Amsterdam

So my boss made the obvious joke to me before we left, after finding out Amsterdam was a part of our itinerary, that he was going to arrange for a random drug test for me. Of course I and he are both wise enough to know that there is a lot more to Amsterdam than just "coffee shops". Going into this trip I was pretty sure Prague was going to be the favorite, and I did love it there, but the vibe in Amsterdam made me like it just a little bit more. It's a fun, unique city with lots of culture and a wide range of things to do. I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of architecture, history and museums, but not food. We ate some decent food there but I would not say it is any kind of foodie's paradise. Here are some of our shots from the visit.

People in Amsterdam ride bikes. Lots and lots of people ride bikes. You have to be careful when walking around the city to mind not only the cars but the cyclists too. And they amazed me at their ability to ride, at night while on the phone or eating a snack. I would die. For sure.

The canal houses all  have a sort of uniform look that is more modern than you might expect for how old some of them are. They have their little bits of uniqueness though.

A lot of them have I beams that come out of the top floor with hooks for hoisting heavy things up to higher floors.

As you walk the canals you seen continuous rows of boats, cars and houses with bikes scattered around everywhere. It's unlike anything I've seen before.

It was chilly while we were there although in the afternoons it was nicer. One morning we woke up to 36-degree temperatures!

The Rijksmuseum, pictured here behind the infamous I amsterdam sign, was our first museum stop. We decided to buy the Iamsterdam card for 48 hours and it ended up being a good deal for us as we got into a lot of museums, a free canal boat ride, public transit use and some discounts all for one price. We definitely made out on that purchase.

The Tassenmuseum was such a fun little place that actually traces the history of handbag use. They have lots of examples of all kinds of bags including some very recent, very trendy (and very expensive) examples. Sadly there were no photos allowed.

The updated city museum was also a great stop. It's very interactive and goes through the whole history of the settlement and development of the city as well as the struggles along the way. I highly recommend it.

The city is very lovely at night as well. There was a carnival set up in Dam Square which was right near our hotel.

We ate some tasty pastries and dutch pancakes of course.

 And we enjoyed the bar scene.

The Beer Temple, which was also close to our hotel boasts a crap ton of American Microbrews. Since the Dutch are mostly just famous for Heineken, we endulged in a taste of home.

And speaking of Heineken, we did the tour and enjoyed it very much. It's similar in style to the Guinness Factory tour in Dublin.

 This original price menu above was from the hotel we were actually staying in.

You get three half pints towards the end. It was cool to sit and enjoy them in their very green bar.

This is the canal boat that we took our tour in. It was pretty cool being able to see the city from some different angles.

 This is a point from which you can (sort of) see 7 parallel bridge arches. I thought that was really cool.

The cars most people seemed to drive were small and there were a number of these old Minis, so cute!

 We were both amused to see a blue screen of death in Dutch.

This poem art in a cafe where we stopped for hot chocolate came back with weird translations when we put it into Google.

This is the Anne Frank House. It's not glamorous at all although they have built a rather large and modern visitors center next to it. We didn't tour it and you can tell in this photo that it is closed because the ever-present line is absent.

We did visit the Van Gogh museum on Friday evening when they are open late with live music. It was a nice experience although I think I've decided I'm not a huge fan of Van Gogh. And again, no photos inside unfortunately.

I definitely thought this was a very special city, it captured my heart for sure. I do wish it had been tulip season so we could have gone out to the countryside, but in the end I still loved the visit and I'm sure we saved some money by going at a more "off peak" time. And if you're wondering, yes, we did stroll through the red light district a couple of times. It was, um, interesting and definitely mostly full of tourists. The most interesting dichotomy was seeing beautiful white swans appear pink as they floated down the canal as a result of the red lights in the ladies' windows.

Now time to plan our next adventure!