I feel like most Americans that have gone to Europe have made a point to stop in Amsterdam. I got an e-mail towards the beginning of my trip from my friend Andy who said that he, his bother Scott and Scott's girlfriend Meghan would be in Amsterdam following a family wedding - I decided that I should go and see what it's all about. I met Andy and Scott, also from Columbus, my senior year of college, and we often tailgate together if we all happen to be home for the same football games! So needless to say, it was nice to spend some time with people from home after being away for so long. The only sad part was that Andy's girlfriend Bobbi wasn't there as well :(
We did do quite a bit of sightseeing in Amsterdam, including the Van Gough museum and the Anne Frank House - but there were two things that we visited that I enjoyed the most: the Bols Gin Distillery and the Heineken Brewery :)
Now, I'm not normally a gin drinker, but I must say - I really enjoyed the Bols experience and how interactive the museum was. Basically you take a tour through various rooms that test your senses that affect taste. Then at the end you get to taste various flavors of their gin - I had blood orange and watermelon, yum!
But I think the best part of the Bols tour was that they had a "flairtending" booth where you could practice your best moves a la Tom Cruise in Cocktail. And luckily, I happened to get Andy's attempt on video :)
[My WiFi isn't strong enough to load the video in my current location - check back]
The Heineken tour was also a lot of fun and incredibly interactive! I had never been on a tour of brewery before, and now I'm not sure I could go on another as it might not live up to this one! Easily the best part of this one (besides the free Heineken) was the portion they called "Brew You", in which you get to live the life of a Heineken beer. They called this a 4D experience, and it reminded me of those "rides" in a movie theater with moving chairs from Cedar Point - very fun!
And obviously, since we were there - we had to check out what the Red Light District was all about. It's hard to describe in words, and they don't let you take photos - but just hundreds and hundreds of windows with girls in them along the various streets waving people to come into their room. It was slightly awkward, especially when you saw someone trying to negotiate - but hey, to each his own!
All that said, there was one poster that I liked the best that I think summarized Amsterdam quite well:
I think my favorite (although, this was a tough call) is the Beer + Cone = Cone on Head :)
