The Amsterdammer

As we fled Amsterdam today it occurred to me that we hadn't included a bunch of the awesome and dodgy stuff that went on while we were there. We did eventually end up changing rooms in our hotel (I use the word 'hotel' loosely, it was more of a budget hostel) after one night when a super-annoying white home boy dragged his ass back to our dorm room after a hard days visiting cafe's with one of his new found friends in tow. We both spent the rest of the night hugging our bags in our beds when one of the other occupants of the room finally cracked it and told him to leave. The up side of super-stoned people is that they really aren't very good at arguing and he left without any comment after a few moments of standing there looking confused.

We spent one of our rainy days in Amsterdam cruising the canals looking at the various architecture and landmarks. We saw a bunch of interesting stuff, while staying reasonably dry during the downpour.

 The Nemo Science Center

The ship Amsterdam, a replica of the original Dutch East India Company vessel

The Magere Brug (skinny bridge), rather famous in Amsterdam

Canals! With Bridges!

They love their bikes in Amsterdam, this is a giant bike parking station near the main harbour terminal.

We also visited the Rembrandt museum which has been recreated at the site of Rembrandt's house mostly fom a list of his possessions taken when he went bankrupt.

That's me, in the same room as art. Suck it art lovers, I'm all cool now too.

Rembrandt's collection including plaster busts and casts to use as models, tortoise shells, woven shields from Africa, and his collections of art books.

We visited Cafe Gollem, which was the first specialist bar in Amsterdam. They've got about 200 beers in stock, with probably as much room dedicated to beer storage as there is for patrons. This place is tiny and awesome.

This is the view from the front of the bar near the window, there's really nothing else to this place besides some treacherous steps leading down to the toilet.

The Dutch Resistance Museum was also on our list of things to do, since we seem to be hitting up every WWII site in every town. Since the Dutch army was woefully undermanned and their weaponry was horribly out of date when the Germans invaded the Dutch had to spend most of WWII farming and being shipped out as forced labour for German manufacturing.

I found the temporary art exhibition by a Dutch caricaturist, Fritz Behrendt, more interesting than the permanent exhibition but the permanent exhibition was still very well presented.

A war profiteer by Fritz Behrendt

The House of Bols was not something we originally planned to do, but it looked interesting, so we headed there after the Rijksmuseum. Bols produce the spirit Genever which was once used in most cocktails, and featured heavily in the first cocktail book produced. It was the precursor to gin and is the alcohol referred to in the phrase "Dutch Courage".

The whole experience was pretty commercialised and is what you get when you allow marketing people to design a museum exhibit. There was still enough actual history in he place to make it interesting though, such as the painting that Rembrandt used to pay his tab at the brewery and the free cocktail and shots at the end certainly didn't hurt.

Some of the items on display. The large statue was used to smuggle gin, and the colourful bottles at the front are plastic replicas used to train flairtenders.

A hallway with all the Bols liquors which you can smell and try to guess their flavour.

Sancha destroying her cocktail. Mmm... fruity!

In De Wildeman and Cafe Belgique were also more wins. In much the same vein as Cafe Gollem these places have a bunch of beer in stock and we sampled many more delicious beers. The awesome part about having so many similar places like this is that they all have different beers on tap, so you can try some weird and wonderful brewed beverages. I tried a terrible/awesome India Pale Ale from a Scottish brewery Brew Dog. It was like being punched in the mouth with a fist holding hops and soaked in alcohol, and you can easily see why they called it a "Hardcore IPA".

In De Wildeman at least has some room inside. Not much, but you could at least fit an angry Scotsman in here.

Windmills, Burgers and Beer

So here I am again, David made me write another post. Sorry it may be unedited as David is asleep.

Today, we caught the train to Zaanse Schans, a 17th-century town located 20 minutes by train from Amsterdam on the River Zaan.  It was a great day trip out of Amsterdam, yes it is touristic, but the windmills are in working order and are quite interesting.

As we crossed the drawbridge? to Zaanse Schans the bridge began to open up - both sides (i'm not sure what these type of bridges are called, Dad. some help please?) it was pretty awesome. 

The windmills are all working mills, and they perform various functions, including a saw mill, a paint mill (grinding pigments), and oil mill (grinding linseed or peanuts to draw off the oil).

The houses to the right of the river are so old and quaint they are the perfect compliment to the windmills on the other side.  The whole sight is just what you would expect to find in The Netherlands.  Walking in through the main street, the houses, mostly green, each have there own unique design elements.  As a great representation of a Dutch village, there is a canal across from them and the most beautiful little houses with lush foliage.  Little bridges cross the canal to reach the houses.  The weeping willows are especially nice, here.

