The Weekend In Amsterdam!

DAY 1
This past weekend I met Bill in Amsterdam. I have traveled through this airport 4 times and on the 5th time I finally left and went into the city. I really had no idea what to expect, but it was a pretty awesome sight to behold. Bill met me at the Central Station. We immediately purchased the I Amsterdam Card. I had read about this on the internet. It was a card that granted free admission in to 30 museums and free tram service. We purchased the card for 3 days it cost us about $70 dollars. Believe me I will be adding up the money we saved, I am curious to see the total savings.
And then we waited and waited to catch a tram that was headed to Dam Square. Bill said we needed to catch one of 3 trams. Trams were arriving and leaving and we were waiting. Finally Bill asked an officer about which trams would stop near the square. The officer laughed and said very plainly, “All of them will.” I gave Bill a discerning look and began to get worried about how much actually planning he had done for the weekend’s events. He reassured me he had things under control.
We dropped my bags off at the hotel and headed off towards the Rjicks Museum. The Rjicks Museum is full of Rembrandt paintings. Rembrandt is a Dutch painter and is one of my favorite painters. Then we hung out in a park for a little had a ham and cheese sandwich and went on to the Van Gogh Museum. Another one of my favorite painters. It was an awesome museum. They really displayed some of his great works very nicely and then we got to see a lot of the works that he was inspired by. I think the most impressive fact that I learned was that he created more than 900 pieces of art works in the span of 10 years and he was and uneducated artist. He was completely self-taught.
After the Van Gogh Museum we tried to hit up the Heineken Experience. But we were 10 minutes too late. So we walked across the canal to a photo museum, called Foam. Not impressed, and I was hot. We had been walking all day. As we headed back to the hotel we decided to stop by a super market and pick up something to eat. We got some turkey, cheese, bread, salad and wine. We took our meal to the square and ate and drank. It was very satisfying and great people watching.
We changed clothes and raced the canal harbor. We had booked a wine and cheese canal tour. We were running a little late, but we made it just in time. It was a beautiful evening for a canal tour. We sat with a very nice couple from Amsterdam. They added to the guided tour. It was nice for them to point out the points of interest. Then it rained. It rained really hard, but only for a short time. Once it was done, it was done for the weekend.
When we go off the tour we walked home, Bill had taken 2 walking tours the day before so he knew where we were going. He was excellent at finding his way around. But then all of a sudden I started to notice the red lights. We walked a little bit down the red light area but there was not much going on. It was only midnight and the crowds had not showed up yet. But to find out there are 2 areas of the red light district and we were in a small one, with not much attraction.
My first day in Amsterdam was over and I was exhausted. I had gotten up at 3:30am to catch a bus and them my plane ride and I finally laid down in bed around 1am. Woo was it a long exhausting day.
DAY 2
Because it was such a long and exhausting day, Bill and I slept in a little. We got up and out around 10am and headed to the markets. First we walked through the Nuevo Market. It was an open air market that sold food and stuff. I love walking through these little markets; I really wish we had this kind of thing in Texas. Next we went to the Lengracht Market, this was a textile market. We did not buy anything, but it was really interesting to walk through. Next we headed over to another market near the Muzik Theatre on the way we stopped at Rembrandt’s House. This was a really interesting museum, housing a very large collection of his sketches, etchings and paintings. What was crazy is he went bankrupt and had to sell everything at the end of his life. He lost his house and it was all auctioned off to pay his debts. It was only after his success and after his death did they get things back and make a museum.
After that we walked to the next market, and found out if there were tickets available for the evening to see the ballet. Bill thought he would treat me to the ballet for my birthday. He is so considerate to do things that I really enjoy doing, what a sweet guy. There were tickets, but we had to purchase them right before the show began. So on to the next sight. We happened across the Amsterdam Russian Hermitage Museum. We thought this was a museum about the historical info about Amsterdam. WRONG! It was an exquisite exhibition of the Royal History of the Russian Monarchy. There were clothes and castles and music. It was very interesting to see all of the things, I did not know much about the royal family in Russia, but come to find out they are linked to the Royal family of Amsterdam. I never knew they had a good relation and were married into one another’s families.
Next we headed to the Horticus Britanicas, we had a nice lunch in the garden and then we walked around. It was beautiful, but much like any botanical garden. There was a fir tree that was sounded by a gate with a lock on it. It is a very rare, very old (dinosaur old) fossil that they have been able to keep alive and make more of these trees. There was also a butterfly area. I caught one and held it on my finger, butterflies fascinate me. Then on to the Tropli Museum. This was a museum that was just about tropical areas and how the Dutch have influenced them. Interesting, but we did not spend too much time here.
