Chilly Weekend in the Netherlands

For the long weekend, my friend Becca and I traveled up north to Amsterdam!  It was kind of refreshing to take a break from Spain and see a new city.  My first impression of Amsterdam was that it is very green compared to Andalucía and that the people are a lot bigger/taller than in Spain.

So Green!

Heineken Brewery

The first thing we did after settling into our hostel was get some food, walk around the city a bit and head over to the Heineken Brewery.  We actually had a really great tour and spent about two hours looking at everything.  The museum is very well laid out and with just enough information.  The best part about the tour is that you get two complimentary beers at the end!  Although we only had one...

The next morning we got up early and went on a free city tour, which was excellent!  I had done free tours before in Barcelona, so I made sure to look them up in Amsterdam.  Luckily they have one!  The tour lasted about three hours, but we had a great tour guide who took us all over the place.  We started in Dam square, which is the main plaza of the city that has the national monument and the royal palace.  He took us through the red light district, showed us around the canals, pointed out important buildings and churches, told us little things about the city like why many houses are actually crooked and why they all have hooks on the front.  He took us to places that we never would have found like a hidden sanctuary, the University of Amsterdam and to the skinniest house in the city.  I legitimately enjoyed the tour and everything he told us.

Sitting in the silent, hidden sanctuary

On the tour he talked a lot about how Amsterdam is a city known for tolerance.  It's no secret that Amsterdam has the red light district and a couple hundred "coffeeshops" and that the Holland was the first country to allow gay marriage.  He explained that the people of Holland tend to be very business oriented.  If somebody is doing something and it doesn't hurt anybody else and it is good for business, then they will allow it or just turn a blind eye to it.  For example, for a while openly practicing Catholicism was illegal in Holland, but he pointed out a secret church in an attic that was built during that time.  On all religious holidays and on Sundays, there would be a line out the door of people waiting to get in, but the police would not do anything because first of all it was Sunday and second of all it wasn't hurting anybody.  I find all of this really fascinating because it was a very frequent topic no matter where we went in Amsterdam.

Anne Frank House

Anyway, the tour ended at the Anne Frank house, which was perfect because that was our next stop.  Going into the Anne Frank house and museum was such an emotional and eye opening experience.  I read the diary of Anne Frank years and years ago, but I vaguely remembered a little bit about what happened.  To be in the space that they hid for so long was incredible.  The rooms were so small and they had them all blacked out how they would have been during the day.  They had TVs playing interviews with different people who were associated with the Frank family and quotes from Anne's diary all over the walls.  It was definitely an experience I will never forget and that I am so thankful to have had.

Later that evening we ended up taking the red light district tour to learn a little more about it.  It was extremely fascinating and I learned a lot of new interesting things.

Winter Market

One thing we were really excited about were the winter markets in the city!  They had a few markets that had booths set up with all kinds of foods and desserts like sausages, waffles, mulled wine, apple pastries, churros and more.  We spent a lot of time walking around eyeing all of the delicious looking desserts and trying as much as we could!  The only disappointing part about the winter markets was that there weren't any booths to buy gifts.  I was looking forward to finding little christmas ornaments or little souvenirs, but there really weren't any.

Pummels??

Bratwurst and mulled wine for dinner!

Van Gogh Museum

We had one more full day in Amsterdam and we took advantage.  We went to a diamond museum, we checked out the hidden church in the attic,  the Van Gogh museum, the Rijksmuseum and even went on a canal tour (yes, I know, ME?? on a BOAT?? ...It happened).  It was cool and relaxing to see Amsterdam from the canals, because we got to see the port, all of the bigger houses, houseboats and all of the people and bikes on the bridges.

 Overall I had a great trip to Amsterdam.  It was cool to get out of Spain for a little bit and it was really nice to learn about another new city.  The only thing we really didn't get to do was ride bikes in order to see the city like the locals.  Next time...