Having A 'Dam Good Time in Amsterdam!

DoDEA's spring break may have been last week, but Europe's Spring season officially begins NOW at the Tulip Festival in Amsterdam! That's right- we unpacked our bags from the Sahara Desert and repacked for the Netherlands!

Schiphol Amsterdam Airport

I worked Thursday morning and then quickly tossed together clean clothes for cooler weather and had our bags packed and in the car by the time Bryan got off work at 4:30 pm! After a quick nap, we were off to the Sevilla Airport!

I'm pretty sure the men at Braco Car Park now recognize us, and they probably consider our car a permanent fixture in their lot! With an arrival time of 2:10 am, we had a late (or early, depending on your perspective) arrival at AMS Airport outside of Amsterdam. That's right...we aren't sleeping in an airport this time around, but we were on the second-from-last flight out of Sevilla that evening!

ClinkNOORD

While we could have taken a 40-minute bus/train/ferry combo to our hotel, we spent a little more money on a Bolt (Europe's version of Uber) to cut our transportation time and gain some sleeping time!

We arrived at the massive ClinkNoord- a hostel/hotel combo that was the perfect stay for us! We booked a private room with a private bathroom, but we were impressed with the meet-up activities, game rooms, open spaces, and friendly staff! I mean, the place had a full bar/nightclub in the basement and a coffee shop on the main floor! If we were ten years younger and backpacking Europe, we would have LIVED for this place! (Yeah, we graduated college TEN years ago... no wonder our backs and feet hurt after a long weekend of traveling!)

Thursday, April 10: Zaanse Schans & Giethoorn

But we aren't too old...yet! After going to bed around 3:30 am, our alarm went off four hours later to start our day! I'm not wasting a single minute!

We met our guide, Reinier, a 27-year-old local who took us all over the North Holland Province! We learned during our first visit to Amsterdam that the country is not called Holland, as many people think. There are two provinces in the Netherlands with this famous name: North Holland (where we are going today) and South Holland (where we will go tomorrow).

In the past, when seafarers ventured across the world, when asked, "Where are you from?" Being proud of their small provinces, they would reply "Holland," since the majority of seafarers were from these two provinces. Thus, the confusion surrounding the country's name!

Now, don't ask me why the people are called Dutch...I think this small country has faced many identity struggles. The people are Dutch, they speak Dutch, some live in Holland, but they all live in the Netherlands. There you go.

Zaanse Schans: Zaandam

With Reinier's quick driving, we beat the crowds to Zaanse Schans (pronounced zong sconce). Sitting north of Amsterdam, Zaanse Schans looks like it was plucked out of a storybook with its wooden windmills lining the Zaan River. These windmills still work and had important industrial purposes during their prime, including wood chopping, moving water, oil processing, and paint-mixing. While these six windmills still work, they are now used as tourist attractions.

Cheese Farm "Catharina Hoeve" by Henri Willig

The morning weather was chillier than Bryan and I expected, so we weren't complaining when our tour continued inside the Henri Willig Cheese Farm! Warmth and cheese, what more could we want!?!

Normally, we don't purchase from these touristy visits, but this cheese was chef's kiss. Bryan and I caved, purchasing lavender goat cheese and an aged, award-winning goat cheese to take home with us!

Wooden Shoe Workshop of Zaanse Schans

Next up was a wooden clog factory. After a short demonstration of the clog-making process, we had the chance to see their traditional designs. I found the hand-carved, intricate designs mesmerizing, while the classic painted clogs were decorated with windmills and tulips- the famous symbols of the Netherlands!

We were also shocked to see Miffy- the Dutch bunny that is also famous in Japan! Seeing this cartoon character brought back many memories of our time at Huis Ten Bosch!

Bakkerijmuseum 'In de Gecroonde Duyvekater'

During our free time in Zaanse Schans, Bryan and I enjoyed an espresso shot, hot chocolate, and a fried apple pastry before walking through several shops and enjoying various viewpoints. By 11 am, the crowds were thick, and exploring this small town was challenging. I was so happy we arrived during the cold morning with fewer people!

Afsluitdijk

As we drove towards our next stop, Reinier took us along the Afsluitdijk, the largest dike in the world! While the United States entered the Great Depression, the Dutch people were busy securing the waterway to prevent flooding and "reclaiming" two islands outside Amsterdam's city center. This 20-mile-long levee closes off the North Sea from the man-made freshwater lake of IJsselmeer. Through powerful pumping stations and master engineering, the Afsluitdijk has protected the Netherlands from flooding for decades.

