A Weekend in Amsterdam

Thursday, June 19, 2008

A Weekend in Amsterdam

After spending last Friday in Paris (more on that later,) I headed off to meet up my friends (who flew in from London) in Amsterdam for the weekend. We met at the Centraal Station and took the tram to our hotel. The trams make getting around very easy and convenient, although we stayed pretty much within one area for the whole weekend so we mostly walked.

Once we got out of the Centraal Station, we saw this church on the left. We took pictures because it looks so pretty but we weren't bothered to get closer. Throughout the trip, we see other churches around. Afterwards, we went to the famous Anne Frank House, which was very interesting. Unlike most museums you don't actually see a lot of artifacts in the House, but the presentations you see when you walk through each room of the House really gives you a sense of what happened and how it felt.

At night we visited the Red Light District, which was very interesting. I've definitely not seen any 'shops' like the ones there before. It was also really uncomfortably crowded so we didn't stay long.

On Sunday morning, we went to the Van Gogh Museum. I thought it was going to be just another art museum (-I've never studied art so I can't say I know how to fully appreciate art museums,) but it actually turned out to be pretty interesting. The museum splits Van Gogh's work into different time periods and the presentation boards have good descriptions that explain those time periods. As you walk along, you can really see the development and influence in his artwork even if you're not an artist yourself.

My favourite thing to do there was just walking along the canals, admiring the quaint little town feeling of the area and relaxing in the many coffee shops. So pretty and relaxing!

Along the canals, there were some boat houses. Not that I would ever want to live in one but isn't this one look so cute?

Before leaving on Sunday afternoon, we went peddle-boating (-is that the correct term?) Basically we water-cycled in the canals. Even though we didn't seem to be able to master the steering device and kept bumping into the walls and boat houses, it was so fun! It was a great way to just enjoy the sights without getting bored.