Amsterdam, Venice of the North

After a full day in Brussels we arrived late in the capital city of the Netherlands. Although it was a Monday night, the streets of Amsterdam were alive with young people. Our hostel on Warmoesstraat was a short walk from the central train station. In a coffee shop down the road I rolled my first joint of Chocolope marijuana. Life was good.

The next morning, Marc and I searched for a different kind of coffee shop where we could find breakfast before our walking tour. The weather was perfect, and we found a bakery easily. Points for Amsterdam. Our New Europe Walking Tour Guide, Geert, was outgoing and his mind was filled with ridiculously detailed information about the city, the culture, the architecture, the history... everything. New Europe walking tours are a great choice in any city. Because the guides work for tips only, they are motivated to give you a highly entertaining and informative introduction to any European city you may find yourself in. Geert talked to us about how the land is incredibly flat (the majority of the city is at or below sea level), the people are incredibly tall (the average Dutch man is over 6 feet tall), and the famous canals are filled with bicycles (there are around one million bicycles in Amsterdam, and nearly 25,000 end up in the canals yearly).

Amsterdam has a fascinating history, especially since the Dutch Golden Age when it was the most important port in the world. The Dutch, and their philosophy on life as reflected in their public policy, are fantastically interesting. They stood up to the Nazis, treated drug addiction as a social problem instead of a crime, and allowed students to re-build the Jewish quarter of the city. They are just super cool, laid back, friendly and open, innovative, and forward thinking. If the language was any easier to learn, I think many more people would move there permanently.

Coffee and a danish pastry by the canals.

Take the tour to hear the story of the bronze breast near Oude Kerk (the Old Church)

Thanks, Geert!

Our tour ended by the floating flower market, and as usual on walking tours, our guide advertised two pub crawls that night. While we mulled it over, we spent the afternoon getting to know the city. First was the Hash, Marijuana and Hemp Museum, then shopping at the Waterloopleinmarkt, a flea market in one of the central squares of Amsterdam near the Amstel river. Ultimately the lure of the Red Light District pub crawl was too great, and we decided to join in with one of the girls we had met on the tour: Kirstie. The pub crawl took us to bar after bar, past coffee shops and sex shops, getting drunker and happier all the time.

The next morning, we went to the City Library with Kirstie. If IKEA and Apple had a baby, it would probably look like the Amsterdam centraal bibliotheek. I thought it was great. Then, rather than atone for our sins or give in to the hangovers we had spent the entire night cultivating, Marc and I ventured over to the Heineken Brewery. 

Kirstie, Marc, and I;

The view from the library (centraal bibliotheek - read more here)

The Heineken Brewery tour is something I definitely recommend. Maybe we should have spent our last day at the Rijksmuseum or the Anne Frank House, but our enfeebled brains would only allow us Heineken. I don't regret it. At all.

We came, we saw, we imbibed. And that was all for Amsterdam. It was on to Berlin!

Side Note: A new law that restricts the sale of marijuana to tourists was passed and went into effect in three southern provinces of the Netherlands in May. The city of Amsterdam will have to obey the new law, which states that only Dutch residents may purchase cannabis, beginning on January 1, 2013. To read about the legal changes being made in the Netherlands, check out this NY Times article.

Day Trip: Brussels

Until now, one of the gaping holes in my travel log has been the two weeks I spent backpacking through Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, and other parts of Germany. With the exception of my recent post about Berlin, these stories have not been told. In my brief pause between epic domestic road trips, I will remedy that.

In May 2010 I met my friend Marc at the airport outside of Paris. Together we traveled for thirteen days through four countries with France-Germany-Benelux Eurail passes. A Eurail pass is a train pass that allows the holder to make an unlimited number of train journeys within a certain country or period of time. The type of pass is chosen based on the number of days of travel and the countries in which it is valid. My friend and I chose the [5 Day - 3 Country] combination pass. We planned to use it to travel from Paris to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Berlin, and then around Germany before heading to the airport in Frankfurt.

To get the most out of our passes, we decided to extend our layover in Belgium between Paris and Amsterdam. As soon as the train pulled into Midi station, we threw our suitcases into a locker (6€ for the day) and wandered unburdened into the streets of Brussels. We got off to a great start, walking twenty minutes in the wrong direction. We were deeply into a residential district before checking our map and realizing our mistake. False start aside, we still had a full visit and saw many major sights in Brussels in less than half a day.

Our first task was to find the one thing that would eliminate the stress of getting lost in a foreign city: Belgian beer. Le Grand Café on Anspachlaan in Bourse Beurs was just the place. Outdoor seating in Old Brussels, goblets of monastery-brewed beer, and bright sunlight. Ahhh, perfection.

Stress free! By the end of the day, I had a two tan lines on from these beer maiden braids...

Those were two-hand chalices, all right.

Suitably fortified, we made the uphill walk to the beautiful and impeccably kept church of the patron saints of Brussels: St. Michael and St. Gudula. 

The St. Michael and St. Gudula Church at Treurenberg hill

At this point, we hit the far end of our circular path through the heart of Brussels: Warandepark. Strolling alongside the Rue Royale to the Palace, past the Palais Royale to the Mont-des-Arts... 

The Jacquemart Carillon clock on the Mont des Arts

The ornate guildhalls on la Grand Place/Grote Markt, the central square of Brussels

We did the usual things, everything you would expect in Belgium. We ate french fries, bought Belgian chocolate, and I, at least, admired the delicate lacework on display. Our afternoon ended in the 

Grand Place, or in Dutch, the Grote Markt. This is the central square in Brussels, crammed with golden-accented buildings and facades so full of windows that you can barely see the front walls. 

The one landmark we did not see was Manneken Pis, the statue of the peeing boy. Just another reason to go back someday.