Day Seven and Eight: Amsterdam

Ah, Amsterdam.... the Niagara Falls of Europe.




Let me explain. For anyone who's ever been to Niaraga Falls in the tourist season, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about when I say that. There's a lot to see, there's SO much to do, but WOW, there are so many tourists and so many people catering to these tourists. It's really difficult to get a taste of AMSTERDAM and the locals when you can't find anyone who even lives there...

Anyway, that aside, we did have a lot of fun there. About the cheapest thing you can buy there is beer, which coincidentally is quite wonderful with a wide selection to choose from.

We met Margaret and Yoni at their hotel in Amsterdam around 8:30am. Which is apparently a time of day that no one in Amsterdam is familiar with aside from street sweepers and bakers. We tried to find somewhere to get breakfast but there was nothing open for blocks. We finally found a small cafe and this is where Rob and I had our first official coffee from a shop in Holland (thanks Jos and Anne).

On Saturday we went to the Heineken Museum. Touristy, but in a fun way at least. There were some interesting artifacts from the history of the brewery, including old bottle and poster designs, beer kegs, and the old brewing equipment. I was more interested in the development of the brand itself, how the marketing evolved and whatnot. They gave us some free beers and Rob bought a "bottle your own beer" bottle where we got 'Robert & Tara Phillips" printed on the label of a Heineken beer bottle.




We also went to the Rijksmuseum (not Reichs Museum...very different I'm told) which has a wide selection of beautiful work from many Dutch painters including Vermeer, Rembrandt and Jan Steen, a whole ROOM full of gorgeous Delft pottery and ceramics, sculpture and even a little modern art. It was a lot to take in, but very wonderful. I could have spent at least 2 or 3 more hours there, but we had to keep a move on.



Lunch was great; we were walking down the street, trying to bypass the tourist traffic and also find a reasonably priced restaurant that didn't make us cringe by the looks of it, when a wonderful stranger man approached us asking if we were looking for a good place to eat lunch. Of course we were, so we headed in the direction he showed us and low and behold, we stumbled upon a wonderful courtyard with a variety of cafes to choose from. Reasonably priced, local eateries, and our first order of Croquettes! So good.

In the afternoon we found the canal tour boat and took a tour through Amsterdam via the canals. It was really hot in the boat because it was covered by glass so the heat distracted us a little from the experience. However, it was really interesting to see all of the house boats that a permanently stationed along the sides of the canals. Also, we were able to see some of the famously cool architecture, both modern and classic, and even an honest-to-goodness traffic jam at a four-way water intersection because a motor boat crapped out.






The poor guys caught in the middle of the jam:






We then checked into our hotel, the Eden Lancaster , which we were actually very impressed with after our mad search for hotels that were either not booked, not too expensive, or not crumbling two nights before we needed it (kind of a last minute booking this time around). It was clean and spacious by Amsterdam standards, and well out of the touristy city center, which was nice in my opinion.

From there we walked back downtown and stopped for drinks and more croquettes before dinner. The server recommended a beer called La Chouffe, which was actually phenomenal especially considering is was 8.6% alcohol and I usually find strong beers a little much.

Our dinner plan of drinks and then dinner kind of backfired however, once we realized that once we were on the lookout for food places, the entire population was doing the same thing. We ended up in a HORRIBLE Italian place and I will speak no more of it because we promised to wipe it from our collective memories. A little word of advice; if you want a decent dinner, don't try the city central, do your research before hand and make a reservation. That is all.

We took a walk to find Dutch apple pie, and finally found a place called Restaurant Oud Holland that had okay apple pie... nothing to write home about, though.

Rob and I made our way back to our hotel (after a dead Iphone mishap that left us stranded with only our wits to guide us home)

Got up early the next morning and got in line for the Van Gogh Museum. We noticed the day before that there seemed to be a massive line to get in all day so we though we'd arrive early. Of course, everyone else had the same idea and we ended up waiting in line, but at least we got in! The Van Gogh museum was amazing. Absolutely incredible pieces of art that left me feeling very inspired and artistically reinvigorated. I'm so glad that we decided to make it happen. I would totally recommend that this be the first thing on your to do list f you're ever in Amsterdam. Helpful hint: buy your tickets online in advance and you skip the ticket line, but still make it early because they only admit a certain number of people at a time. Apparently they're working on restoring the piece called "the bedroom" and have a daily blog on the website talking about the progress being made. Kinda cool.

There was this one really cool exhibit that I fell in love with. It was the work of a printmaker and painter named Jacques Villon, who I later found out was the brother of Marcel Duchamp. His work showed a wide variety of commercial and fine art work, and I suppose he sort of makes me admire him for the ability to successfully pull this off. I would put him in the same wide-range artistic category as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Anyway, his work struck me as wonderful printmaking/drawing/painting that managed to look modern even though it was created over a hundred years ago. Absolutely loved him. Wanted to buy a book of his work, but the gift shop had everything but his collection. So disappointed...









From there we didn't do much... wandered around Amsterdam for a while and then went back to the same area as the day before for lunch and drinks. It was a chill day and Rob and I were pretty exhausted so we ducked out early after lunch and took the train home. Finally getting that transit down to a fine art.