Euro Tour – Paris, France and Amsterdam, Holland – Day 13 -15

August 6 – 8, 2015

Today we headed to our last stop on our journey: Amsterdam! By the time we got here it was pretty late after our long train ride and we called it an early night.

The next day we got up and rented some bikes. Bike riding in Amsterdam is easily one of the scariest things I have ever done! I was pretty sure I was going to die at any moment. The scariest part was that motorcycles were also allowed to use the bike lanes along with all of the other using bikes and I was constantly convinced I was going to crash. First we went to the Heineken Brewery experience first which was really well done. Very impressive tour. Harrison and I swear that Heineken tastes way better in Europe for some reason! After the Heineken tour we went to tour the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum and we also saw the famous I AMsterdam letters! Prepaying for tickets was the way to go because we got into both museums very quickly.

After touring the museums we rode our bikes over to the Bloemenmarkt, Amsterdam’s famous flower market. Amsterdam is famous for their tulips. Then we got some dinner before heading back to the hostel. At the hostel we met up with one of our roommates and the three of us decided to go to the Ice Bar. It was really cold and really quick, but I was fine with the experience being so short because I was freezing haha.

The next morning we got up really early and headed over the Anne Frank Huis. By the time we got there a huge line had already formed and it took several hours before we got inside. They passed out brochures while we were in line and I cried reading it… Not a stellar start to what was a very emotional tour. I have wanted to go to the Anne Frank House ever since I read Anne Frank’s Diary in the fourth grade. It was a very moving experience and one of my favorite things I did by far on this entire trip.

After the tour we went to Dam Square and walked around for a little while trying to find Grandma’s hat shop with no success. After that we got some stroopwafels. Then we took a canal boat cruise through Amsterdam’s canals. We got dinner after that then headed to go meet up with our roommates in the Red Light District. It is so interesting. WOW. There were a lot of people there, it was quite the scene. We grabbed a pint and then headed back to the hostel.

xoxo J