What We Did > What We Did (9)
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Wandering the Canals
This has been the activity that has consumed most of our time. The city is a complex and at times confusing network of canals which are gorgeous, and a lot of fun to walk around. There are literally thousands of bridges in the city.
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Anne Frank Museum/House
The lines to get in here were unbelievable. BUT, I ventured out early one morning and got there a half hour early, to be one of the first to get a glimpse of this remarkable home that hid the Frank family during the Nazi occupation. It was a very moving experience, especially after learning and knowing about Anne Frank since the time I was a little girl.
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Dam Square
This is the most well known square in The Netherlands, and we're staying just 2 blocks from here. It was created in the 13th century when a dam was built around the river Amstel to prevent the Zuiderzee sea from swarming the city. During the sixties, the square was renowned for its Dam Square hippies, and the laid back and relaxed character of this densely pigeon populated square lives on.
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Van Gogh Museum
The museum contains the largest collection of paintings by Vincent van Gogh in the world. It provides the opportunity to keep track of the artist's developments, or compare his paintings to works by other artists from the 19th century in the collection. The museum also holds an extensive offer of exhibitions on various subjects from 19th century art history. I went to this solo, thus got to really take my time to absorb some of this amazing work.
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Local Glass Gallery
One of my favorite artists is Dale Chihuly, and this local gallery happened to have some of his blown glass pieces. They had a lot of interesting pieces to look at. Again, was solo since Jason was sick this day.
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Bike Adventure Around Town
It was just like Pee Wee Herman's Big Adeventure, since this beach cruiser was all they had for me. I haven't ridden a bike with pedal brakes in a long time, and totally forgot how to operate the darn thing. Thank god I got the swing of things pretty fast, since there is a lot of maneuvering to be done in this town that has over 600,000 bikes (745,000 people!) Jason was still stick for this one.
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The Heineken Experience
It really was an experiential sort of thing going through this former Heineken Brewery. They have certainly targeted the "experience" to a young demographic, complete with flashy, interactive exhibits, and even a moving ride demonstrating what it's like to be a Heineken bottle through the whole process of being made. You also get three beers to go along with the "experience" of which we only managed to drink 2.
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Library Time at Hotel lEstherea
Since it was such a beautiful library in our hotel, we came down everyday from 5-8pm to work on our computers in the lovely environment. The hotel even provides complimentary snacks and coffees for guests staying there, which was very nice.
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Coffee Houses and Red Light District
It's no secret that many people flock to the city to take advantage of it's liberal policies. Although it wasn't our focus, we spent some time checking out the coffee-shop scene to see what it was all about. We actually managed to see about 8 different places all over the city, and get a vibe of it all. We certainly drank our fill of caffeine! We also did the mandatory walk-through of the red light district -- this is an insane phenomenon of prostitutes openly displaying themselves in window shops to customers that walk by. Jason was in cloud 9 during this little jaunt. The strangest thing is seeing families with children walk through this neighborhood, since it's easy to mistakingly find yourself in this central location in the city.
