The first thing you find out is that "Coffee Shop" is a euphemism. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
I'm doing something I've never done before, which is to add to this blog while I'm still on the trip. We've got long rides between our destinations, so it's the perfect time to write everything down before I forget it. Figure I'll do an entry per location, but we'll see how much I can actually keep up, especially once we really hit our stride in this grand European tour.
So I decided I wanted to see the highlights of Europe, and I also decided I wanted someone else to plan the details so I can just focus on being a tourist. So I found this company that does trips geared toward the college/just out of college demo and picked a tour called "European Road Trip", which, in terms of cost, time, and destinations, was my Goldilocks. If I were a lottery winner I might have picked their 35 day "Holy Hell That's a Lot of Europe" tour, but I went with a more modest 16.
I think I won't spoil the surprise of where all I'm going. Starting in Amsterdam, obviously. You'll just have to stay tuned to find out where else. This may be the one time ever that it's at all useful to check back regularly for updates.
So I flew Lousiville to Detroit, then Detroit to Amsterdam, arriving at 5:25am local time and sleeping approximately 1 hour. Always a dangerous combination. Got my bag no trouble. I'd been informed that I would be one of the first four people arriving, so I went to the pre-arranged meeting point to wait for the others. This is what the Schiphol Airport looks like:
Waited until just after 6:00 before the next person arrived. We exchanged greetings then decided to do something very important: we got Starbucks. I rarely get jet lag - I'm usually able to power through that first sleepy day, go to bed at a good time, then be aligned to my new timezone by day 2 - but when the day starts this early and I'm already tired (because my internal clock thinks it's midnight), I'm gonna need some caffeinated assistance.
We met up with two others shortly thereafter (who, it turned out, had actually been on my flight and had been sitting just around the corner from me) and decided to take some photos at the well known I amsterdam sign outside:
Should be noted that this is not the most well known of these signs. The one everyone usually takes photos of is in front of the museum in the city. More on that later.
A few more people trickled in before our tour director, Georgios, arrived to load us all onto the bus to our hostel. He was not coming himself, since he had to wait for the next group of people still to arrive. We couldn't check in yet, either, since it was still so early (around 9:30). All we could do was drop off our bags and head into town.
The hostel:
A word on getting into town: I am actually surprised at how easily we managed to do it. You've gotta remember, we're in a brand new place, no tour director, only one person that's been to Amsterdam before (though not this specific area), all trying to figure out not only how to get where we're trying to go, but also what that destination even is, and in short order we've figured out which tram, which direction, where the stop is to get on, where the stop is to get off, and where we need to walk once we're there. Everyone involved solved a small piece of this puzzle. Even I managed to be of some use, realizing that the stops for the number 14 tram going into town and going away from town are in two different places at Dam Square.
Don't think I could have managed that on my own. We had to do it as a group.
Caught the first glimpse of Dam Square:
We wandered the streets of downtown Amsterdam for a bit, through the chilly weather and persistent though light rain. Pretty soon, though, we all agreed it was time for a real breakfast. This place caught our eye:
No, not the 420 cafe. Pancakes and Waffles.
I got a Dutch pancake with bacon, which is more of a crepe with the topping cooked into it rather than on top or on the side. So, that was delicious. A few others got bacon and Nutella on theirs. I tried it. It was the superior choice.
Full, cold, and wet, we decided to head back to the hostel to meet the rest of the group. There were about two dozen of us in all, maybe less, all pretty much in the 20-25 age range (tour director not included). Everyone was from the US, and most people had either just graduated or had been out of school about a year. There was one employee of the tour company along for the ride, due to a policy by the company that employees who deal with trip itineraries must go on sample trips once a year. Such a burden! I feel so sorry for her! Anyway, we did a quick meet-n-greet, laid a few ground rules, and got our keycards. I missed most of it because I was falling asleep throughout. Doing that head-droops-then-snaps-back-up thing. Felt like highschool again.
Naps that afternoon were as inevitable as they were necessary.
