We’re in Amsterdam

Bikes!

Stumpled upon an art agllery

Aw a man in a little boat playing the horn

A glasses museum

Begijnhof

Ann Frank house

A bit of music decoration

Red Light distrcit

How they get stuff up to the top floors…

…beaucse the stairs are too steep!

Mon 29 Jun – Fri 3 Jul 2015

After having a better sleep on the last night of the festival, we were feeling a bit more refreshed and excited to hit the road for Amsterdam! We packed up the campsite and re-packed the car. This is becoming an art that we are mastering. After sitting in festival traffic for an hour or so we found a McDonald’s for lunch and then headed off towards Holland. We found our hostel with no problems and unpacked the car for the next four nights. 

We then went in search of a park and ride just outside of the city centre. This would only cost us about 10 euros for the four days as opposed to 25 euros a day in the city centre. We were pretty exhausted from the festival so we had a quiet night – catching up on blogging, laundry, etc.

The next day we slept in and then went on a free walking tour of the city. We stopped for a frappuccino and hot dog for lunch then headed to a cheese shop and bought a small selection of Dutch cheese (taste/texture like gouda). Then we headed south to the foodhall. Natalie thought this was  market where we could get fruit & veg, etc. but it turns out it was just a a food hall (as the name implied) but we had coupons for free canvas tote bags so the 30 minute walk wasn’t a total waste.

So then we had to stop at a real supermarket to get food for our stay. We were on the third floor of the hostel and it was boiling in our room so the most we could manage was a salad and bread. That night we walked around the neighborhood where our hostel was to see the city at night.

On Wednesday we went to rent bikes. We biked back to the car because we forgot a few things like a new book for Matt, the faux pro, etc. Then we biked to hostel to change into something cooler and packed our picnic lunch that we made the night before. We biked to Vondelpark which was very near our hostel and had a Canada Day picnic complete with a Keith’s beer (saved for over a year for a special occasion!)

We went for a bike ride around the park and stopped at a bench to watch the world go by. We saw so many different kinds of bikes it was unbelievable really. Everyone had their own twist. Some with baby seats on the back or the front (or both), some with baskets, creates and wooden carts attached. People riding in their suits or summer dresses and some walking their dogs whilst riding!

We went back to the hostel for dinner (more salad and bread – too hot to cook in the little hostel kitchen!!) The we biked over to the Anne Frank museum but didn’t get a chance to visit because the line up was too long (over an hour wait and it was getting late).

We biked around the city looking for a jazz bar (got lost several times) and finally found it but there was no live jazz on as previously advertised so we went to a cafe to hear some live jazz. It was an amazing band – they were so enthusiastic!

On Thursday we went in search for an American bookstore so Natalie could get a book in English for when she finished her current book. We then went to the Begijnhof which was an area for single or widowed women who wanted to live like nuns but not take monastic vows. The city still rents the flats to only women. We then went to the flower market but it turned out that they just sold flower bulbs and not actual bunches of flowers so it was just a sea of brown bulbs and other tourist souvenirs – rather disappointing. For lunch we had fries from a little takeaway place that our guide book recommended called Vleminckx, which had been opened since 1879-ish.

After lunch we biked to the sex museum in the Red Light district because we were in Amsterdam after all. Not overly educational – more cheesy than anything. Most of the displays really needed updating and modernising. The most interesting collection was pronographic photos from the 1870s to 1960s – some early ones taken in photographer’s studios and all! Those loose Victorians – how shocking!

Then we biked back to the hostel to pack our bags to leave the next day and then headed out again for dinner at a steakhouse called Chicanos. Nice and cheap and just for tourists.

After dinner we to the Red Light district to see all of the prostitutes in their little windows. Our tour guide, on the first day, said that they have around 15 customers a day and charge around 50 euros per 15 minutes. They rent their space from city real estate agents and they have to pay income tax on their earnings.

The next day we biked over to the bike rental place to return our bikes, then we got the tram to our car. We drove to the hostel and parked it up and reloaded her then it was off to Hannover to meet our next workaway hosts.