attempt to find it. We eventually found the house…it’s hard to believe how narrow it actually was! In our wanderings throughout the city we discovered many different parts of Amsterdam’s red light district. Apparently, the red light district is fast disappearing; just last year about a third of the windows were shut down because the women working them were found to be illegal immigrants. Later that evening we went to the Anne Frank museum which was incredibly moving. It is the actual building that Anne Frank and her family hid out in during World War II…it was hard to imagine the life that the Frank family must have lived while cooped up in that house. After the Anne Frank museum and on our way back to the hostel we stopped off at this little amusement park thing. Our intention was really just to get some neat pictures but we were lucky enough to meet the number one rapper in Holland! I can’t even remember his name but he explained to us that he had the number one song on Holland radio at the time…something about ‘shake that booty’(??). Ended up not buying his CD (even though he was offering us quite the bargain)…probably kick myself for that one later when he’s excepting his grammy!!
Our last day in Amsterdam was pretty crummy weather. We spent the majority of our day (we only had a half day in Amsterdam) doing a free walking tour of the city. The particular tour company that we went with is really cool and they have tours in cities all over Europe. The tour is completely free so they’re just working for tips which means you always get a really interesting, entertaining tour. We had a great guide from New York who shared the history of Amsterdam with us, mixing in plenty of humor along the way. One of the sites that she pointed out along our tour and really recommended returning to was the Cannabis College and, you guessed it, it was free so, after the tour, we headed back to learn some more about one of the most famous parts of Amsterdam’s culture. We learned all about the double standards of the Netherland’s laws regarding cannabis…you’re allowed to possess it but not grow it, etc. We also learned all about growing cannabis…you know, just the basic life survival skills! After Cannabis College we headed back to the train station and were on our way to Brussels!
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