On our way back over the bridge we stopped and admired the view of the windmills from the beer garden of a local hotel. We also enjoyed soaking up our first sun-rays in Europe since we've been here.  From here we could see the bridge go up and down a few more times for the large sailing boats that had to pass through to the other side.

We then returned to have dinner at our favourite restaurant in Amsterdam Burger Bar we are burger connoisseurs after all?, and the fries are made with love. (we should start receiving advertising fees surely?)

We followed this up by drinking our last beers (La Chouffe, which is a Belgium spiced ale (8%)) in Amsterdam - at Cafe Belgique.  An extremely small, old style Dutch bar serving a selection of Belgian and Dutch beers, some of which are not for the faint-hearted - some very angry beers at 10-11%.  The weak beers start at around 4%.

We had a top day.  Tomorrow, we head to Belgium.

Amsterdam...The Land of Fun

Arriving in Amsterdam we found it to be very seedy; dirty; another bike city (they even have a carpark dedicated to bicycles); expensive and with lots of dodgy folks.  So far we have not been pick-pocketed or robbed but we have 4 days remaining so lets hope none of these happen.

We made it to our Hotel/Hostel - what a dump!  We have 6 bunk beds crammed into a double room and our bags don't even fit in the lockers, so each day we are left wondering "Will our stuff still be there"?  So far it has, so again, lets hope this doesn't happen.  Our room smelt of pot - actually our whole floor smelt of pot!  We have to climb four sets of staircases to reach our floor.  Nightmare with Dave's knees at the moment.  Luckily, we're out most of the day and only return to sleep.

Lots of wandering around getting lost, and lots of canals.  The Dutch certainly are an organised bunch.  You dare not cross the road here or the footpath, without checking front back and sides.  There are bike paths absolutely everywhere and the Dutch pedal like mad around town.  They are all on these rickety style things with no gears and rounded handlebars.  Momentum appears to be the key given you can't change up or change down gears.

Amsterdam is big on 17th century architecture apparently.  Not that I can tell the difference between the 17th and the 18th.  The Dam is the main square, with the Royal Palace on one side and the National Monument on the other.  Major shopping streets run nearby.

Some things we have done:

1) Canal Cruise - had a bunch of drunk Norwegian girls on our cruise so it was hard to pick up the audio, however, the sights were pleasant and somewhat interesting - could have invested our 27 Euro better though.  The buildings along the canal were pretty, the canal itself very dirty.

2) Rembrandt Museum - I was somewhat disappointed in this exhibition, but nevertheless David came with me!  So that was something to be excited about.

3) De Wallen - Full of British Stag nights once again, we felt like we were in Prague.  Interesting and full of sights.  Walked through main strip (pardon the pun) and saw the "windows" and all the tacky neon lights.

4) Verzetsmuseum (otherwise known as the Dutch Resistance Museum) - I really dug this Museum and would recommend.  Dave preferred the exhibition on Fritz Behrendt to the actual permanent collection.

5) Gollem - This was a great little find on my behalf, we had a few tasty beverages here before we headed off to the cinema Pathe Tuschinski.  An old cinema palace conveniently located between the Munt tower and the Rembrandtplein.  Built by the immigrant from Poland Abraham Tuschinski, the cinema opened in 1921 and it remains till today with its Art Deco interior one of the most cherished buildings in Amsterdam.  Tuschinski has been recently rebuild, a modern annex has been added and the cinema has been modernized, but the character of its old part has been preserved.  It was simply elegant.  We saw the Ghost Writer - which was a great film.

6) Vondelpark - Gorgeous park, walked through here on our only full day of sun since being in Europe.  It took about an hour and a half and was such a gorgeous place during the day.  I wouldn't walk around at night though.

7) Dam Square - we are staying right behind Nieuwe Kerk (New Church).  Full of tourists and we tend to stay away from this area.

8) The Coffee Shops - Now those of you who know me well know I don't do drugs.  To each their own I guess.  I just don't think I need them.  As to your softers, well I also don't need to see the world at a slower pace either.  Still, we wandered in to take in the atmosphere so to speak.  It's a pity I can't get a coffee nor a beer here.  People are very, very mellow to say the least.  There are your stereotypical stoners who appear to have visited way too often.  Many are men in their late 40s, still in mullets, who have been at it for years it seems.

So onto more activities throughout the week such as the windmills - I'm looking forward to getting out of the city.