More About Amsterdam

I love Amsterdam! We had the best time, and compared to Norway, everything is so insanely cheap! We were able to have drinks, appetizers, dinner and dessert for less than the cost of 3 beers in Gjovik--good thing we walked miles and miles around the city and worked off all those extra calories!

We arrived in town on Tuesday afternoon and started wandering around immediately. I was really impressed by the architecture in Amsterdam--lots of beautifully gabled row houses. Most of the buildings have ornate statues and carvings on the top, so I spent much of our walk with my eyes on the roofline...Amsterdam is also full of cobblestone streets, so I may have tripped and stumbled several times, maybe. The many canals are gorgeous too, made even lovelier by all the budding trees. Norway is still pretty snowy, so it was wonderful to experience 3 days of spring in Amsterdam.

On Tuesday evening, we went to a tapas restaurant called "Cafe Poco Loco". The third picture is of the women's restroom--I was really excited about the disco ball in there, and felt the need to photograph it...hmm, maybe all those affordable drinks at dinner had something to do with that? When the waitress brough us our bill, she gave us a couple of lollipops. I'm a candy fiend, so I immediately popped one in my mouth. That was a huge mistake! While the candy at first tasted like vanilla, which I like very much, it quickly turned into brine, which I don't like at all! I removed the offensive lollipop from my mouth, and some white powder poured out of it. I'm not sure if it was salt or citric acid, but it was awful. I was exclaiming about how terrible the candy was, and instead of taking my word for it, Kevin had to taste it for himself. He was laughing and gagging and compared the flavor to licking road salt, yet he finished the whole thing! We were very excited to find these lollipops in a candy store later, and we bought several to share with unsuspecting guests!

There are pancake houses all over Amsterdam, so on Wednesday morning, we went to "The Pancake Corner". Dutch pancakes are huge! And you can put tons of different toppings on them! I really enjoyed my cherry topped pancake, even though I could only eat about half of it.

After pancakes, we headed to the Van Gogh museum. All I can say is wow! Van Gogh is probably my favorite artist, and the museum does a great job of organizing his works so you can see his progression as an artist. He wasn't classically trained, he just observed the Dutch masters of his day and tried to immitate their style. Later, he moved to Paris and his work was influenced both by Japanese artists and the pointilists. Finally, he developed his own style, with the thick, heavy brushstrokes and bold lines, and other artists were influenced by him. In addition to all the Van Gogh paintings, the museum has several works by these artists whose paintings show a Van Gogh influence. As much as I loved this museum, I was a little frustrated by how crowded it was. We were there on a Wednesday morning, well before peak tourist season, and it was absolutely packed. We were able to see everything, but we had to wait in lines for a long time, especially to see some of his most famous paintings such as "Irises" and "Sunflowers". I have heard the Louvre in Paris is much, much worse, so if I ever make it to Paris, I don't think that seeing the "Mona Lisa" will be high on my priority list!

After gazing at all that art, we decided to do something a little less intellectually stimulating--we went to the "Heineken Experience"! I don't even like beer, but I thought this tour was so much fun! We got to see the draft horses who pull the beer cart through the streets of Amsterdam every morning, we got to ride on a couple of simulator rides--my favorite was as a bottle of beer on the conveyor belt, and we got very cool gifts at the end of the tour. My little credit card sized bottle opener is now safely in my wallet, ready for all sorts of bottle opening emergencies!

I'll post more later...lots more photos and wacky stories to come!