I enjoy Amsterdam even though I haven’t really done much in it but walk around yet.  But that’s enough really to get a good feel for it.  Lots of canals, lots of bikes, good restaurants, and entertainment from cool museums to the more exotic if you’re so inclined.  But Wednesday was another day spent inside working for the most part.

I took a break in the middle of the day to go down and see a windmill and brewery.  It’s a small brewery in Amsterdam, and their beers were awesome.  Darker beers and ambers that are very much to my liking.  So I just hung out there and had a couple beers.

Right next to the brewery is Amsterdam’s only windmill.  I couldn’t go up it, but I could still take a picture of it.

After that I was back to the hostel to work, but I wasn’t very productive.  Kind of a wash, but oh well, some days are like that.  Got up Thursday morning about 30 minutes after the guy on the top bunk got into bed (around 5:30am), to finish my project.  Worked all morning and got it done, which makes me happy.

Then I went to the Heineken Experience.  It’s a tour of their old brewhouse.  It was very high-tech and interactive, which was kind of neat.  But I was tired and don’t really like Heineken that much so I wasn’t all that excited about it.

After just hanging out at the hostel in the evening, I went with a guy from California and a guy from London to Bourbon Street, where they were playing live music (Jimi Hendrix mostly).  They were quite good.

Van Gogh Museum – Friday morning I walked down to the Van Gogh Museum.  It had a lot of paintings in it, mostly by Van Gogh.  Weird, right?  They wouldn’t let you take pictures of the inside, so I didn’t take any pictures.  It was a cool museum though – mostly artwork, but also a lot of letters and information about his life.

Royal Palace of Amsterdam – I walked around quite a bit after that down in the city center.  Here’s a picture of the royal palace at Dam square.

Spui Book Market – They sell a lot of used books in Amsterdam, which was pretty interesting.  I wanted to buy all the old books and bring them back, but I’m afraid it would be difficult to lug them on the plane.  Spui square was lined up with book dealers selling all kinds of books and maps.

Later Ollie and I went down to Rembrandtplein square and had a beer at a few different pub-style places.  Pretty relaxed night, but it was good to get out and chat a bit.

Saturday morning I went to Anne Frank house.  It’s a pretty bare and simple museum, but it’s the primary attraction in Amsterdam.  I bought my ticket online the night before so I just had to show up at 9:40 and they let me right in.

If you ave’t a savvy individual like I am and don’t purchase your tickets beforehand, you get to admire the outside of Anne Frank’s house in this queue for quite some time.

Luckily I didn’t have to do that, or I probably wouldn’t have gone at all.  I wandered around museum square again later, but there was a long line for the Rijksmuseum and my legs and back already hurt from walking a ton the past two days (I’m old) so I decided not to do it.  But it looks cool.

I decided I had done enough of the city, so I just went for a walk through and around Vondelpark.  The architecture throughout the city is interesting, but seeing some of these houses by the park was just amazing.  I took a few pictures of the park and the houses around it.

It was raining, but it was also my last day in Amsterdam, so I couldn’t let it stop me.

Went on a pub call that night with the people at the hostel since it’s kind of my last weekend here.  Wasn’t really feeling it though, and I spent the better part of the night fending off the advances of a drunk Aussie who would probably describe herself as “curvy”.