After a good night's sleep and a great breakfast, it was time to finally get to know Amsterdam and its history. This was the plan for our trip, it seems that we are already at that stage of the year when you don't want to go to a party in the evening hours, but you enjoy visiting museums and other attractions.
First stop was Museum of the canals, it's a great way to learn about the history of the city and how it was built over the centuries. As you probably already know, Amsterdam is a city crisscrossed with bridges and surrounded by 165 canals. For several centuries, Amsterdam flourished in its golden age, a period of great commercial success. Due to the rapid development of the city and not enough space, in the 17th century, they began to build canals. Canal construction was initially started on a small scale with a narrow, straight canal. Later, when the other canals were built, they formed visible paths in the form of curved crescents, which lined up one after the other and surround the straight canals. Each canal is connected to the previous canal, which connected the entire city and quick access to the houses by the water and they build bridges across the canals to allow smooth traffic for the villagers. I really recommend visiting this museum.
If you already saw my old posts, you definitely noticed that I'm a big fan of photography. So on my list of must see it was definitely Huis Marseille, first photography museum in Amsterdam. You can find it in large 17th century house. It offers a varied exhibition program that takes into account the rich history and diverse use of photography. They exhibit photos by various artists from all over the world. I was really impressed with some artists, especially Jochen Lempert - photos of natural sources, and Dr. Joseph M. Carrier, whose photos tell stories of Vietnamese men from year 1962 to 1973, and of course with edgy work of Nhu Xuan Hua. All I can say is just, wow.
After that, we took the ferry to the A'DAM LOOKOUT: Europe's highest swing, this is more than 100 meters above the Amsterdam skyline. But as always there was a catch, the elevator that takes you to the top, people with epilepsy are not allowed to use it, because it has lights and special effects that are not suitable for epileptics. So that part is out. That's why we preferred to visit the film museum Eye, which is nearby. It presents both Dutch and foreign films screened in the Netherlands, and films are in black and white color. Best of all, this museum was so quiet, with short clips of movies playing in the background for you to watch and relax on the soft seats.
Then we headed back into town for dinner and beer. Since I haven't been drinking alcohol for a while, I ordered a non-alcoholic beer, you should have seen the look on the waiter's face when I said those words, his answer was very loud - We serve only alcoholic beer! So as always, coffee for me please.
When it started to get dark, we went shopping for souvenirs in the streets, and it's impossible to avoid candy shops. It's a paradise for those with a sweet tooth. What are you doing to me?? Of course we had to buy sweets. I have to mention that we walked around the city with the GPS in our hands, but we still got lost and I think we walked at the same streets quite a few times. And then the streets suddenly turned red. We found one of the biggest attractions in Amsterdam - the red street. The streets were full of people looking at the girls in the shop windows. Everyone has their own opinion about this part of town, and I don't need to describe what is happening here, because I think most people are familiar with it. After that, it was time to sleep, tomorrow is our last day.
The first thing in the morning we visited the Rijksmuseum, which is the national museum of the Netherlands, and which has the richest collection of Dutch works of art created between 1200 and 2000. The museum currently has about 8,000 exhibits, of the most famous artists in the world. The museum is one of the most crowded attractions in Amsterdam and it is indeed very big, but I didn't expect such a mass of people. But we are all very impressed by the art and spent almost three hours there.
Somehow we knew that we wouldn't be able to see everything we set out to do, because unfortunately almost all museums close at four o'clock, so we quickly decided to visit the botanical garden - Hortus Botanicus, which has quite a few endangered species of trees and plants. They have a collection of as many as 6 thousand different types of tropical plants and trees. I highly recommend a visit if you like plants.
We went to the city for the last time, and of course, what do I have to see there? Lego store. My heart jumped out. This is a paradise for me. My friends almost dragged me out of the store because I would probably waste all my money there.
We ended our trip with a good cocktail and shisha, and another short walk around the city.
Amsterdam is really beautiful and they have amazing architecture, and you need to visit at least once in your life. All I can say is that three days is not enough to see the whole city and its attractions. We didn't manage to see everything, but I can finally say that I was in Amsterdam and that was the goal.
- “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”* – Lao Tzu
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