Jan 07 2010

Day 10: Museums

Today started off with a trip down to Centraal Station in order to catch a different tram than our usual ones. We firstly went to the Purse and Handbag Museum. While not my first choice of museums to see, it turned out to be fairly interesting. The exhibits had a bunch of information regarding materials and methods used during different time periods, and for what purposes the bags were used.

From there we then made our way to XtraCold, the ice bar. This bar itself is made completely of ice, and it is located right near the Amstel canal. Though it seemed like a neat place, we couldn’t justify the 20 euro cost to enter the bar, even if it included two drinks. So, we took a gander at some of the pictures of the inside of the bar, and then headed out.

Next we went to the Anne Frank House, which has been mostly converted into a museum as well. It was very interesting as it included many of her writings, and also allowed us to see what the house was like while the family hid from the Nazi invasion. One really interesting connection was that one of the family members was sent to Neuengamme, which is the labour camp outside of Hamburg that we went to see a few days back.

After the Anne Frank House, we made our way back to Centraal Station to catch the 21 bus to a coffee house called Barney’s. However, we couldn’t find the place, and the address I had was apparently not correct. It would have been neat to see, but we were okay without it.

On the way back from Centraal Station, we decided that we would just walk down the main stretch and choose a restaurant that way. We stopped at this Argentinian steakhouse and ate. As we have found in many other places here, the water is not free, and the food is usually very pricey. The meal was pretty tasty though, and my baked potato was massive! After dinner, we walked over to the other major street that runs north to south—Damrak—and looked for a bakery. We didn’t find one that had nice looking pastries, but on our way back to the 2 tram, we did find one. Stopping in, I had a glass of Chinese Blossom tea (strength of an English tea, but with a little more fragrance, like Jasmine) and a slice of apple pie. Both were great.

Now, I am getting things ready to depart for Belgium tomorrow. I certainly enjoyed my stay in the Netherlands, and I hope that things go equally well, if not better, in Belgium for the last leg of the journey.

Jan 06 2010

Day 9: Lots of shopping, but not spending

This morning was a bit rough as the hotel room we were in last night had some serious problems. Firstly, the heat didn’t work, which is completely unacceptable for the Netherlands during winter. We called down to the front desk and they brought up a heater for the room. That was all fine and dandy except the heater had an insanely bright light. We said that we wouldn’t be able to sleep with the solar flare produced by that heater, so they exchanged it for a different one.

Then all was fine, right? WRONG! The electricity went out and with it, the heater. A couple hours later, it was freezing cold in the room, and there was a draft coming in the window. To make matters even better, there was no hot water. So, this morning after an awful shower, I politely asked if we could switch rooms after all these problems, and that is what happened.

With the room issues out of the way, we took the tram down to Centraal Station and boarded a connecting tram to the museum district. We got off the tram before that district though, as I saw a bakery that I had seen several times previously. We went in and had a doughnut and chocolate croissant. They were both really nice starts to the day.

From there we basically did a ton of wandering around the streets, ducking in and out of little shops. There were so many things ranging from little trinkets to shirts to beautifully ornate dishes. Though we didn’t buy much of anything, it was really nice to see all of these stores and what each one had to offer.

We went to a really neat photography museum called FOAM. They had a bunch of different newage photographers’ works on display, but the main exhibit was a Russian photographer from the early to mid nineteen-hundreds named Alexsander Rodchenko. Some of his work was absolutely stunning, especially considering the equipment he used and that there was essentially no post-processing techniques developed at that time.

From there it was the walk to dinner. Instead of our original restaurant idea, we ended up at an all-you-can-eat Japanese place. They had this system that basically came down to: 1) you had two hours from the time you sat down, 2) you could order up to ten items for a round, and 3) you were allowed five rounds in that two-hour period. We made it through three rounds of ten items each, but then alas, we could eat no more. I finished off with a double scoop of vanilla ice cream, which would have been two items in round four.

Anywho, now we are back at the hotel figuring out what excellent things we are going to see tomorrow. By the way, the weather started out sunny and fairly nice today, but later in the afternoon (when we were going to FOAM), it started snowing. The snowflakes were light, fluffy, and airy, and created a neat sparkle on the sidewalks. As I sit in the room now, I realise just how nice it is to have some heat. 🙂

Jan 06 2010

Day 8: I AMsterdam

Today we woke up bright and early to depart for the Netherlands. We got all of our things packed up and headed out of Hamburg. One thing that I had forgotten was that when we were coming into Hamburg on the A10 motorway, the opposite lanes had a lot of construction. Therefore, when we were headed back down A10, we were in that construction. Slowing down from 150kmh to 80kmh repeatedly didn’t help the travel time or the fuel economy.

After entering the Netherlands, I stopped off at a station to get something to drink. What I found was this ultimately syrupy concoction of banana, pineapple, orange, and peach juice. It was pretty tasty, but really sweet and a bit more like a smoothie than a juice beverage.

And then we saw it… the city of Amsterdam; this metropolis dissected every which way with canals and buildings spiraling outward from Centraal Station. We found our hotel, and then set out to see what we could see for the last remaining bits of daylight. We hopped on Tram 2 and took it down to Centraal Station. The ticket down there was €2.60 per person, and a 72-hour public transport pass (which covers the tram, bus, and metro with unlimited stops) was only €15.50 per person. Awesome deal!

So, after getting the public transport passes, we headed back toward the hotel. We got off at Spuistraat and decided to walk around for a bit to see some of the shops. Many of them close rather early, so much of the area was a little on the dead side. We decided to go to a traditional Dutch restaurant for dinner, and went to one called Haesje. It was excellent! I had this piece of beef with pepper sauce, boiled and charred potatoes, and some zucchini. For dessert, I had a Dutch macaroon pudding which was similar to flan and had homemade whipped cream.

Lastly, before heading back to the hotel, we found one of the smart shops. Smart shops are Amsterdam’s places for legally purchasing drugs. Though I didn’t buy anything as that is not really my thing, it was interesting to see all of the different substances. There were mushrooms that allegedly give a subtle hallucinogenic and soothing effect for about 4-6 hours all the way to this ground up leaf that yields intense auditory and visual hallucinations for 5-20 minutes.