A 'Dam Good Weekend
The fourth weekend in February, I made the short trip to Amsterdam to meet up with one of my closest friends from UW-Madison, Maja, and two of her abroad roommates (Lauren and Maddi) who are spending their semester studying in Florence! It was such a fun, laid back weekend and much needed decompress time for me.
We spent our Friday night walking around the city, with stops for dinner, at a "coffee shop" (when in Amsterdam...) and at a pub to end the night. The rest of our weekend is explained in better detail below.
One of my favorite parts of this trip was our stop at the Heineken Experience! As we were told on the tour, Heineken was born in Amsterdam but raised by the world. This original brewery has been transformed into an interactive tour where you get to hear about Heineken's history, see how the beer is made, learn about the ingredients, play interactive games along the way, and of course, end the excursion with some nice, cold Heineken! You can click on the photos below to swipe through them to see some of my favorite shots from the excursion:
Amsterdam always makes the list as one of the cities with the best museums in the world, so of course you've got to stop at a few when visiting! There is something for everyone: the Rikjsmuseum, Anne Frank House, Van Gogh Museum, NEMO Science Museum, the National Maritime Museum (fitting with all those canals!), Moco Museum, and so many more.
We made a stop at the Van Gogh Museum which houses the largest collection of the Dutch post-impressionist painter's work. There was one letdown about this museum: The Starry Night, Van Gogh's most famous painting, is actually showcased at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. Nonetheless, the rest of the museum was still fabulous!
I know I'll be back to Amsterdam at least twice more while studying abroad and two museums I'm going to plan to visit are the Moco Museum and Anne Frank House!
We ended our Saturday night on a canal cruise through Amsterdam. It was the perfect way to relax as the sun went down after a long day of walking around and exploring the city! We chose the 1-hour Lovers Canal Cruise which I enjoyed because of our informative guide. He pointed out significant spots in the city, such as the Anne Frank House (swipe to see it below in the photo gallery -- it's the brown house!), and also stopped at some of Amsterdam's most photogenic areas so we could get our fix of great shots! However, if I was going to go on another canal cruise, I would make sure to grab a spot in the open deck area (it was already filled when we got there) or book with a different company without a cover over their boat (weather permitting, of course!).
One more thing to point out about this trip to Amsterdam -- I loved the hostel we stayed at! It was conveniently located downtown and was the cutest place ever. A little pricey for a hostel, but worth looking into. It's called Ecomama for those planning a trip to Amsterdam soon!
...my best 'dam memory is the whole weekend!
