We left for Amsterdam Friday night at 10pm and we were in for a very long ride, about 11 hours to be exact. That was literally the longest bus ride of my life and I couldn't wait to get up and walk, or at least try haha. After we made our way to Sloterdijk Station, we did our best to figure out there transportation system and made our way to our hotel. Our hotel wasn't in the ideal location, but it wasn't completely horrible. We dropped off our luggage and were on our way to explore the city.
Amsterdam is very beautiful. Everywhere you look is a canal and coming from living right on the shore of Lake Michigan almost all my life, it was refreshing being surrounded by water again. We stopped for homemade ice cream at a little shop on a street corner; I got strawberry cheesecake and it was delicious.
Our nest stop was to got to the Heineken Brewery and do the Heineken Experience. At first I didn't really feel like doing this, but it was actually a lot of fun. We got to learn about the history of Heineken and its founder. We then learned about all of the ingredients and what makes it "the best brand of beer," as they said about ten times throughout the tour. There was also a section in the tour where we got to take pictures with different back drop and make little music videos. My absolute favorite part of the tour was when we had did the virtual experience. They put us in a room with a group of people and we all stood on a platform. Before starting the video they warned us that the platform was going to move. It turns out that we were going to see how it would feel like to become a bottle of Heineken, sounds weird I know. The platform shook, we got water sprinkled on us from above, and it was actually really fun. I would definitely recommend doing this if you are ever in Amsterdam!
After the Heineken Experience we went on a canal boat ride, because you just have to. The ride lasted for about an hour and a half and we saw a large majority of the city. After we got off the boat we wandered around to find some place to eat. We stumbled upon a bar called Myrabelle. The upstairs had a little dining area, while the downstairs had the bar. We all got schnitzel with chips and salad. It was very good. Following our very delicious meal, we decided to go and explore more of the central part of the city. It consisted mainly of us getting lost and Bridget feeding ducks. After about a few hours, we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep, because we were all very tired from having a long day.
On Saturday, we were all planning on getting up early, because we had a walking tour that we signed up for, but we all ended up sleeping through our alarms. It is a good thing we got to go at a later time. I really enjoyed the tour. We got to see a lot of things that we probably couldn't have found on our own and learning about the history of the city was very interesting. At the end of the tour we all got to sample a piece of traditional Dutch cheese. I'm not a huge cheese fan, but nothing can beat Wisconsin cheese.
Then we made our way to the Anne Frank House. The line was still the same length than before, but it was even colder. After waiting in the chilly wind for over an hour and a half, we finally got in. I read Anne Frank's Diary in sixth grade and ever since then I was intrigued by the story. It was so surreal being in the exact house that all of those events happened in and seeing the real pages of her diary. I thought the museum was put together very well and I really enjoyed the experience.
On the final Day in Amsterdam, we checked out of our hotel and made our way to the I am Amsterdam sign outside of the Rijkmuseum. When coming to this city, you of course have to stop by and take a picture of this. After doing this, Jenna had to go catch her bus, because she decided to leave early.
While in Amsterdam, one of my main missions was to try traditional Dutch food, and I definitely had my share. I tried a stroopwaffel, which consists of to very thin crisp wafer-like waffles with a caramel syrup in the middle. After leaving the museum, we went to look for a place to get brunch. We stopped at a place called Café Hans En Grietje. Here I ordered tomato soup and ossenwurst, which is raw meat sausage. Although it sounds weird, it was actually really good, besides the strang texture. Later on in the day, I also tried Dutch apple pie and it was one of the best slices of pie I have ever tasted.
To waste some time until we had to catch our bus, we visited the Rijkmuseum. It had a little bit of everything. It probably would have been a lot more fun if we were not exhausted. The most popular thing there was the self-portrait painting by Van Gough. It was almost impossible to go up to it and take a photo. In over two hours, we literally walked and saw everything in the museum.
At the back of the museum was Vandel Park, which is one of the most well-known parks in Amsterdam. The sun was shining and we decided to sit on the grass and relax. We were watching the dogs run around and people playing Frisbee. After lounging around for about an hour, we got up and went to find our bus stop. After a few stop we got off to find someplace for dinner. We ended up going to a little fast food place. I got a hamburger and bitterballen, which is a fired or breaded meat-based snack. It was interesting but really flavorful. After eating we made our way back to Sloterdijk station to catch the bus. We ended up going there with a couple hours to spare, so we ordered tea at Starbucks and relaxed until 8pm. Then it was on the bus again to head home. I ended up getting back to my room at around 6:30am and had to get ready to go to work at 9am. Although tiring, it was well worth the extra hours in Amsterdam.
I loved visiting Amsterdam and it was a lot more beautiful than I thought it would be. I will leave you with five things that stuck out to me on this trip.
1. There are literally bikes everywhere and they even have a separate lane on the roads and sidewalks.
2. I don't know if the people there have a thing with fat beagle/basset hounds, but we saw quite a few.
3. Walking around is very confusing, probably from the way that the canals surround the center of the city.
4. The people there are so nice and a lot of them speak English and are very helpful.
5. The food is absolutely delicious and out of all of the places I have visited it definitely sticks out as one of my favorites.
Next week we are going to Italy and I can not believe it!!! I hope you all have a great next couple weeks and I can't wait to see you all! -Cheers, Heather
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