In my last post, at the end of the barrage of photos I prattled on about Germany and riding the rails there. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself! I somehow forgot that we went to AMSTERDAM for 5 nights before we ventured to Germany! That's right, we saw stuff like this:
Shitty contemporary art blocking the picture:
The only brewery we did not venture into (but hey, it's still historic):
Only in Amsterdam? Wooden clog boat:
C'est moi!
Puuuuurty:
More puuuuuurty:
Amsterdam is, in a word, chaotic. The city is inhabited by less people than Portland, but it has all these tourists (like us) running amok, smoking weed (not us) and visiting prostitutes (also not us). We went for the art and culture and beauty of the city. Amsterdam is home to the Rijksmuseum, the van Gogh museum and Rembrandthuis, Rembrandt's former home. Visiting Amsterdam has been a dream for Jeff, who is an artist and just so happens to look a little like van Gogh. Don't believe me? He shaved before we left, but when he grow his beard out....
When we weren't visiting museums, we explored the red light district, visited the Anne Frank House and wandered the many canals Amsterdam has to offer. On our last night there, we met up with some cool vegans from the PPK and ate at Bolhoed and the Flying Saucer. And that's kind of it. You see, Amsterdam did not exactly live up to what we expected. Don't get me wrong, it was a great experience, but I think the crowds and hype over the city are a little ridiculous. Maybe it's because we weren't there to party, I dunno. Maybe it's because every canal we came across had some kind of garbage and construction going on, ruining our dreams of an idyllic city. Maybe it's because we're old spoiled brats who just want peace and quiet.
As it is our duty, we hit up two breweries in Amsterdam, but neither one was stellar. One was inside of a windmill, so that was sort of awesome, but being told that the beer was very strong and having it not be? LET DOWN. The second brewery kept running out of beer, so we ended up drinking the same stuff. No fun.
A little bit of Portland in Amsterdam.
One of the best times we had in Amsterdam, honestly, was escaping the city for Volendam and Edam. Volendam is a small harbor town just outside of Amsterdam and Edam, famous for cheese, is even smaller and littered with gorgeous houses perched on canals. It was just the escape we needed.
1 comment:
I wonder if Volendam is where I was once. Some of the kids from the program I was doing there stayed at another kid's placement/house outside of Amsterdam and that looks familiar.
I really liked Amsterdam. I also didn't smoke pot or visit prostitutes. I didn't have high expectations though and it was way prettier than I expected. I thought it beat Venice, Italy for Best Canal Town (or something). But then again, it was cold and rainy whilst I was in Venice...
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