I explored the block our hostel was on as well. There was nothing on the schedule until our "Welcome Mixer" that night, which we met at 5:30 for to depart the hostel together. The mixer was at a restaurant downtown, and we shared plates of traditional Dutch appetizers, which included blocks of cheese, raw beef sausage, and something called bitterballs. We also played games like two truths and lie to get to know each other better. You know how these things go. I told the group I'd been in well known viral video. When they asked which one, I told them it was one of the Where the Hell is Matt videos. None of them had heard of it. I guess if you have to explain to two dozen people what a well known viral video is, it isn't that well known. Oh well.
After dinner we were set free to explore town on our own. First thing we did was stop in a bakery place for dessert:
We saw all the standard things: canals, skinny buildings, winding narrow streets:
We were also hoping to find the fabled red light district.
Weeeeee found it!
If you take pictures of the actual girls in the windows you get the police called on you at best, so I did not chance it. Apologies to my thousands upon thousand of readers expecting that.
Amsterdam is our longest stop at three nights, so it was no big deal to skip a night of revelry to sleep and reboot our internal clocks. I was asleep before the sun set, although to be fair, that's at like 10:45 in Amsterdam.
The next morning was an early one in order to beat the crowds at the Anne Frank house. For those of you that read her diary, which is pretty much everyone who passed the eighth grade, this is the Secret Annexe, the store room where she, her family, and four others hid for two years before being betrayed (we still don't know by whom) and captured by the nazis. After the war, Otto - the only survivor - returned, published the diary, and converted the hiding place into a museum, which is what it remains to this day.
No pictures allowed inside, unfortunately. It was sort of unreal being there. I read that book so long ago, and as someone who grew up in the 90s and 2000s, world war two has always seemed like this distant, impossible thing, but there we were, in the actual tiny rooms where they hid and survived for two years. It was honestly moving. I don't think I spoke at all the entire time I was in there. Also, I got to see the actual diary itself. I didn't realize they even still had that.
After, we met up by the statue of Anne Frank for the walking tour of the city.
The tour was great. That's my kind of thing. See all the things people would come to see, learn bits and pieces about the history, etc. and plenty of photo ops!
We saw this, the oldest still standing house in the city. Check out the date it was built:
1528, if you can't read it. It was in this little like, nun village in a sectioned off area of the city
Walked through a museum:
Saw this specialty store just outside of the red light district:
Yep.
The tour took almost two hours, and we were extremely ready for lunch when it ended. Which was good, because we had reservations at this Greek restaurant called Olivity. We're not going anywhere near Greece on this trip, so I guess they figured they'd put some Greece in our Netherlands stop. Also, Georgios is Greek. So I'm sure that bias played into it. Regardless, it was unbelievably good. And very Instagrammable:
Or so I'm told. I might be the only person on this trip without Instagram. Or a smartphone.
More free time followed lunch, so a group of us journeyed to the museum district, where the better known I amsterdam sign is.
Took some pictures there. Also saw this park:
Which I'm told is three times as big as central park in New York. Ooh, and also aah.
Someone in our group wanted to find this bench that has some significance in The Fault in Our Stars movie, so that was next on our list. I've never seen nor read tiffy-os, despite being a fan of John Green, but I was down to wander the city a bit. Once again, though, we had no real certainty of where it was, nor any idea of how to get there. The tour guide had mentioned that it was at an intersection of two of the main canals, but that was about all we had to go on. So we headed in what vaguely felt like the right direction, each person contributing a little to our journey.
"Maybe if we all guess, someone will be right"
"Oh, that's actually a thing!" I said. "The wisdom of the crowds. They've done studies where like, a lot of people guessed how many beans were in a jar, then they took the average and it was right within 10. So I guess we have to all guess where we think it is then take the average and it'll be right there."
The people that had seen the movie said it was a bench that faced the canal, so I pointed out any bench that even kind of fit that description.
"Is that one it?" I asked, pointing across the canal.
"No," said someone else. "If only we could find our tour guide, she knew where it was."
Then we turned a corner, and there was our tour guide with her afternoon group. Oh hello!
"Where is the Fault in Our Stars bench?"
"Right there!" She pointed to the bench I had just asked about.
That was quite a coincidence.