We had just enough time to make it to the Heineken Experience. The hotel we stayed in was the original Heineken Brewery. But once they started a global campaign they moved into the larger brewery that we visited. You purchase a ticket (one of the sights we had to pay to get in but we had a 25% discount) and you walk through a multi-sensory museum. We got you see, smell, taste and touch and hear. We saw and read a lot of history about the brewery. Smelled the hops and the stinky horses. Tasted the sweet raw barley and 2 beers. And We got to experience a simulated bottling. Bill and I were bottled! That was fun! Now is the race home to make it to the Dutch National Ballet in time.
So we hurried back to the hotel to put on some clean clothes. Neither one of packed anything nice so a cardigan, tank top, jeans and flip flops were my attire. Bill wore a polo, jeans and tennis shoes. We missed the tram and started to walk and then Bill changed his mind. Turned around, hollered and me and took off running. I had to run in front of a tram to make the tram I wanted to get on. So we get on and we have 5 minutes before they said to arrive. We were going to be a little late. We get there, they sell us tickets and to get to our seats in time before the house lights go out we had to run 4 flights of stairs. We are running, we are running, and I trip up the stairs. The Hostess took us in, oh no wrong side, the doors are automatically closing, so we dart out, but Bill gets hit by the door. He has a huge bruise on his hand. We get in the next set of doors, there are no seats, and so we exit and sit on the far side and in an empty row. Huff, puff, I am out of breath, sweating and whoa, adrenaline rush. Now I have to sit quietly in the dark and pay attention to a Ballet? Ugh, the fist act was a classical piece, very nice. Bill fell asleep. Then an intermission. We went out found our real seats and watched the 2nd act. It was a prodigal son story, mostly all men, very interesting, and then an intermission. We got a drink and then some cookies. I was STARVING! The last act was a Middle Eastern piece about control and repression. It was the Best by far, I am not sure I understood everything that went on, but I was a great piece. Saying that, I fell a sleep for a little. The minute I relaxed and came down from the high caused by all the excitement, I had a hard time keeping my eyes open.
Dinner TIME, only it is 11 pm. We walked to Rembrandt’s Square and found a nice little restaurant. We had hot snack and a drink. Not a real meal, but enough to satisfy. On the way home we walked through the Red Light District. I felt that being this close; we had to check it out to see what it was all about. It was interesting, that is for sure. We saw things and we were offered things and all around just a little creeped out. I was hanging on very tight to Bill. This one guy had this weird look on his face and followed us, I was very aware that we may not be in a very safe place. So we promptly excited. I was glad to see it, experience it, and walk away safe and sound. Time for a good night’s sleep. We arrived home around 3am and we waned to get up early to make sure we got everything in.
DAY 3
We woke up early, dragged our tired bodies out of bed, packed and checked out. W e had about 7 hrs before we had to head to the airport. Plenty of time to see the last few things. First we started with Anne Frank’s House. It opened at 9 am and we got there shortly after that. We had to wait for an hr to get in, but it was really worth it. This was the 2nd entrance fee we had to pay. It was very moving, I do not consider my self an emotional person when it comes to things like this, but by the end, I was so sad that they had to endure such a horrible experience. And to see where they had to live with 8 people, such small living quarters and to be quite, man it was powerful to see.
Next we went to the Spui Market. This was an open air art market. It was very small, but nice to see local art. Then we headed to the Amsterdam National Museum. On the way there we walked down their main shopping street. It was just clothes and stuff. It was really, really crowded. We snuck into this beautiful little court yard and then made our way into the museum. It was a fascinating museum with tons of info. I think we spent 2 hrs here. It was very informative. I thoroughly liked looking at all the history, but I was about done with museums. And I was hungry. So Bill and I walked to the next museum across the canal, he went through the exhibit as I ate in the café. I can not even tell you what kind of museum it was; I was on a mission to stop my hunger! I felt much better after I had eaten a sandwich.
After that we needed to wrap up our souvenir shopping head back to pick up our luggage and get to the airport. We had a short flight to Oslo, did some duty free shopping and then another short flight to Kristiansand. We arrived home about midnight. MY BIRTHDAY! We fell into be and slept like a rock. Amsterdam wore me out! ( Sorry no pics. I forgot my camera. All the pics are on Bill's Camera with no way to download. Pics to come later!)