On Sunday morning we woke up to
sunshine! Such a nice change from the rainy weather in Paris. We walked down the street to go rent a
bike. The sign on the door indicated
they opened at 9AM… it was 9:30, so we decided to grab some breakfast and
waited for the city to wake up.
Upon a friend’s recommendation, we tried Dutch pancakes. It was
somewhere between a US pancake and a crepe… kinda flat and really rich. It was served with syrup too, but it
tasted like molasses. It was pretty yummy! Then we walked back to the bike
rental shop, which was now open.
We tried to find a rental shop that had helmets, but without
success. One employee actually
laughed in our faces… needless to say we didn’t find helmets.
The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
We hopped on our bikes and cautiously
headed out around Amsterdam. There
are actually about two times more bikes in Amsterdam than cars: 550,00 bikes to be exact. So at least the cars are used to having
bike around. Check out these bike
parking garages that are located around the city. To me, it seems like it would be impossible to find your
bike in the midst of thousands of others.
But John told us that bike in the Netherlands is a religion. Usually the Dutch buy a bike when they
are teenagers and young adults, and keep this bike for the rest of their
life. This answered the question
that Kristin and I had been asking all day: Why are there so many old, rusted
bikes? It’s because it’s a tradition and a keepsake, something sentimental that
has been with one person for their whole life.
We rode over towards the museum
district, locked up our bikes, and walked around enjoying the beautiful
neighborhoods, canals, and sunshine.
We eventually found the Van Gogh museum and enjoyed some great Van Gogh
pieces. We looked around at some
of the temporary exhibits before heading back outside to walk around. After the museum we were beginning to
get hungry when we walked past a hotdog stand. The sign actually said “American Hot Dogs”. It smelled so good, both Kristin and I
looked at each other and we knew what we wanted for lunch. So yes, we did buy American hotdogs in
Europe, and they were delicious. They had some fun toppings like sauerkraut and
fried onions. The man selling them
was super nice and laughed with us as we ordered :)
Enjoying being American in Europe
The day before we had seen in our
Amsterdam book that the Heineken brewery was located in the city, and we knew
we’d have to go visit. We made our
way over there after lunch and had a blast. Parts of the brewery were museum style where we learned
about the history of the company, and other parts were more interactive where
we learned about beer’s different ingredients and the brewing process.
Heineken!
We did some sampling and at the end we
received a nice extra cold glass of Heineken. It was much different than my tours of the champagne caves….
This was geared towards a much younger crowded, and was much more “hip”.
Afterwards we picked up our bikes (don’t worry, we walked around a bit to let the alcohol wear off), and rode over to the Jordaan neighborhood. This is where Anne Frank’s hiding place during the WWII is located. We took a tour of the building, which has been very well preserved and re-furnished to look exactly as it was. The stories, videos, and the fact that we were in the same building that she was truly was a touching experience. We were able to walk through her bedroom, she the posters and pictures she had posted on her wall, and see some of her original journals. We also saw videos from her childhood friends, a woman who worked to keep them hidden, and her father who survived the concentration camps.
After this tour we took some time
to wander the stunning neighborhoods.
We checked out the houseboats floating on the canal, the funky
architecture. Many of the buildings
are crooked and leaning because over the course of 400-500 years, the ground
has shifted. We also window
shopped a little bit and found the tulip museum, and also a cheese museum! They
had lots of samples of delicious cheeses, and I even found a pesto cheese. It was lots of fun.
In the evening we went back to
our apartment, relaxed for a bit and changed, and then went out to dinner. John, the owner of the apartment came
with us, and we ate out on a pretty town square. He headed home since he had work in the morning, and Kristin
and I went to a nearby bar where we watch the Eurocup 2012 soccer game. It was
Holland vs. Portugal. Sadly
Holland lost 2-1, but it was still a fun environment to be in. We also met some super nice girls from
England who were doing a trip similar to ours. They were planning to go to a show in the red light
district, and Kristin and I decided to opt out of that one! We were happy to be
back at the apartment later that evening after a long day of sightseeing.
Here are a few extra pictures from the day:
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