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Amsterdam 13th - 15th Feb
We decided that we needed a refreshing mid term break, so we booked up some cheap flights to Amsterdam.We caught a late flight out on Saturday night, and after only being in the air for what seemed to be minutes, we arrived at Amsterdam Schipol airport. After some confusion with buying train tickets, tram tickets and a disorientating walk around we eventually found our hotel and decided on some sleep; it was well after 11pm!
The next morning we woke to some bloody cold weather, coupled with some snow. We enjoyed a s***ty breakfast at the hotel (Week old hard boiled eggs, cereal and toast) before setting off to get our bearings and go wandering the small city. After discovering the enormous queues at the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museums, we decided to meet up with Matt and Jodie (Who also decided to spend a few days unwinding in Holland).
We decided that there was no better way to get acquainted with the city, but to take another free walking tour. We found the time and place and met up with the others, grabbed a quick lunch of 'Chipsy King'; very enjoyable chips with hundreds of different sauces to choose from. We eventually set off on the tour, and had drawn the Aussie tour guide. He was great, told some great historical stories, but plenty of the quirky side of Amsterdam. I loved the metal spiral structures (See the photos) of the 'pisswah': Basically urinals on the side of the street, for men only. The women did protest (By hundreds of ladies standing together united, pissing on a bridge) in the 60's that they wanted something too. They had them built, but they became the favourite place for junkies to shoot up, so they were closed down not long after being installed. The men's are still populated frequently, and Dan was more than happy to use them a few times during our week in Amsterdam. We also saw the infamous (famous?) Red Light District, leaning buildings, bikes, bikes and more bikes, plenty of Coffee shops and Anne Frank's house. We ended up going back to a café with our tour guide and having a rather late (it was almost dinner time) but very cheap and yummy traditional Dutch meal. We had rookwurst and stampot - smoked sausage, like a hotdog, on a bed off various mashed vegetables. It was delicious and warm after wandering the freezing cold streets for hours. Our Aussie tour guide was excellent and gave us lots of extra tips and places to go. I suppose he proved to us that not all Australian's in Europe are Bogan dickheads.
We ended up just spending the rest of the evening (Which happened to be Valentine's Day), hanging out with Matt and Jodes. We grabbed a Kebab dinner together then caught a show before heading home for bed.
The following morning after we decided that we'd have a bit of a sleep in as the breakfast wasn't really worth waking up for. We grabbed an early McDonald's lunch instead, and then decided that we'd go and check out where Anne Frank and her olds hung out for a few years. The queue was around the block, so we thought that we'd just go for a wander around the streets and just check out the architecture and of course the bikes.
I am completely amazed at the lean that some of the canal houses are on. Our tour guide had told us that the ones that leaned forward did so because when people used to use the hooks and pulley system that if the house was leaning forward the couch wouldn't bang into the wall as much when they were pulling it up. It didn't take a brainiac to figure out that they just needed to put the hook on a longer rod coming out from the top of the house.
We made it back to Anne's house late in the afternoon and after only having to wait about 25 minutes in the queue. The house itself was left mostly unfurnished at the request of Anne's father, Otto. The house was stripped bare by the Nazi's when they were found. The house and the spaces that they lived in were very basic. It had a definite eerie quality to it, but the video and the exhibits that were also shown in the house were amazing. It is so far one of the best museums we've visited. Probably because I was familiar with her story and could now see where everything was, and how she lived.
We grabbed a nice, and affordable pizza for dinner in the Leidseplain, near where we were staying, before heading home for an early, and warm bed! It was far too cold to stay out wandering the streets tonight!
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