We were close to the flower market so it seemed appropriate to take an early day wander through there. the flowers all looked so beautiful, too bad we couldn't just have all the plants simply exported back home for us. The first intended stop from there was to be the Anne Frank house and I don't remember if we took a picture at the time, but here is the advantage of that previously mentioned flexibility. The line went way down around the corner and along the side of Westerkerk, and people seemed to be perfectly willing to wait, and wait, and wait even longer. Steph and I on the other hand decided that we would come back later in the day, finding out that it was open all the way until 9pm. We then headed along the canal and ending up at the open market on the edge of the Jordaan neighborhood. It was a flea market and foods market all wrapped into one, and we did find a couple small things we could not do without, a pashmina scarf for Steph and a couple of canal house magnets for ourselves.
Based on our general wandering direction northeast we had gotten back to Centraal station, which was fortuitous since we figured we would just get our rail tickets for Brugge now, rather than wait until the last minute. One of the first lessons of being in Amsterdam is to be prepared to use cash. Even for train travel between the Benelux countries they would not accept any credit card that did not work on the chip and pin system. We were in the fortunate position of having just gotten an ATM so we could pay with cash, but in talking to the clerk, she said it is amazing the number of times they have to send U.S. travelers out to get cash in order to complete their travel transactions. For us though, nice and simple, and booked through with open tickets to Brugge on Wednesday.
*** Mini rant warning - The U.S. is going to have to finally stop trying to buck this trend that they know better and are the leaders of everything finance. Time to face facts, chip and pin is here to stay and you are making life damned difficult for people by not having the system in place. Make all the arguments you want, from it is no safer than swipe to the cost of retooling the system and the loss of possible finance charge revenues, the fact is we look ridiculously backward in Europe having to get "special treatment" to find a way to use a swipe card. This problem also cost us the chance to see Muse and Biffy Clyro live in Amsterdam Tuesday night. You could not use an "American" credit card to purchase tickets online or by phone and so we missed out on the perfect opportunity to see an amazing stadium concert. What a frickin disaster.***
From rant to frivolity, as we decided it was time to finally penetrate the red light district and get a sense of what it was like. While definitely not the most intimate of settings, including the ring of windowed doors right at Oude Kirk, which itself was such a great contrast, but even the public urination stands in the area. If nothing else, it does create discussion of the role of prostitution and of women, not just in terms of control over one's body and behavior, but legalization, regulation, and social control over the behavior. Unfortunately these discussions are not commonplace and most of the people wandering through were males, many of whom saw the place as a simple opportunity to justify thinking from within their trousers. While unique in just how much of a sex industry there is, it is the openness that surprises people most.
It is now early afternoon and Steph and I decided that it was time to take a tram out to the De Gooyer windmill. It was quite a walk and Drew was generous enough to ensure that we had tram passes at our disposal. The motivation for going out of the way was only minimally to see a traditional windmill up close, it was surely as much about the microbrewery that had opened up there. Browerij IJ has been there for quite some time and it was nice to try some fresh local beer of the Netherlands. Yes, there is the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam, but the beer isn't brewed there any longer and you all know by now that I am all about the local artisan breweries anyway. They provided us with some wonderful cheese and sausage in addition to their Pils, the Tripel, the Wit, and the Amsterdam Special. It was a fantastically beautiful warm and sunny day that there was not a chance that we weren't going to sit outside and have our beverages and snacks. We enjoyed the atmosphere and relaxed for a nice while, trying to figure out what else might be fit into our day. The decision was that we should head back across the city, stopping at Rembrandtplein to take a couple of photos of the Night Watch sculpture and Rembrandt statue above it. By about 5pm we had wandered back further west, finally stopping in Leidseplein for a bite to eat before meeting up with Drew and heading off to a beer tasting at the Beer Temple, and catching up with his colleague Brock as well.
The beer tasting was a great deal of fun, small tastes of unexpected beers. The licorice stout was pretty bad and even the "best" beer in the world, Westvledern 12 was more underwhelming than expected. We sat and discussed each one, trying to figure out styles and aromas and tastes, and then after the tasting sat even longer where a lengthy discussion on movies and sequels prevailed. The differences in ages was most apparent as we had this discussion and we did go so far as to see where people were on the Star Wars ewok debate. It was a lot of fun and gave the time to finally knock another important Brewdog Brewery milestone off the list. They had Sink the Bismark available and I couldn't resist the opportunity to try this high octane Scottish beer, especially since there are a few of us that have been on a long term quest to find it as our follow up to their Tactical Nuclear Penguin. It was quite spicy and had just a bit of a hops finish to it. The best I can now say is that I tried it and still think the Penguin is the better of these extreme beers. I think the best of the evening was getting to try the offerings from Mikkeller, especially the Walk on Water.
Steph, Drew, and I took a circuitous route back to his place, getting a chance to see some of the canals lit up at night. It was well worth the extra bit of a stroll, and provided the right end to our first full day in Amsterdam.
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