Last Sunday, we took the train from Brussels to Amsterdam and it was an easy three hour ride away. Trains really are the way to go for traveling... pretty country scenery (see below:), no luggage requirements, and comfy seats.
After we got into Amsterdam Central station, we took the tram to our hostel which was still in the city, but closer to where the bars and things were than the actual city center.
Our hostel was right next to a canal too :)
We got to Amsterdam around 3 PM, so we wanted to make the best of our time and do one sight-seeing thing. We decided to go to the Anne Frank house. We figured since that was going to be our saddest and (most?) cultural event, we should try to do it as soon as possible and dedicate the entire half day to it. We waited in line for tickets for about an hour (buy tickets online because the line is always long!). We weren't allowed to take pictures on the inside, but the entire exhibit was so well done. It was INCREDIBLY eerie and heartbreaking to see the tiny quarters eight people hid in for 2 years. What hit me the most was seeing Anne's room where there are still postcards/pictures on the wall from when she posted them to make her room more interesting. There were framed pictures of all 8 residents with their names and information, and we noticed that we were visiting on Margot Frank's, Anne's older sister, birthday--February 16th.
The original bookcase that covered the door to their two floor apartment is still intact and we walked up through the very door that bookcase was hiding 70 years ago. The rooms are all empty (they were emptied after the Franks had been discovered) and apparently Otto Frank, Anne's dad and the sole survivor of the 8 occupants of their house, wanted it to remain that way to signify "the void left behind by the millions of people who were deported and never returned." There are miniature scale models to show each room and also pictures that showed what the rooms would have looked like. There were videos of Miep, a woman who worked for Otto Frank and helped conceal the family, talking about her experience and also of an older Otto Frank talking about the importance of always remembering what happened. Quotes from Anne Frank's diary are scattered amongst the rooms which made everything seem so much more... real? It's a hard feeling to describe but I'm really glad we did it. More than a couple people had tears in their eyes and it is probably one of the most significant exhibits I've ever been lucky enough to see.
DAY 2-We went to the Riljksmuseum for 4 hours, the Heineken experience and had a great time at a coffee shop.... I took way too many pictures at the Riljksmuseum but here are some highlights :)
The back of the Riljksmuseum
Front of the museum
Fur is huge in Europe
The inside of the museum
self portraits of Van Gogh (left) and Rembrandt (right)
After the Riljksmuseum we darted to the Heineken Experience and had SO MUCH FUN. Best alcohol tour ever-- the tour itself is pretty fun and afterwards they have so many interactive things like... singing a popular dutch song while recording yourself and sending it to friends, taking a picture while riding a bike along a canal and sending it to friends, just taking pictures of your beautiful face...and sending it to friends. There were movies of their past ads, their soccer endorsements, a foozball table, a DJ mixing game... it was just really modern and hip and we ended up spending around 3 hours there without even realizing it :)
celebrating 150 years this year!
their horses!! I think this one's Mike
with the tour came 2 free beers and 1 half beer
DJ mixing game
the whole place was like a mini club
You laid down in these pods and there was a TV screen on top where it showed Heineken ads from the 1950s onwards
DAY 3- We were so tired by today that all we did was walk around and just look at the city. We took a hop on/ hop off canal cruise from our hostel to central Amsterdam & went to the city center, the touristy shops, the Red Light District, the tulip market and Dam Square.
Dam square & pigeons!
all of us in a shoe
Yup.. Redlight district. Women were standing in the windows in barely any clothes and it was so so so uncomfortable. They also all looked bored and were on their phones or brushing their hair or something. SO weird. We walked through that for the principle of going and we got out of there realllll quick.
Typical Amsterdam
BIKES. BIKES EVERYWHERE. In Amsterdam the bike lanes had lanes! I honestly felt like I had a higher chance of getting hit by a bike than by a car... they also honk at you on the sidewalk to move out of their way so you have to be real speedy about dodging them. There were 4 person bikes, bikes with a stroller like attachment in the front, bikes with kid seats in the back wow, just a LOT of bikes
We somehow couldn't read a canal map (typical) and ended up spending over an hour on this canal hop on hop off tour and ended up going in a huge circle around Amsterdam & also ended up about a block from where we hopped on.. So we booked it to the tulip market and made it right before they were closing to see all the flowers and tulip bulbs :)
And then on Wednesday morning, after 5 days of traveling, we returned to London :)
