I've also been quite busy at work preparing for our year end review cycle in HR, everyone has been patient and helpful as this is still a learning process for me but so far its going really well!
So, I think when most people think of Amsterdam, they think "party city", drugs, Red Light district - craziness...
Well all that is of course true! But its also one of the most beautiful cities in the world, complete with amazing museums, streets surrounded by canals and cute restaurants/bars and shops and more bikes that you have seen in your entire life...!!!!
Our weekend trip to Amsterdam was awesome! It amazed us how easy it was just to hop on the train from Brussels and get to Amsterdam in about 1 1/2 hours - incredible! When we arrived Friday night we walked through the center of town to get to our hotel on the canal - right in the center in Dam Square there was a huge carnival. Absolutely crazy to see this in the middle of such a huge city, I can't even imagine seeing this in the Commons in Boston... We went back one night and had a ride on the huge ferris wheel, I'm becoming a wimp - even that was scary!
We then checked into the Ambassade hotel which consists of 17th century canal houses that are linked together to make 59 hotel rooms.
http://www.ambassade-hotel.nl/en
Our room overlooked the canal and was decorated with antique furniture, very beautiful. We then hopped out and grabbed some Italian food for dinner and explored the city, we stopped for a drink at the oldest brown bar in Amsterdam, Bar Hoppe, what was interesting is Brussels is a vibrant city with tons of people out but in Amsterdam, it was really hopping ;) Tons of people out and about and everyone riding their bikes all around the city, I think it brings a new danger to drinking and driving....
Saturday we woke up and rented bikes from the hotel, it only took me about 5 minutes to totally bite it. Luckily, I'm very used to being a clutz and falling all over the place, so I got back on the bike and we explored the city. We found even more markets (I'm sure you are sensing a theme in our travels) and ate some "interesting" Amsterdam cuisine, a raw herring sandwich, pea soup with bratworst and some Dutch cheeses...and my favorite - fresh mint tea! Definitely one to try at home, its just hot water and fresh mint leaves.
For dinner that night we had made a reservation at "Kantjil & De Tijger" for dinner. Amsterdam is known for their Indonesian food so we had to try it! We split one of the dinner selections where they brought out about 10 small dishes for us to try, I definitely recomend this if you have never tried Indonesian food.
After dinner we made our way over to the Red Light district to check out the scene. If you were wondering whether other countries celebrate Halloween, they definitely do in Belgium and in the Netherlands. People were decked out going to bars and parties, not like you need any of that to make the Red Light district any more crazy...I'm keeping this blog clean, but my opinion has not changed of the Red Light district, it is a little too much for me to handle!
Sunday morning we set off to check out the Van Gogh Museum and go on a canal cruise. Luckily our hotel gave us the heads up to buy tickets to the Van Gogh museum from them - saved us about 2 hours of a line!!! We first had a traditional Dutch pancake breakfast, I have to say it was good, but nothing beats some blueberry panckes from Vermont.
This was my second time at the Van Gogh museum and I enjoyed it once again. I'm not a huge fan of spending my time at museums but the Van Gogh museum is a must see! The way the museum is set up gives you a great perspective of the art work of Van Gogh at various times in his life and you are able to walk through these stages with him and look at how his artwork changed, such a great layout!
We had a few choices for a canal cruise, but I had heard a lot about a really fun one given by the St. Nicolaas Boat Club. This cruise was marketed as a fun, bring your own drinks/food, and have a laidback time on a boat - rather than the touristy covered canal crusies... it was amazing! I highly recommend you going on this one. You can't sign up online or make a reservation so you have to go that day (check out this website) and sign up for a timeslot. We were on the waitlist but still were able to get on the boat...by far the BEST part of the weekend! Oh and did I mention, they only take donations, so the cost is up to you!
http://www.amsterdamboatclub.com/
After a bottle of wine and the boatcruise, we pretty much had decided that it would be a day of relaxing and drinking, we watched some of the soccer games that were on and then I played let's make a deal with Jay. We went to a comedy improv show (which I wanted to do) and then were able to make it to a sports bar to watch the 2nd half of the Patriots game (he's just not giving up his football, lol!). I volunteered Jay to go on stage at the Improv show and he was the star of the show! Better story to be told in person, but it made my year to watch Jay up there on stage ready to kill me! And of course the Patriots won - again!
Monday we checked out of our hotel and spent the day wandering around the city and shopping - I think its the first time we have EVER done that for the entire time we have been dating - something about being in a new city and shopping makes it a lot more fun! We bought some new clothes and found some cool presents to bring home for Christmas! Then it was time to go back home, again a great weekend getaway!
This week we are looking forward to settling into our new apartment and then relaxing and spending the weekend in Brussels and possibly a day trip somewhere in Belgium. I'm also really looking forward to my parents visiting next week! My dad has already said he's ready for the food and the beer, I think we can definitely work with that ;)
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