We’ve been in Amsterdam since Saturday, and I don’t have too much to report. Our hostel, The Flying Pig, is pretty nice with clean bathrooms and the plushest bed linens we’ve come across yet. In fact, we haven’t had to use our sleep sheets, every hostel has had their own linens so far and we’ve deemed them all useable. My only complaint is finding somewhere to blow dry my hair- the bathrooms in the rooms don’t have outlets, the few bathrooms scattered throughout the hostel don’t have outlets, and I don’t want to wake our roommates (who seem to sleep all day) so I have resorted to blow drying my hair in the hallway!
The first full day we were here, we went to the Heineken Experience, a museum about the history of Heineken and the family behind it. The “experience” part consisted of three Heinekens and an interactive ride with bubbles and wind and other effects chronicling the process of making beer. It was super touristy but definitely enjoyable. One of the neatest parts was the bars where they served the beer, they had entire ceilings and walls made of green Heineken bottles. I think it gave Michael an idea of what to do with his beer bottle collection post-college!
Speaking of Heineken, we even found some in a vending machine at the laundromat! Those dutch sure do love their Heineken.
Frisdrank, the dutch word for soft drink, has amused us, hence the title of this post.
That day we also went on a cruise through Amsterdam’s numerous canals. Unfortunately it started raining part way through, but it was nice to see the city from the water.
The houses that line the canals (aptly named “canal houses”) are all starting to sink after hundreds of years with wooden foundations, causing some of them to lean quite heavily!
Amsterdam is one of the smallest of Europe’s capitals, so we never bothered with public transportation here. We went on two walking tours, one was a broad overview of Amsterdam, and the other was focused on one of Amsterdam’s more infamous districts! I have really enjoyed all of the walking tours that we have done while in Europe. Of course we get to see a lot and orient ourselves with the city, but mostly they are helping to combat all of the french fries we are eating and beer we are drinking!
Tonight we take a night train to Prague that lasts from 7:01pm to 9:36am. We are in a small compartment with six beds and I am very intrigued to see what it is like! We had to check out of our hostel this morning, and took the afternoon to see the Anne Frank house. Even though I read her diary in elementary school, I did not remember that it was Amsterdam where the Franks hid out during WWII. The house was well preserved, Anne’s father (the only one to survive the concentration camps) put a lot of effort into restoring the small apartment to serve as a reminder that religious intolerance did not end with the war, and that it comes in many varieties.
We have heard many good things about Prague, so this is one of the stops we have both been looking forward to most. We’ll be spending four days there, and hopefully will have lots of fun things to report!
Alli and Michael's Adventures 