9.22.22

Today the only items in our agenda was a visit to The Pancake Bakery and The Van Gogh Museum. I had read that you needed to arrive early for The Pancake Bakery, which open at 9 am, so we hurried to get ready and out of the hotel as it was 30 mins away by train and we had 10 am reservations at The Van Gogh. All was well as we arrived 3 mins til 9 to be two of six people waiting and we were served and finished eating before 9:30 am. I had the spoke pancake, which what thought was a side of eggs – but turned out to be a full meal in itself and Nick had the pancake with bacon and cheese.

I was concerned about not making out 10 reservations at The Van Gogh Museum, especially when we showed up 10 minutes late and saw the line out the door. We made it in just fine and were herded around the museum with what felt like the city of Amsterdam. I had read that they had specific entry times due to COVID, but rest assured if we get COVID, we got it from this visit. It was packed. We spent several hours making our way through the museum and then after a visit to all three of the gift shops, we made our way over to the Albert Culype Market. Melissa and Tyler from 7th Street Market recommended this. If I remember correctly it was to have the best stroop waffle in Amsterdam, well sadly they were closed on Thursdays. The street market had all types of food vendors, clothing vendors, pretty much if you wanted it, it was here.

With no plans, most of the day was just wandering the streets in the old city, admiring the canals and all the bikes. There are more bikes in Amsterdam than people. One of my favorite experiences was dipping into a cheese shop to get some “walking cheese” and the man being very confused that I only wanted a few slices. I just really wanted some good Dutch cheese to eat while we walked. Turned out to be perfect for me, although, it was so tasty, I certainly could have eaten more. We also enjoyed a tea and hot chocolate at a cafe, where Nick bonded with the waitress as they were both learning Italian via Duolingo. 

We ended up grabbing a bite to eat at a small cheese shop, sharing a tasty Brie sandwich and then making our way across the canal to a brewery. 

Through our wandering we stopped in the The Tulip Museum gift shop and The Cheese Museum, where we were able to take some pretty cheesy photos!

In typical Megan fashion, I needed plans, I could not just keep wandering so I booked us a canal cruise which was inclusive of cheese and drinks. We arrived early to try to get in a earlier boat, but our luck was not working for us this day. So we grabbed a pizza nearby and then eventually boarded The Titanic. 

We floated around the canals and ate our cheese, drank Rose and Heineken and watched the beautiful sunset in Amsterdam. Some of the highlights were learning about the canal houses, how they get their larger items into their homes via hooks and ropes, wider homes pay more taxes and those with more steps have more money. We floated under the Lovers Bridge where if you kiss under it you’ll have many years of happiness. Well we kissed before and after it, so we’ll see how that works out. We saw the same canal and church that Monet painted in his Amsterdam painting, and the home he lived in where he painted it from.

It was a nice evening activity, but we still had one thing on our list, visit the Red Light district. Visiting it at 8:00 pm on a Thursday night did not prove to be a lively time to have a true experience. All the curtains were drawn and if they were open you saw the less than glamorous area where the “transactions” took place. We eventually made our way back to our hotel to rest up for our final day in Amsterdam.