...an interesting place

Every time before I travel I have asked friends who have gone there the question, "What should I know about the city?" For each location my friends recommendations and advice has been helpful. Before I went to Amsterdam this weekend, I sent out the normal question to a friend of mine who had been to Amsterdam. His response,"yeah it is... an interesting place." He then reassured me that he had a good time and that there was a ton to do in the city. Well after having spent the weekend in the city, I know exactly what my friend meant. The city has alot of offer from great art museums to history about how the Dutch were once one of the richest nations in the world.

Friday morning we awoke and ventured to Vondelpark. It was cold and misty but little did we know Friday's light mist would be the best weather we experienced the whole weekend. The park was....a park in the rain. Without any famous Dutch tulips in bloom and raining soaking through my peacoat we made our stop here a quick one. After lunch we visited the Rembrandt museum and roamed around. For those who have never been to Amsterdam, I would describe it as a poor man's Venice in that there is water everywhere it is just that the buildings are not nearly as opulent. Nearly every street in Amterdam is off a canal which gives each street the look of a seaside boardwalk.

Saturday afternoon we went to the Heineken Experience. And I have to add this was not the Heineken Brewery, oh no apparently the people at Heineken feel that the tour of the brewery goes above and beyond the ordinary thus it must be deemed an Experience. That aside it was a good tour and was very cost effective. The tour was 15 Euro but for that price you get not only a tour but 3 beers and 3 beers in Amsterdam at most bars would have cost you 15 euro anyways. After drinking all my "free" beers at the tour, I concluded Heineken is the most overrated beer in the world. It is expensive in the states and frankly I'd rather drink a PBR.

After our Experience, we decided to see what other beers the Dutch have to offer at local watering holes and I must say the Dutch do not hold a candle in beer making to either the Brits or Germans.

Sunday was by far our busiest day. We woke up and went to mass at a church named St. Nicholas. The service was nice and after being to masses in France, Germany, England and now the Netherlands I have begun to notice some odd things Europeans do. For one during communion there is no set order as to when to proceed. Whereas in America you simply follow your pew to the altar...nope not here. It is more as a come up when you like communion service. Some other interesting things I've noticed is that none of the churches (minus Notre Dame in Paris for obvious reasons) have been remotely filled and the average attendant is probably pushing 80.

Anyways I digress, after mass we went to the Van Gogh museum and I must say for 15 euro I was substantially unimpressed. Most of Van Gogh's most famous prints are owned by other museums. Before I went to the museum I thought for the most part that I was a fan of Van Gogh. I like starry night and find some of his landscapes fascinating to look at. I always knew he was a little crazy and some of his work was a little odd but didn't think too much of that. Well I was in for a rude awakening. First of all the man was absolutely nuts and aside from that many of his pictures are down right weird.

After Van Gogh, we made our way to the Anne Frank House, the house in which Anne Frank hid and wrote her internationally famous Diary. The house was certainly a sobering experience. Having read her diaries numerous times in school, it was cool to see the rooms she was describing. One of the more somber aspects of the exhibit are where they play clips from her father describing their captivity and Anne after she has died (he was the only family member who survived internment). Once we finished with the Anne Frank House we had enough time for lunch before we had to make our way to the train station and then airport.