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“Not for everyone”

August 25, 2014 Drew

Thats how Rick Steves describes Amsterdam’s Red Light District. We went to this vice-filled part of the city when we last visited, and now we headed back to take in this interesting experience!

For reasons unknown (or known), our last visit was something of a blur. This time we started our exploration at Amsterdam’s Old Church. This huge building and its tall spire provide a convenient anchor point from which to explore the area; if you get lost just head back towards that church (and civilization). If I was trying to write like a guidebook, I might talk about the differences between Amsterdam’s “New” Church and “Old” Church, and how they are actually only about 100 years apart and both very old at this point. I might also mention that the spire of the Old church inspired architectural design in Amsterdam throughout its Renaissance golden age…. but I’m not writing a tour guide, so go buy your own!

In typical Amsterdam juxtaposition; this beautiful old church is nestled amongst rows and rows of legal prostitutes selling their wares… “nuff said”. In addition to the sex stuff, the red light district also houses the Bulldog, the original Amsterdam ‘coffeeshop’, as well as plenty of gambling, and of course lot’s of eten en drinken!

Really though, the first thing that hits you about the red light district in Amsterdam is the sheer amount of people crowded into the narrow alleyways and canal streets. Noelle and I were there in the evening after dinner, and it was a little insane the amount of people all wandering around – a little less seedy and more Disney that I expected. Of course she walked a little too fast to really take in all the sights and sounds, but I made us walk the canal twice – just to make sure we got the full experience!

In the midst of this cacophony of prostitutes and lights and weed and awkward sex shops selling awkward stuff, by far the weirdest thing we saw all night was a dude dressed as a green dragon pushing his way through the crowd with a small, half dressed, slippered woman in tow – that’s Amsterdam’s red light district for you!

We went back a couple days later during to day to find Our Lord in the Attic, a “hidden” Catholic church. While it stopped being a secret back in the 1700’s, it still took us a while to find it. I’m glad we did though, because this church has been turned into a museum of sorts, and is also a decent example of a preserved canal house from the 17th and 18th century.

The gist is that the owner of the house was a successful businessman who happened to be a Catholic during the Reformation – Amsterdam’s leaders had outlawed public practice of Catholicism, so he built this church within the top three floors of his (and his neighbors’) house. It was really interesting and cool. The place had just undergone an extensive restoration; the woodwork and furnishings had all been brought back to their original colors and condition – sweet!

Amsterdam’s red light district is definitely a unique and exciting place – it’s got a crazy, almost anything goes attitude at night, and has a lot of restaurants, shops, and sights during the day. We had a great time exploring this part of the city, and I’m looking forward to more!

Amsterdam

Rainy Day

August 22, 2014 Drew

It rained a lot today. We stayed in the apartment most of the day, but headed out as the weather cleared in the evening. Check out Noelle’s new instagram account – she’s got some pretty sweet pics of our trip!

We took a nice walk back to the Leidseplein and museum area. Our goal was to get some dinner and drinks, and visit the Van Gogh museum.Determined not to make the same dinner mistake as a couple nights ago, Noelle found a really cool “brown cafe” called De Zotte in the Leidseplein area. The brown cafes in Amsterdam used to be (and really still are) the places where the neighborhood residents would gather, smoke their tobacco, and spend hours drinking and eating. Well thats pretty much what we did at De Zotte! It was cool, we got there early and had some really good beer. We eventually ordered some bread and cheese and the special of the day. It was a chicken plate that came with some tasty sauce, fries, and salad – awesome!After stuffing ourselves and getting just about wasted drunk, we ambled on towards the Van Gogh museum. An older American couple came up and asked me how to get there – I sort of pointed in my half-drunken stupor and said something like “it’s over there, we can goin together.” That marks the third set of people to come up to us and ask for directions since we’ve been here. I guess we must look like we know where we’ve been and where we are headed!

Noelle told me to stand by the I Amsterdam sign and she would take a “special” picture… what a comedian! When we finally did make it to the museum, it was already almost 8PM, and we decided the line was just too long. Instead we strolled along the canal roads back to the apartment to call it a night. This brings me to another key tenet of our travel philosophy so far: we travel slow and steady to give time for life to happen. If we don’t want to wait in line at the Van Gogh museum, we don’t have to – we’ll be back next week. Tonight we had a great time in Leidseplein, and I’m really looking forward to what else we can discover on this trip!

Amsterdam

Taking care of business

August 21, 2014 Drew

We are starting to settle in to this living in Amsterdam thing. Today we started working in earnest, did some more exploring, and ate some more really good food.

After getting up at a much more reasonable hour, we headed down to grab breakfast from the little corner bakery. Our staple has been to go in and buy two croissants for 1euro each and then get some fruit from the place a little further down. Much has been said in travel blogs and books about the general friendliness of the Dutch people. From our little time here so far, I would agree wholeheartedly – except for the bakery lady. I don’t know if it is because she has probably been there toiling away since 4 in the morning, or if she is just a little cranky, but this is the second day in a row that I have received a withering, “who the hell are you, what the hell do you want” stare while ordering our items. No worries though, I’ve got two months to win her over!

