Days 19, 20, & 21

“Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” Benjamin Disraeli

My long weekend started very, very early on Friday morning when Aaliyah, Sarah, and I left our apartments at 3:30 to begin our adventurous weekend to Amsterdam.   Our 8 hours of traveling with barely any sleep along the way made us extremely tired and anxious to see the sights in Amsterdam.  When we first got to the city we immediately found lunch and purchased a Holland Pass, which allowed us to see the main sights for one fixed price.  After doing this we used our card first for a tour of the city by bus.  While on the bus it dropped us off at a crazy expensive diamond factory.

Then, we got back on the bus to venture our way to the Anne Frank House.  The line was very long; however, it was well worth the wait to see it.  Unfortunately there were no pictures allowed inside.  It was an experience that you just have to be there to understand what her and her family went through during all those months in hiding. 

After touring the house we made our way over to our hotel, which was directly next to the Central Station.  There we regrouped and decided what our plans were going to be for the remainder of the day.  We went to a famous Pancake House and the 3 of us each had a delicious pancake.  I had no idea that Amsterdam was famous for their pancakes too.  Mine was massive, as like everyone else’s, and it had bacon, cheese, and mushrooms, which was simply delicious.

Then, we ventured into the infamous Red Light District.  While there we mainly just looked in tourist shops and saw some of what the district is known for.  Afterwards, we called it a night and returned to our hotel.

On Saturday we planned a day full of Amsterdam experiences.  We started off the morning by going to see the I AMsterdam sign.  We were good tourists by taking our pictures all with the sign.

The park that the sign is in is actually in the same area as the Van Gogh Museum too.  So, we went to go see all the paintings inside the Museum.  I found the paintings amazing.  I loved being able to see so many of his famous works and pieces from other artists that I like too, especially those done by George Seurat.  Sadly we were not allowed to take pictures inside this Museum as well.  After finishing and eating lunch we went to the Heineken Experience.  While there we got to learn all about how Heineken is brewed, the history of the company, an experience where we “were being brewed” and lastly the tasting experience. 

After experiencing all that Heineken had to offer we made our way to the only windmill in the city of Amsterdam.  However, the windmill is not open for tours or visits expect on very select days.

Then, we proceeded to hike back to the central area of town; however, our walk proved to be a lot longer than we had anticipated.  By the time we arrived there it was approaching dinner so we decided to eat at a traditional Dutch restaurant. After dinner we stopped we stopped to look around at Dam Square. 

Then we headed over to our reservation at the Ice Bar.  This is Amsterdam’s second most visited tourist attraction.  While there we watched what the Dutch considered to be an amazing video experience; however, the Americans and the Dutch differ on that.  Overall the Ice Bar was very cold and simply a one of a kind experience. 

Then, we headed over to the Red Light District again to wonder about the area.  We were all disappointed to see that all the stores for the most part had already closed for the evening.  Sadly we headed back to our hotel to get some sleep from our busy day.

Sunday was our last day in Amsterdam and having done almost everything that we had intended to do in the city we took it easy in the morning.  We used our time to pack all of our stuff up in preparation for our travel back to Berlin.  We were all glad that we had seen mostly everything because Sunday turned out to be a very rainy and chilly day.  When we ventured out for the day we first headed to the Torture Museum, which was simply interesting.  That place reminded me a few episodes of the 1000 Ways to Die.  Easily put it was very peculiar.

We then made our way back over to Dam Square, which is an area full of shopping.  It contains clothing stores, and souvenir stores, and many other types of shops.  We all did some souvenir shopping here and found mostly everything that we were looking for.  After shopping we proceeded to find lunch, for which we each had another delicious Dutch-pancake. 

Later, we were so pleased to find that the rain had stopped for a bit and we were now able to take our Canal Cruise.  The cruise was a little over an hour and it gave us great views of the city by boat; however, shortly after the cruise started it went on to rain again.

Upon the cruise finishing we went to walk around the city one last time before our train back to Berlin.  While walking around we were all able to find some more souvenirs.  Afterwards, we made our way back to the train station to take our series of 3 trains back to our “home” of Berlin.  Our first two trains went without any type of problem and very smoothly; however, on our last train there was a major seating issue where the three of us and several other people did not have a seat.  Luckily for all of us we were told we could now have first class since there was nowhere else for us to go.  Finally after a weekend full of traveling and exploring I made it back safely to my apartment (well after 1am) where I proceeded to have a great nights sleep from being so busy this weekend.