A Full Day in Amsterdam

Today was a full day in Amsterdam, and we packed it in. Kristi says her Fitbit clocked our total for the day at 7.08 miles on foot.  While the city is technically quite large, the old city center is quaint and cozy feeling. 

We (including Cecelia and Jonnie) started out at the Rijks Museum. We spent some of the morning and some time after lunch inside. It is a huge collection of both Dutch history and art. They had some great displays of Dutch weaponry, dinnerware, musical instruments, and model Dutch ships. There were rooms and rooms of paintings, furniture, and sculpture. The pièce de résistance was the 400-year-old “The Night Watch” by Rembrandt. 

We sat and rested our bones for a while in the museum gardens after we exited. Jim even rested his eyes for a short while. The short break in the cool breeze and beautiful gardens was all we needed to energize us for the next stop. 

Our next stop was the original Heineken brewery, just a few blocks from the Rijks. They no longer brew beer at this location, but they have created a fun, self guided  tour of the history and original brewing equipment. It ends with a whimsical, Willy Wonka-like “trip through the brewing process” … and the grand finale is two beers in a night club-esque bar. It was silly and fun, as well as a little educational. 

Since we’d had our cocktails at Heineken we decided to make our way towards the Anne Frank house about a mile away and find a place to eat before our 7pm tour.  We found a nice place on a busy small street along a beautiful canal. It was quite picturesque, like most of Amsterdam.  We all had a nice entree and Dutch apple pie for dessert. We took a few videos to create a montage to try to give a sense of the atmosphere. 

After a long, early dinner we walked the rest of the way to the Anne Frank House / Museum. We actually joined up with Emma’s softball group for this tour. The experience took us through a maze of educational displays and finally through the actual rooms where Anne Frank and seven others hid out for two years while Jews were being rounded up and murdered during WWII. They were finally found and shipped of to several concentrations camps.  Of the eight, only Anne’s father survived the camps. It was a surreal experience. Note: pictures were not allowed in the house. 

Needless to say, we were all pooped. We took a light rail + bus trip back to our hotel. We head out to Asten, where Cecelia has lived for the last year, tomorrow morning.