After a long day on the bus, we arrived in Amsterdam (via Bruges) at 8pm. Original ETA was 6pm, but a combination of French border police and insane Freeway traffic kept us well and truly behind schedule.
We arrived at our apartment, and as per our instructions we called the owner to gain access to the property. Unfortunately, the owner was on holidays in Belgium….. and had stopped renting her apartment 3 months ago! So we were out on the street with our backpacks at 8:30pm on a Friday night in Amsterdam with no place to stay! Luckily there was a short stay rental agency just up the road and they had 1 apartment left for the weekend…… crisis averted!!
We went out for a walk around the city, including a stroll of the infamous red light district. That area was absolutely jam-packed with people wandering, “window” shopping and definitely much, much more!
The following morning, we headed off on a bike tour of the city……. what an adventure! Just about anything goes on the streets and roads of Amsterdam. Once we got used to riding on the right side of the road we then had to deal with the other bikes, scooters, cars and the worst….. pedestrians! Bikes rule in this city, so peds better keep out of the way!! The history of the city is pretty cool, and it was really interesting to gain a little insight into how this place works. They’re pretty smart the Dutchies, they’ve just knocked up a 20sq/km floating city. When they run out of land, they just build on the water!
It was then off to the Heineken Experience for a look at how Heineken has grown to be one of the worlds most recognisable and iconic beer label. Definitely time and money well spent. It was a great tour and ended with 2 beers in the bars afterwards and a chance meeting with a bunch of crazy Germans on a bucks weekend. Apparently the Germans love Wolf Creek…… and yes they do drink as much beer as we think they do!
One thing we definitely wanted to see whilst in Amsterdam was the Anne Frank Museum, so we headed off there on Sunday morning. It is nicely done. A really tasteful monument to one of the best known stories from WWII.
Good food in Amsterdam, dinners of Chinese, Nepalese and Indonesian. Very happy with that!
Next stop…… Berlin.
D&A
One Comment
Ali, I love your face on the bike. I imagine that was at the start of the day when you were still figuring things out. I am sure you got the hang of it. Glad you got to the Anne Frank museum. We queued in the rain for ages to try and go but eventually got sick of wasting time in a line. Next time… Loving the stories and photos