Advertisement
Published: September 4th 2007
Amsterdam. A destination I have heard much about and have always wanted to visit. I think it lived up to every expectation, and I definitely enjoyed my weekend there with Brooke and Megan.
We kicked off the weekend on the ICE train from Cologne. The trip was only about 2 1/2 hrs, which was easy and comfortable on the nice train. We found our little hostel in the south of town pretty easily and dragged our things up the daunting stairs. All the buildings in Amsterdam are really tall and narrow, so the staircases are quite a feat.
I picked up a tourist magazine and opened to the restaurant page. The first thing I read was..."Mexican restaurant with free chips, three types of salsa, guacamole, and FREE water!!!" Megan and I were drooling with excitement. We have found that there isn't much diversity in the food in Germany. You can find small restaurants with some ethnic food, but you really have to search. Its basically German (potatoes, pork, sausage), Italian (pizza and pasta), Chinese, and Turkish (Doeners - which we recently found out is really awful unknown meat...) We searched around and finally found our Mexican Restaurant. We had
Margarita
MEXICAN FOOD! I am happy.a margarita, and very patiently (well maybe for the first hour) waited for our food. I dont know whether it was because were tourists and only spoke English or what, but it took 2 hours to get some enchiladas and tacos. They were however, very excellent!! I thoroughly enjoyed my meal, and scarfed it down because at that point it was 9 pm and I was STARVING. We then went out and walked around, found some bars and such and then headed back to the hotel.
We woke up early on Saturday morning, got ready and headed out to explore. It was kind of nice to get out before all the crowds and tourists and we enjoyed our walk over to the Anne Frank Museum. We were lucky and arrived just as the museum opened, so we had no problem getting in. This was definitely one of my favorite museums. I have personally never read the book, but I have heard much over the story throughout the years and I really enjoyed seeing the actual place where she wrote her diary. It is also interesting to see the War through the eyes of the Netherlands and not the Germans.
Canals
Some guy from Tyler Texas took this picture...love it. After the museum we headed over to a little Cafe very excited about the concept of a warm breakfast. In Germany they always eat sweet pastries and little sandwiches. We missed our eggs and pancakes. We all had part of an omlette and pancakes (Dutch style, with fruit in them and thick syrup!). It was a very satisfying meal and we were ready thereafter to continue taking on our tourist activities. We headed over to the Rijeksmuseum to meet up with the Mikes Bike Tour! I went on the one in Munich and was insistent that we take the one in Amsterdam too. After a really strong rainstorm and some problems finding the group, we finally located the mass of english speaking people. It was the first day of the off-season so the tour was a bit longer than normal and had some extra additions. The rain finally died off on our ride out to the countryside and we were happy to remove all of our rain gear.
The tour consisted of a ride around the city, then out to the countryside where we first stopped at a traditional windmill to take a picture. Then we headed over
Anne Frank Museum
Front of the Anne Frank House Museum to a cheese farm that also made wooden shoes. This was probably the best cheese I have ever tasted. Close to gouda and then they add things like pepper, garlic, etc. to the cheese. So good. I bought a wheel to bring home with me. THey said it should last me 6 months before it goes bad. :-)
After the farm, we headed back towards town, the tour guide took us back a different way so that we could see the Freedom Ribbon and the street where the Nazis were pushed out of town during the war. We finished up the tour with a beer in a square near the bike shop. Good times were had all around.
We then decided to try the local ethnic specialty, Indonesian food. mmm..we got a suggestion from our tour guide and gave it a go. It is kind of a mix between Chineese and Thai food, very interesting. Not much more to say about it. haha.
It was decided that since we had come all the way to Amsterdam we should at least go to the Red Light District to see what everyone has been talking about. It was very
House Boats
Love the colors. interesting...(I think this is the word of the trip, Interesting) Anyways, we spent a long time trying to find it, because we forgot all our maps at the hotel, but after asking a few locals we figured it out. We walked around for a while and got our fare share of windows...we finally found a normal looking bar with Kareoke and headed in for a drink. We enjoyed watching lots of drunk bachelor parties try to kareoke and had a pint. We were very tired, so we decided it might be time to head home. As we were heading down the street I heard very clearly my name...megan and i paused and looked at eachother bewildered. I turned around and there was none other than Scott Krouse, a buddy of mine from college! I knew he was going to be in town, but i had no idea where or when. He had seen me walk past the bar he was in and came running out! We decided we had to stay out a little longer and hang out with Scott and his friend. We had a fabulous time catching up, really I am reminded all the time on how small
Windmill
Me at the Windmill the world is.
Sunday morning was a bit slower than Saturday. We woke up, packed up and checked out of our little Hotel. Breakfast was the first agenda, and Megan and I decided that we should try the "Tex Mex" Pancake...i am not sure now if that was the best idea we have ever had. Not exactly breakfast food...but interesting none the less. It had meet, cheese, some type of salsa, chips, onion rings?,etc....
After breakfast we spent a few hours running around the Heineken Brewery Experience. I am going to have to say this might put all other beer tours to shame. They turned it into a crazy day long adventure. We had quite a good time riding the rides, drinking beer, and sending really stupid e-cards to our families...After finishing off our last two beers that were included in the tour, we headed back to grab our stuff from the hotel and left for the train station.
Overall it was quite an experience. We definitely saw a lot and had a great time. The people are very friendly and I think a bit goofy, but in a happy way. The language was a little hard
Bike Tour
Awesome Rain Gear for us because it is so similar to German, yet it sounds like the people were speaking English. So we never knew what to speak...but I was told by my guide that it is always better to speak English than German. They dont like the Germans so much...
Hope all is well and everyone enjoyed Labor Day back in the states. Sad, I went to school. The weather here is really cooling off, but the rain has slowed down a bit...knock on wood.
More good times to come. Thanks again for sharing these experiences with me!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.046s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0254s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Brett
non-member comment
Mom DJ
I want a mom DJ of my very own, Paige! Can you bring her back to the States with you?