In January 2007 we took a trip across the pond and around Europe in a world-wind 7 day trip to Amsterdam, Paris, Cologne and Frankfurt. Our first stop was Amsterdam - The Netherlands.
Clint’s Amsterdam flickr shots
Jay’s Amsterdam flickr shots
The stuff that we liked about Amsterdam:
The Heineken Experience
The endless amounts of Heineken that you can drink all over the city
Very beautiful women (the best in Europe some might say)
The small portions of food so we don’t get fat
Cool Dutch food
Really smooth liquor
Some of the dislikes that we had:
Small portions because we want to get fat and were always hungry. Expect small portions.
The mean looking people.
To sum it up
Some people can’t get past the reputation of weed and prostitutes, I mean its a def plus, but there are other things to do in Amsterdam too. If you’re not high and knockin’ around some ladies of the night<cough>brett</cough>, you could get some culture at one of the many museums, or grab 3 beers and a gift at the Heineken Experience. Just watch out for the bikes. There are a ton of bikes here. Also you’re gonna need a map. Navigation is a mess if you are used to navigating American streets. The best way that we have learned to experience a city and a culture is to walk around it. Pack up a bag and just start walking. So with camera’s in hand that is what we did in Amsterdam. We walked all over the city, across bridges and canals, and up and down little alleyways.
The Arrival
Clint and I arrived at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam at 7:15 AM. It was a decent KLM flight from Chicago O’Hare. The flight attendants were good looking and polite, you can’t ask for more then that. After exiting the plane, we loaded up on euros at the first ATM we saw. Clint had some issues with the European pictures showing you how to insert your card, but after figuring that out, we thought we were set. So just take your time and make sure you put your card in correctly or you will start out looking like an ass. 
Next, we then headed over to the airport cafe to get a tiny cup of cappuccino. We needed a pick-me-up after the flight, and boy did it wake us up. Those tiny little cups sure do pack a punch. I def recommend picking one up if you haven’t yet. And don’t expect to get it to go. One of many cultural mistakes that Clint made.
Next on our agenda was to find Brett who we thought was coming in at the same time as us. The reason he didn’t fly over with us is he was heading back from climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. I’ll let him tell that story. So we head down to baggage going through the passport check-in to the EU which I must say was a breeze - maybe it was because we were a couple nerdy looking white guys, but who knows. Getting back into the US was a lot more trouble thanks to the crabby asshole in Detroit who was on a power trip. We’ll save that story for a different time though.
Next, we arrived our carrousel. Our bags were the only ones left - we snatched them up and proceeded to wait for Brett. The plane from Tanzania landed, people picked up their bags and then everyone was gone. But where was Brett?! We had no clue, so we decide to sit there awhile longer and also checked to see if we could get some info from the airline. We knew it was a long shot but had to try and no it didn’t work. We tried calling his mountain climbing ass to see where he was, but we didn’t have any luck with that. We had to make a game time decision. Keep waiting because he might have missed his flight, or leave. We ended up leaving, I mean, who knows, he could’ve been dead on the summit and we weren’t going to let him dying ruin our time in Europe. After cruising through customs again where they don’t check anyone - its just a door, we headed over to the Amsterdam Information booth to buy some tram passes thinking we would use the tram a lot, turns out we like to walk more.
After talking to the girl at the Amsterdam info booth we headed down to catch a train into the city center. Not really knowing what train to take and where to get off, we decided to get on the first train that said city centre.
We ended up getting off at the RAI stop because I read in a book that if you’re staying by Leidseplein you should get off there. Hey we have time its 9:00 AM we get off start walking thinking this doesn’t look right, all we see is office building and a couple hotels. After walking for about 5 minutes we decide lets head back to the train stop. On the way back we see a tram and we’re going to ask one of the workers where it goes but they proceed to yell at us to get on. We decide why not it must go somewhere. It was a good move on our part because we were heading towards the inner city. After riding the tram for about 10 minutes and it looks like were well within the city we decide lets get out here. We hop out at Rembrandtplein if you know Amsterdam its not really close to Leidseplein but hey we’re closer. We pull out a map decide we’re here and need to get there lets walk it. When you’ve only been in the city for about 20 minutes Amsterdam can be confusing since all the buildings look the same and its no grid system. I must admit, it was fun walking around the city that morning. The streets were pretty quiet but by Amsterdam standards it was early. After finding are way through the streets and canals, we finally walked up to our hotel.
Exploring
Our room was nice it had a Euro feel especially with the beds pushed together. Clint and I were ready to explore, we ditched our packs and decided to head back out and hit this city by foot. We needed some food after are flight so we were looking for something kinda authentic to The Netherlands we decided to hit up the Pancake Corner. This place ruled. After looking at the menu with all sorts of weird pancake mixtures, Clint had the pear chocolate and ice cream pancake and I had a bacon cheese and mushroom pancake. I have to say it wasn’t that good but interesting.
The awesomeness of the Pancake Corner
Jay’s pancake w/egg, bacon and cheese
Clint’s pear, chocolate and ice cream pancake
After breakfast we had no clue what we wanted to see and where anything was so we just walked. We ended up finding are way to Nieuwmarkt which was pretty empty, so we decided to map up. After seeing we were close to Dam Square we said lets go west. We had a surprise on are way there. Hey there’s a half naked lady in a glass doorway knocking on it wanting us to come in. As you might have guessed we walked into the heart of the Red Light district, which can be shock right away but you get use to it pretty quick. We decided to stroll around the Red Light district and check out what was happening, we figured out whoring was happening. After checking out the ladies of the afternoon we headed over to Dam Square and check out the royal palace and things. We noticed on the map the Anne Frank’s house was near by so we strolled over. We didn’t go in because we were going to save that landmark when Brett got into town but never got back, maybe next time.
After Anne Frank’s we headed back to the hotel to take a power nap, which by the way, was most excellent.
« Return MOSS 2007 Subsite navigation | Value does not fall within the expected range »