Amsterdam you Heineken

Like most of our trips, this one again started very early in the morning, 2:15am in fact. After a taxi ride, a coach ride, a plane trip, and a train ride, we arrived in Amsterdam around 10am. We took the Ferry out to our hotel, which was on a large boat, and then came back into the city to really get our trip started.

Our first stop was Oude Kerk, an old church that we wanted to see because they had a nice organ. It was rather strange because the church was undergoing renovations, and they had a photo exhibition going on so large photos were plastered on most of the walls. The organ was nice, and there were some other nice things in the church, but on the whole it wasn't too impressive. Afterwards, we walked around the Nieuwmarkt area, looking for someplace to have lunch. We settled on De Jaren, a large cafe that had excellent views on one of the canals. The food was rather simple, but that was OK since we didn't really want anything too heavy.

The organ at Oude Kerk


We then walked over to the Bloemenmarkt, which was a large flower market where they sold all kinds of flowers and bulbs so that you can grow your own. We bought a boquet of tulips, we are in Holland after all. We then headed towards the Heineken experience, but I got us lost. We ended up on the wrong side of town, so we went to Dam Square instead. They had a bunch of living statues there, including Darth Vader for some reason. We also saw the National Monument, which was kind of nice. We were starting to get tired of walking, so decided to ride one of the trams down to the Heineken Experience. I'm glad that we didn't walk down there, because they were closed for remodeling. I swore never to drink Heineken again (which didn't last very long since we were in Amsterdam) and we moved on.

Flowers at the Bloemenmarkt


We ended up walking up the Amstel River, seeing the sights. Unfortunately, Tami's back started hurting, so we ducked into a cafe across from the Opera House and took a break with some coffee and hot chocolate. After Tami was feeling better, we took another tram out to the De Gooyer Windmill and took a few pictures. We noticed a street market going on close by, so we walked around there, but didn't see much that interested us so caught the tram back into town and went to Begijnhof, which is similar to the one that we saw in Bruges. It was very nice and tranquil, except for the fact that the other tourist were pretty loud. They did have the oldest house in Amsterdam there, which was pretty cool.

Tami and the De Gooyer Windmill


We then made our way to Wijnand Fockink, an old fashioned tasting house. It is very interesting, a small building (most of the people actually drink outside) with a little bar. However, behind the bar there are tons of bottles of different flavored liquors. It's overwhelming trying to decide what to get, especially if you have no idea what to expect. Tami ended up trying a Forget Me Not (cherry and orange flavored jenever, which is Dutch Gin) and I had something else which I can't remember.... either way, it was way too sweet for us. Our next round, we tried Oude Jenever and Jong Jenever which is straight gin, and it was much better. The atmosphere was really cool and everyone there was friendly. We struck up conversations with several people and had a great time. After we were done, we headed out for supper. We ended up going to the Sea Palace, a large Chinese restauraunt. The entire restauraunt is in the shape of a pagoda and floats on the water. The food was excellent, but the only beer that they had on tap was Heineken, so I had to break my vow from earlier in the day. After we were finished, we were so full and the weather was so cold, we decided to go ahead and head back to our hotel.

The bar at Wijnand Fockink


The Sea Palace