Two weekends ago, a group of six of us went to Amsterdam, which was very beautiful and was one of my favorite cities to visit yet. The canals were absolutely gorgeous and the weather was absolutely beautiful. After a little problem with our hostel, we were on our way to explore the canals. First, we ran into a playground with a zipline, and being the children that we are, we ended up spending an hour swinging on the zipline and setting bad examples for the little children watching us. We then rented a paddleboat to ride out on the canal, but we failed to realize that cruise ships also sailed through the canals with us and that the paddleboats were much more difficult to steer than we had anticipated. Eventually, one boat just got tired of our shenanigans and ended up ramming into us. Our paddleboat had already been filling with water, and this only made the problem worse. For one scary moment, I even thought that our boat had cracked and that we were soon to be swimming with the fish at the bottom of the canal. Needless to say, several people on our boat were quite freaked out. We eventually figured out the steering mechanism, and the rest of the boat ride turned out to be quite an amazing experience.
We then went to the Heineken Experience, for Amsterdam was where Heineken was originally manufactured. We learned all about the brewing process and were given a tour of one of the breweries. We then got to have our own beer tasting and were provided with a few drinks in a penthouse suite on top of the brewery. It was an awesome experience to be able to look out over the city with great people and enjoy a couple of drinks. After exploring the city a bit more, we went on a pizza dinner cruise on the canal, and it was awesome to be able to learn more about the city while being provided with pizza and ice cream. The experience was definitely one that I would recommend.
The next day, the group split up between the Van Gogh Museum and ice skating. Needless to say, I enjoyed a great afternoon of ice skating. We had to take a 45 minute walk through the suburbs of Amsterdam, which were quite pretty and relaxing. I do not believe I could live in the City Center of Amsterdam, but I think the suburbs were a nice and quiet place to live. The ice skating rink was an outdoor 400 meter track, and it was amazing to see a large number of people dressed up and training for competitive ice skating races. Between the breeze and the sun, I didn't even need a jacket! After several hours, we ended up heading back, and after an hour and a half and a delicious sandwich, we met up with the rest of our group for dinner before coming home.
Upon heading home, however, our train was delayed an hour in Cologne, and then our conductor decided to make up time by skipping Bonn altogether. At 1:30 am, we ended up pulling into Boyle train station with little hope of getting home at a reasonable time or price. The last two taxis were taken by other passengers, and so we had to wait another 30 minutes for another taxi. By the time we got home, Gunnar and I spent just enough time to take off our shoes before passing out.
Overall, the weekend was one that I will never forget. Our group was amazing and definitely one of my favorite groups to travel with. Despite all of the little incidents that we had over the weekend, it was one of the best weekends yet. Amsterdam was definitely a beautiful area, and I would like to be able to return one day to experience more of the culture and have a more formal tour of the city. I am most amazed by our ability to have some of the best times by just improvising in the moment rather than making plans. The more we go on trips, the more I notice that it is more fun to only plan a few activities and leave the rest of the time for spur of the moment adventures, for those sometimes end up being the best part of the weekend. Amsterdam was a great weekend, and I could not recommend it enough.
Here are a few pictures from the weekend:
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