I’m participating in Classy in Philadelphia‘s Where In The World Wednesday!
The idea of WITWW is to post a picture of you in someplace in the world…it doesn’t have to be somewhere foreign or tropical. Just a picture of you somewhere that you consider traveling.
Last week, I went to London. This week, I embark on the second half of that trip….Amsterdam.
I loved Amsterdam. Every minute of it – every drop of Heineken, every canal we saw, every piece of Rembrandt art work. I loved it all.
I should preface this by saying – the Van Gogh Museum, the Reijksmuseum and the Rembrandt House were NOT my ideas. I’m not a big museum person (not uncultured, I just don’t have the patience to spend ten minutes looking at a piece of artwork to try to figure out the “meaning” of it).
On top of those, we managed to visit the Heineken factory (where I shamelessly flirted with one of the bartenders to give us more than the allotted 2 1/2 pints of Heineken.), as well as the Anne Frank Museum which quite possibly changed my life. Anne Frank’s diary was one of my favorite books growing up and still, by that note, is.
I had long dreamed of going to Amsterdam to see the setting where it all took place. I was beyond moved. Walking up the steps in crowds – imagine, being her, in their small hidden apartment, keeping quiet like any other day, and heading the Gestapo’s heavy footsteps coming up the narrow, steep steps. You walk up those steps. You can’t quite fathom the fear that must have gone through their minds. It is such an intense, moving experience. My brother and sister-in-law recently went there on a trip to Amsterdam (he was over there for work and she studied abroad in Spain) and being able to talk to them about what they thought was awesome.
I loved Amsterdam. Every inch of it.
The bikes. The laid back atmosphere, the culture.
Sure it wasn’t Florida, and we somehow got stuck in a blizzard like snow squall on our way to lunch one day before the Heineken factory, but it was on that list – you know the one – the places I could only dream of visiting…and then getting to visit.
This is us – me, my pal’s coworker, and my pal to the left of him. We had a bunch of classes together so when my Spring Break plans fell through, he encouraged me to go visit. As i mentioned last week – why not?
So, we spent a long period of time at the final bar in the Heineken factory, found a few pubs, played tons of pool, some Brit bought me a tequilla shot (which I gave to my pal since Jose and I are not on speaking terms unless we’re in mixed company). Ate dinner at our Youth Hostel (has anyone else that’s ever been to Amsterdam stayed at Bob’s Youth Hostel? isn’t it amazingly shady? And how about those 1 euro heinekens? Or the 1 euro breakfast of a piece of bread and a hardboiled egg? Yeah. Awesomeness right?)
That my friends, is the awesomeness in Amsterdam.
One day? I will go back and buy myself a pair of wooden shoes. I clearly forgot the first time. Also, sidenote, KLM has the most amazing inflight snacks ever. Bread. and cheese. Totally beats the pretzels of US airlines.