We spent most of the day working from the apartment. The wifi is fast and unlimited – sweet! The place has two skylights and big windows all around – its really airy and nice. Except that a bee came in today and terrorized me for a while!We went out in the evening to get some groceries. Noelle wanted this flower for the apartment; I looked pretty cool right?? We made mussels tonight for dinner. I love steamed mussels, they are easy to make, affordable due to the lack of ingredients needed, and taste soooo good (mostly due to the mounds of butter on everything).

Our laissez-faire method for making steamed mussels: Start with shallots or any onion, and olive oil in a big pot. Add, and keep adding white wine (a bottle sounds good), and lots of butter until you get a nice, somewhat creamy consistency. Dump the mussels into the pot and cover. While those cook, race around getting together your crusty bread, salad, and whatever else you so desire for dinner. Stir or shake the pot a few times, drink more wine, get the table ready. Don’t forget to add some salt and pepper or other seasonings to the pot too; whatever works for you. When the mussels are opened, they are ready – scoop them into bowls with some of the steamy broth and you are good to go!

Amsterdam

Doing this travel thing

August 20, 2014 Drew

That’s the view from our apartment window today – Awesome! Today was decent. We saw some sights, ate some food, and started to explore Amsterdam.

I’ll be honest though, the day started off pretty rough. I feel like most blogs paint everything in some perfect rosy light – I’m not planning on doing that. After yesterday’s excitement with the flight and the walking and the eating, we were tired! So we ended up sleeping until the afternoon and feeling awkwardly guilty about it the whole time.When we finally did crawl out of bed, we got ourselves back to Centraal Station to do Rick Steves’ “Amsterdam City Walk” up Damrak street, through Dam Square, Spui Square and Leiden Square. We have been curiously fascinated with Rick Steves for years; watching his videos and reading his travel books over and over again, wondering if we would ever get out there and do that. Well, here we are in the middle of Amsterdam wandering around just like Rick has taught us, and it feels pretty “dam” good!

We walked down the busy Damrak street, saw the Dam Square monument, the Royal Palace, and did some souvenir shopping.We stopped to eat some friets (French fries in a cone, covered in a thick mayonnaise sauce) from a little place off Spui Square. It was nice to sit and take in the all of the activity around us.I looked at some leaning buildings.The walk ended in Leidseplein where we decided to find some dinner. After being beckoned by numerous mater de’s from the touristy alleyways, we found a nice little eatery tucked back in a corner. It had a little chalkboard menu and perfect outdoor seating… but we didn’t eat there… I decided it was probably too expensive and wouldn’t be right – so we kept looking. Except that now we were getting hungrier and the wind was picking up and it was getting later. I started to panic a little, torn between spending too much on a meal and falling for the tourist restaurant trap. I didn’t know what to do – the h’anger (hunger anger) was setting in and we needed to eat… fast!

We settled on some place called “Players”. It was expensive, the service was weird and slow (even by Dutch standards), the food was gross and to top it off, the burger we ordered had a feather in it. So this experience has led me to develop a general rule on eating out – research first. With the power of Yelp reviews and a quick internet search, I’ve got no excuse in not knowing where to find some good eats at the right price with the right atmosphere! Lesson learned.

We finished off the night with a nice stroll through Leidseplein on our way back to the apartment. A sluggish start to a decent day, with a disappointing dinner and a really nice walk through Amsterdam – I guess that’s how we are doing this travel thing!

Amsterdam

Welkom!

August 19, 2014 Drew

This trip started off on a great foot when our first connecting flight was canceled. Ok, no worries, we got re-booked on a later flight that still allowed us to get the same international flight from DC. Then, one of the wheels on Noelle’s carry-on bag fell off on the gangway. No worries, I scooped it up and just kept walking – we got this! Finally, we stepped off the plane in Schiphol full of anticipation and excitement; we made it to Amsterdam!

After fumbling around with baggage, and getting on the wrong platform, we found the train to Centraal Station. From there we took a tram out to the Jordaan neighborhood where we will be staying for the next two months. We dropped our bags and went out to explore.

Visited Sara’s Pancake House, and had a very tasty little breakfast. The little pancakes might have cost double the equivalent meal in the US, but hey they’re worth it right?!

We soon found a few other classic Amsterdam sights like Westerkerk, the Anne Frank House (although we’ve already been there and aren’t too keen on waiting in line!), and of course the cheese museum!

After checking in to our apartment and taking a much needed shower + nap, we headed back out to explore the immediate neighborhood. Our first overall impressions are that the place we are renting is awesome, the people in the neighborhood are friendly, and we will have everything we need to make this an amazing experience. To prove that point, we were able to make a great first dinner to cap off an amazing first day – day 2 here we come!