Amsterdam: Bikes, Canals, and Flowers

I'm going to attempt to catch up on my recent trips before I leave on the next one tonight (rough life, I know).  So, if something doesn't make sense, it's probably because I'm in a rush! :)

My friend, Kim, and her friend, Shannon, arrived in Paris on a beautiful Saturday.  After bringing us American goodies (Crystal Light, peanut butter, and contact solution--yes, it really costs 13+ euros a bottle here), we were able to explore Paris--including a little picnic!
Since they'd both been to Paris before, we left bright and early Monday morning for Amsterdam on the train.

Amsterdam is such a cute, peaceful city.  Well, except the fact that bikers are more dangerous than cars when crossing the road and that it's common to see bikers almost getting run over by buses. :)  After checking into our super cute, but not-so super nice hotel (long story short...they didn't understand our reservations, we ended up sleeping 3 people in a double bed 1 night, and I developed some sort of eye reaction from the sheets), we ate lunch outside and then headed off for the Heineken brewery tour.

Custom-made bottle labels

None of us are huge Heineken fans, but I have to say this is one of the best tours I've ever been on...whoever designed this needs to design all museums!  Everything was hands on (hello, teacher alert!)--from tasting the different steps in the beer making process to being a bottle in a "simulation" where we bounced around and got splashed with "beer".  We could have spent all day here, but we managed to get out in about 3 hours! :)

Drinking the "wort" water--boiled water and barley...not so tasty!

Learning how to drink the beer without the foam

Just relaxing in some sweet chairs watching Heineken commercials!

Finally taste testing time!

As the last part of the tour, we went on a free canal ride that ended in the other part of the city.  We got to see some of the famous parts of Amsterdam, including the AmstelHotel, where all the celebrities stay (and probably don't get eye irritations!)

We spent the rest of the day wandering the canals, checking out the Flower Market, buying lots of souvenirs  and eating delicious Holland cheese in the cheese stores.  We were lucky to find an amazing little local restaurant close to our hotel called In de Buurt.  If you're ever in Amsterdam, I highly recommend you check it out!  The canals were equally as gorgeous at night as they were during the day.





Day 2, we decided to explore some other areas of Amsterdam, including the Red Light District and the Jordaan area.  The Red Light District looks just like any other beautiful street in town, until you come across the ladies working in the windows.  We were surprised at how many there were at 10am and how many were quite out of shape (sorry, it's true!).  Apparently, this is a highly regulated business here in Amsterdam, but needless to say, we didn't stay very long before heading to the Jordaan area. :)  Of course, we stopped for a few classic tourist pictures along the way:

Look carefully--that's me in the 't'

We all loved the Jordaan area a lot...it's filled with little boutiques and art galleries.  We spent the day shopping (well, mostly browsing) and then sat at a cafe on the water to enjoy the beautiful views.  We may or may not have eaten ridiculous amounts of frites as well. :)  To top off the day, we visited the Anne Frank House, which was a wonderful and interesting museum.  We got to walk inside the rooms where Anne and her family actually hid out for 2 years before they were caught.  It was crazy to see how small and dark the rooms were and difficult to imagine having to stay so quiet on top of that because of the shop below.  I highly recommend this stop, but be sure to buy your tickets ahead of time online.  (Trust me, it's worth the extra 50 cents!)

Anne Frank House...this is the shop, the house was behind this front

Jordaan...oh see, those house boats?  Yeah, 500,000 euros for those!

On Day 3 (our final day!), we made the trek out to Keukenhof, which is a huge garden filled with tulips every spring.  It only runs for about 2 months and has international recognition, so we were pretty pumped that we were there at the perfect time to see things blooming (or so we thought)!  Using public transportation, it was about 1 hour and 20 minutes to get there.  The garden was pretty, and it was a perfect weather day to be there, but we were all a little bit disappointed.  The website made it look like there were fields of tulips inside in the garden (and there were definitely not), and not everything was blooming yet.  I guess spring was late in coming everywhere this year, and it seemed about 2 weeks later in Amsterdam than in Paris.  Most of what was blooming inside the garden were hyacinth and daffodils, and the tulips were inside the greenhouses.  We're still glad we went though! :)
But, the highlight of this day for all of us was going to the nearby tulips fields for some pictures.  Even Kim, who thought our 2 mile walk would end up fruitless, was pretty pumped when we finally found some fields! :)

They look so close from the garden....

Yay!

All in all, Amsterdam was a success and we had such a fun time!  Be sure to check out the rest of my Amsterdam pictures here.

Summary:
Would I go back?  Yes, definitely!
Must-see/do's: Heineken tour, walk the canals, Anne Frank House, Jordaan area
Tips: Don't stay at Boutique Hotel (haha), Kuekenhof was a good experience, but make sure you go late enough in the festival that things will be blooming.  To me, it's a 1-time thing.  I wouldn't pay to go back in again (it's pretty pricey), but I would definitely go back to rent bikes and bike through all the nearby fields of tulips.

Don't miss the rest of our trip--Brussels and Bruges, Belgium!