Amsterdam is the BEST!!!!!!
Day 1
We arrived at the airport and after passing through customs its pretty much a breeze getting out to ground transportation. We were staying at the Ramada Apollo so fortunately the hotel had a shuttle service that takes you straight to their door, it’s about a 20 or 25 minute ride depending on traffic.
After check in we grabbed a map from the front desk, got instructions on how to get to the Anne Frank museum and we were off on our way.
The best way to get around once in Amsterdam is the tram by far. They come around every few minutes and you can pretty catch it anywhere. From our hotel we took the number 13 to Westermarkt to get to the Anne Frank museum. If you’re in Amsterdam multiple days it’s best to purchase a 48 hour tram ticket for 12 euro per person. Make sure when entering the tram you tap in and exiting tap out. If you don’t it will void your entire pass and you will lose money.
The Anne Frank museum is 9 euro per person and one important fact to note is there is no photography allowed once inside. It should take you about an hour or hour and a half to get thru the whole museum.
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Day 2
Today we ventured out to the Dutch countryside, visiting a town called Marken first. Here we went into a local clog making shop and watched a gentleman make a pair of authentic clogs out of wood. Then we took a ferry across the water over to Volendam. This was a very interesting little town and one of the cool things about this place was they had the famous dyke running through the town and even had a few homes built right into the dyke.
From there we took a coach bus over to the village of Zaanse Schans, this is were the famous windmills of Holland are located. There are 3 or 4 windmills here and you have the opportunity to go upstairs in one of them for a cost of about 4 euro. Once inside you will get a history lesson on wood production and the inner workings of the Windmill.
Once done with the tour the coach drops you back off right across from Amsterdam Centraal train station. This half day tour only cost $67 us dollars, and purchased beforehand. After getting dropped back at the bus depot we walked around the area close to Centraal and ended up venturing into the infamous Red Light District. The Red Light district has women in the windows as advertised. All you do it walk up negotiate a price and then go in and get your services. After hanging out in the District we retired back to our hotel which from there was a 5 minute walk to the tram station, then a 10 minute tram ride.
Day 3
We spent this day just pretty much adventuring around the entire city. First we went to the Van Gogh museum. It’s surrounded by a very nice park where a lot of people just sit around on the grass, or play games like Frisbee. The cost to enter the museum is 17 euro and well worth it if you’re into art.
We purchased one of those 1 hour canal boat tours that starts down in the center of the city across from Centraal. From there you can cruise up and down the many canal of Amsterdam, checking out the house boats and learning about this unique city.
After the boat tour we went to the neighborhood around the Liedsestraat and got some food at this place called Hoopman Irish pub cafe. There were many places to choose from but I think we came across this place because of a huge burger we saw one of the guys eating so that made the choice easy for us.
Once we ate, we did some more walking around and came across Rembrandt square. This is one of the coolest neighborhoods in all of Amsterdam. Plenty of eateries, cafes and nightlife and a nice old school looking theater that’s shows up to date movies.
Amsterdam is definitely a premier city in all of Europe, plenty of things to do here and some good shopping if that’s what you’re into. Not to mention one of the best cities for some recreational fun 🙂