We returned to the hostel after that for another round of naps to prepare for our evening activities. While in line for the Anne Frank house that morning, someone had noticed an ad for a canal cruise, and about a dozen of us had decided to do it. So the plan was to eat at this windmill restaurant, then head back downtown for the cruise
That place turned out to be like, just a bar. So we had to find somewhere else to eat. We found this little place downtown that was willing and able to serve us all our food within about 45 minutes. It was a pancake place, but most of us got cheeseburgers. Mine tasted like it was a different animal. It reminded me of a deer burger I had once. Gamier. Weird!
We got to the canal cruise just in time. It was just this guy who owned a boat, and we had it all to ourselves:
Our guide was named Arnaut. He would point out various tidbits for us and answer our questions, but mostly we just wanted to drink and enjoy the ride. We were allowed to bring on our own refreshments on the boat, which was good, since we had a package of cheese and about five bottles of wine between us. Which we demolished over the course of the 75 minute ride. I think the cruise was my favorite part of Amsterdam.
That's Alex peekin' out in that last photo there. More about her later.
At one point a guy in our group asked something about the scenery, and said "I'll ask Hans".
No one was named Hans. He meant our driver.
After collectively killing five bottles of wine in just over an hour, the obvious next step once we got off the boat was to go to a bar! So we stumbled into the first palce we saw and put in our orders. Someone told us that Bill Clinton's favorite bar was somewhere in the area. That piqued our collective interest, but it was late, and the tram stopped running soon, so we put that on the agenda for the next night.
The next morning there was an optional bike tour through the Dutch countryside, but I did not take the option (it cost extra). Instead, I slept in. Wayyyy in. Totally missed breakfast in. But not as much as Sam. Sam was the winner of sleeping in.
Finally got up to take a shower to find the water had been shut off on the entire second floor. Cool! So I ventured out on my own to a cafe down the street, got a latte and big ol muffin, and relaxed. Coffee places are a refuge on trips. They're always there, waiting for you to come in and get a drink and pastry and feel at home. It was the Starbucks at the airport that eased my worries on the Austria trip in 2013, and it was the local place down the street now. I had been a little worried about how that morning would go when I found out that like 90% of the group had signed up for the bike tour, but in the end, I was glad to have that morning alone. Not only to catch up on sleep, but also to be able to venture out on my own, see what I wanted to see, see if I could manage this foreign place by myself. It was nice.
The bike group got back around 4:00, ready to hit the beds for yet another nap. They said they'd go out at about 5:30, so I took off on my own again for downtown. I was planning to see some exhibit at De Nieuwe Kirk, or the New Church, but it cost money to get in, and I wouldn't have had more than about 20 minutes by the time it was all said and done, so I just walked in the entrance and took a few pictures.
I thought about going to see the other church nearby, but when I started going that way, I was met with policemen and a section of the town roped off. Something was going ON.
They rerouted people through a side alley. I overheard someone ask a shop owner what was going on.
"There's a fire"
"In this building?"
"No, everywhere."
Woah!
I tried to wait for my tram, but it didn't come for a long time, so I started back on foot. Took a couple wrong turns. Eventually found another stop for my tram and got on. Made it back just in time to turn around and head out with the group. We went to the flower market:
I didn't get any flowers.
Couple of us went to Chipsy King to get a Dutch delicacy: fries covered in mayo and cheese sauce. They were great of course. Then we met up with the larger group. We were hoping to go to a place called the Pancake Bakery for dinner, but there was an hour wait, so we went to find another pancake place...and ended up back at the same restaurant as the night before. Three days in Amsterdam and we eat at the same place twice. Whattaya gonna do.
They had cats at the restaurant, and they started massaging each other while we ate.
At dinner someone asked Alex how her day was.
"I got engaged"
Well, that tops eveyone else's day. Her boyfriend is on the trip too, and he had taken her to a park that morning to ask her to marry him, and she said yes. How about that.
We did end up finding and going to Bill Clinton's favorite bar, and they did have proof of that claim.
He even wrote them a letter saying how much he enjoyed their apple pie.
We went to the red light district one last time that night to see it after dark. It's an interesting place. You'll see these people posing in what look like storefront windows, and you think, oh, it's a mannequin. Then she moves. And you're like, oh right, it's a person. Woah!
So we had some more drinks and walked around and whatnot, then caught a cab back to the hostel. I woke up the next morning to someone tapping on my bed post.
"Twenty minutes til the bus leaves!"
And we're on our way.
