Tiff & Jared's adventures

We hit the ground running as soon as we got to Amsterdam. Coming from La Trappe, we had a 5:15PM time slot at Heineken. (We bought the Go City pass to visit a lot of different attractions in the city since it was our first time.) Now, we’ve done our share of big brewery/distillery tours (Guinness, Jameson, Coors to name some) but figured we should also do this one, even though I’m not a huge fan of the Pilsner. It was packed with people! The time spent alone to get to the beginning of the tour took maybe 20-30 minutes. Heineken decided to structure their tour to be self-guided, and then end it with two Pilsner pours.

This was definitely the most over the top, Instagram-focused tour I’ve ever done and was not a fan. There was some substantive information in the beginning (how it started as a family business, and its expansion across the world), but the tour quickly became very flashy (literally). They had this whole virtual, 4-D experience with lights and audio that was just fluff, and that’s how a lot of the last half of the tour was. We ended the tour and drank our Heineken, then went on our way.

We then needed to check in to our hostel. When I was booking for Amsterdam, there weren’t many lodging options left so we stayed at City Hub in Amsterdam-West. It was a really cool concept and in a great location! We ended up staying in a “pod”, choosing a top pod versus a bottom. It was efficient, and the bathrooms and showers were super nice, but definitely one of the smallest “rooms” we’ve ever stayed in! We dropped off our luggage then went to a parking garage. Because of the over tourism in the city among other factors, parking in the city center is extremely expensive. Amsterdam has developed Park and Ride garages with locations outside of the city center, and you get severe parking discounts if you commute in and out of the city using their tramways. It was kind of a logistical nightmare but worth saving some money for parking and it didn’t take too long to drop the car off and make it back in the city.

For dinner, we went to Nnea – a pizza restaurant. I had this on the list of places to go because it’s won some world awards for their pizza and was highly reviewed. It definitely didn’t disappoint! We got two pizzas – a classic margarita and another called Capefierr (Squeezed plum tomatoes, salsiccia a punta di coltello (made by us with local meat), fried padron peppers, mozzarella di bufala, parmigiano reggiano, basil). The ingredients were fresh and delicious (I’m Italian I know good mozzarella and sauce), only critique is the dough could’ve been cooked a bit longer. We ended up eating both pizzas before heading back to the hostel for the night.

Full day in Amsterdam

Walking tour

We got to sleep in slightly this morning (yay!!) with our first activity starting at 10AM. Our hotel was about a 20-30 minute walk to the city center, so we got to walk along all the canals and find breakfast with the pretty morning light. Fun fact I didn’t realize a coffee shop doesn’t actually sell coffee, so I’ll say we went to a bunch of cafes instead 😂.

Our tour was a two-hour activity walking through different parts of the city. The guide had us meet at Dam Square near the National Monument. The tour started with a brief history of the city.

• Originated as a fishing village in the 13th century along the Amstel River. Because of constant flooding, the inhabitants had to build dams to keep the water out, lending to the name Amestelledamme, which eventually turned into Amsterdam
• In its early days, Amsterdam’s identify eas based on three activities you could do with water – drink, fish and travel. Hence, Heineken and pickled herring (which we tried and found it delicious).
• The Dutch East India Trading Company was founded in the early 1600s and the first joint-stock company in the world. Amsterdam reaped the benefits of monopolization of trade activities around Asia. Only recently did the country acknowledge and take ownership of their part in the human trafficking of many indigenous people that brought such prosperity to the city.
• Known as the Venice of the North for its many canals
• The Amsterdam Stock Exchange founded in 1602, is considered the oldest “modern” securities market stock exchange in the world, making it known as the birthplace of capitalism
• There are more bikes than people, and thousands get lost each year… something about only 800K residents but over 1 million bikes!
• Amsterdam is very diverse – there are about 180 countries represented, which made it a very good food scene!

Throughout the tour, we walked through neighborhoods, along canals and through narrow street ways (with our heads on a constant 360 degree swivel on the lookout for passing bicycles). We talked about the Red Light District (tour groups can’t go in anymore due to over tourism). We also talked about coffee shop culture, bicycle culture and once we got to the Anne Frank House where the tour ended, the country’s part in World War II.

Walking around the city

Once the tour was over, we went to the Amsterdam Tulip Museum (could skip this, learned a little about the history of tulip mania) and the Cheese Museum (free cheese baby and we got some aged cheese to take home).

After this, we did an unintentional DIY food tour which was lovely. First, and a little out of order, we went to a brown cafe (Cafe Papeneiland) which is famous for its apple pie, and the fact Bill Clinton ate one slice there and then got the whole pie to go. We had this Dutch apple pie and yes it was tasty, but would have been better served warm and with ice cream! Nothing special in our opinion. Sweet tooth satisfied, we walked through the Joordaan neighborhood a bit (at one point a very poor part of the city where the lower class and service workers lived, now gentrified and very expensive with hip boutiques and eateries). Working south towards the Rijksmuseum, we stopped at The Med for a delicious porchetta sandwich, then went to FRENS HARINGHANDEL for authentic, must-try pickled herring! We weren’t brave enough to try just the plate but we got a smoked herring sandwich with pickles and onions and agreed it was delicious. Next and finally before the museum, we waited in like for Von Stapele, a famous bakery known for its one type of signature chocolate cookie. We waited about twenty minutes to pay 15 euro for a box of six, warm and decadent cookies – I think it was worth it?

Rijksmuseum

We are not super artsy people but figured we should go to some museums and see some art and do cultural things on this trip. Our pass was for 3:30 entry and we spent our time in the 1800-1900 section looking at impressionist art. We saw some Van Gogh, including his famous Self Portrait, and the Battle of Waterloo, which is definitely the biggest painting I’ve ever seen.

Running on fumes, we spent only about an hour in the museum before walking to the closeby House of Bols, an interactive cocktail museum showcasing the first branded cocktail in the world. History about Bols… at the end of the tour, we got to pick a Bols cocktail of our choosing which were fun (but way too sweet).

Before our next and final excursion of the night, we stopped for more frites but to our non-surprise, they still were just meh! We then walked back towards the harbor and caught our evening scenic canal cruise, which lasted an hour and explored some of the central city but then also we made our way to lesser known canals and further edges of the city. The lighting of the 8PM tour was perfect, and by 9PM we were ready for dinner! Right by our hostel was this really cool food hall concept called Food Hallen, where we decided on sharing a Vietnamese bowl and a meatball sub. The ambiance was 10/10 and that was our final part of Amsterdam before we went back to CityHub to rest up for Tulipmania the next day!