I amsterdam

This past Sunday I decided to take a day-trip to Amsterdam. When I was in Europe in 2006 I spent a day and a half in Amsterdam, but since then the SANDEMANs new Europe touring company added Amsterdam as a site for their free walking tours. I figured between that and going to a couple of museums, the $50 train ticket would be worth it just to get out of the house for the day.

The day started very early - the train from Dendermonde left at 6:30am! I had to take the train from here to Mechelen, wait an hour, and take another train to Amsterdam. By the time I got there it was just after 10, and the tour didn't start until 11, so I went to the tourism office, bought myself a map, and planned out my route for the day. (But that only wasted about 15 minutes, so then I just stood around and people watched until 11.)

This is a picture of Station Amsterdam Centraal.

At eleven o'clock, the tour guides showed up outside the tourism office and led us to the Nationaal Monument in Dam Square, where we were divided into smaller groups. From there we were taken on an almost 4-hour tour of the city center and all it's historical sites and points of interest. The weather was perfect - cool enough that I wore a sweatshirt comfortably, but very sunny.

This is the Nationaal Monument where we started the tour.

Some other highlights included the Royal Palace,


The Red Light District, It wasn't really all that bad - probably because it was a Sunday afternoon. But our tour guide said there are half as many windows now as there were two years ago because Amsterdam is trying to "clean up their image".

The Hidden Church,

Begijnhof,

and many, many canals!

The thing I love about these tours (I did their Berlin tour in 2006), is that it's completely free, running on donations, and the tour guides are SO enthusiastic about their jobs. Our guide waited until the end of our tour to tell us we were his first group to give a tour to, but I never would've guessed. He was very knowledgeable about the area (even though he'd only lived there for two years) and told us all sorts of stories and interesting facts that you wouldn't learn about walking around the town on your own.

Once the tour was over, my plan was to go to the Van Gogh Museum. I decided I didn't want to pay for public transportation, and I had plenty enough time (and calories to burn) to walk the whole way there. But, as luck would have it, I took a wrong turn, heading in the opposite direction of the museum by about 15 minutes, and then it began to pour! I had to duck into a bookstore until the rain let up enough that I felt like I wouldn't drown trying to reach my destination. However, about 10 minutes outside the store, it again began to pour. This actually worked to my advantage, however, because I stumbled upon a photography exhibit I had read about and wanted to visit anyway, but had planned on saving until the end of the day if time allowed. I was excited to learn that this particular exhibit was also free!

Once I finally found the Van Gogh Museum, I was able to relax and enjoy myself. I didn't pay the extra 4 euro for the audio tour, which probably would've made the museum more interesting, but I enjoyed myself all the same.

By the time I finished up at the museum, I had just enough time to buy a few postcards, take a picture of the "I amsterdam" statue:
take a picture in Vondel Park:
and buy some frits and mayo for dinner (healthy, I know...):
before catching the seven o'clock train back to Dendermonde. It was a busy day, but I had a lot of fun!