Fun Fact: We learned that the Netherlands famously sent aid to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina to help prevent future flooding. With the invention of this dyke and its impact on the Netherlands' flood prevention techniques, the Dutch engineers were able to provide guidance and knowledge to the Americans. They may be a small country, but they know their water control!

Grand Café Fanfare

By 2 pm, we arrived in Giethoorn (pronounced Geet-horn) for lunch at a nearby cafe. Bryan ordered nachos, while I wanted the onion soup. Together we tried the Dutch classic, Bitterballen, which are fried meatballs dipped in mustard; they reminded us of Spain's croquettas, but with a crispier outer shell.

Made famous after starring in a Dutch film, the town of Giethoorn has grown in popularity! Houses here sell for €1.5 million, even though they are located in the "Dutch countryside," while many homes have transformed into B&Bs to host the influx of tourists year-round!

Some people call Giethoorn the "Venice of the Netherlands" because of the unique waterways that run throughout the town. Many houses are only accessible by boat or wooden bridges connecting them to neighbors' yards. This quaint town was simply perfect; manicured lawns, flowers in bloom, and small boats navigating the canals made this our favorite stop of the day!

Geithoorn Mennonite Church

After our boat tour, Bryan and I spent our free time walking through town and snapping more pictures along the waterways. We stumbled upon a tiny Mennonite Church with a surprisingly large organ in the upper balcony.

Grachthof Giethoorn: Restaurant & Bootverhuur

With the sun finally shining and defrosting our bodies, we stopped by an outdoor bar for a local beer (and cider for me!) before meeting up with our group for the ride back to Amsterdam!

Along the journey back, we spotted our first Tulip field out the car window! It's officially tulip time!

Delirium Cafe Amsterdam

As the evening started, the weather got cooler again... I love Bryan, but the man told me I wouldn't need a coat on this trip...and he was wrong. With teeth chattering, we hit up one of our favorite bars in Europe: Delirium! Much like the first Delirium we visited in Lisbon, this Delirium Bar had ample drink options for us to choose from. With it being a Thursday and practically empty, they closed up early, so we only enjoyed one drink before moving off to find dinner.

BrewDog Amsterdam Centraal

Next to the train station was another Johnson favorite: BrewDog! This makes the fourth BrewDog Brewery for us: Singapore, London, Paris, and now Amsterdam! Writing this blog, it may sound like we have a drinking problem...but I will say we only had a drink each while enjoying a dinner of chicken wings and a chicken sandwich (classic brewery food options!)

Buiksloterweg

Our remaining energy was dwindling with the sun, so as the sun set, we made our way across the river and back to our hotel. (Remember, we are running on 3.5 hours of sleep and caffeine!) I will say that the sunset along the ferry route did make staying out tonight worth the view!

Friday, April 11: Amsterdam's Tulip Festival

Our Friday started a little slower. We left the hotel by 11 am and headed straight to The Coffee Virus, a coffee shop right around the corner from our hotel.

Vatten Ramen Zeedijk

When Bryan asked what I wanted for lunch, I replied with "international cuisine!" giving him a wide range to choose from. I know this man was made for me because he chose Vatten Ramen Zeedijk, where we enjoyed two delicious bowls of ramen while overlooking Amsterdam's waterway! The view was spectacular, the food was amazing, and my company was pretty great, too!

Keukenhof

We then waddled our way back across town to meet our afternoon tour bus! That's right: today's focus is on Amsterdam's world-famous Tulip Festival! An hour south of Amsterdam, Keukenhof is home to the Netherlands' famous flowers and is referred to as "The Garden of Europe." Over seven million flower bulbs are planted in the gardens annually across the park's 79 acres. That's a whole lot of flowers to see in an afternoon stroll!

While the park is massive, the crowds compete for space. Bryan and I were good about passing the old ladies in walkers and not making eye contact with the screaming toddlers who were mid-meltdown amid the tulip fields. I guess this experience really is for all ages!

For three hours, we wandered this spacious area and enjoyed the colorful arrangements. I won't lie, Bryan and I wouldn't describe ourselves as flower people, so after a while, these tulips all started to look similar. We took a beer break (like one does on vacation after walking through tulip fields for several hours) and then continued our walks by picking out our favorite tulip options.

Now I say we picked out our favorites, but after glancing at the bulb shop prices, I realized I didn't need €20 bulbs for my garden. Instead, I took photos of the names, and I'll save them for when I have that dream yard and unlimited gardening budget!

One of the final exhibits we visited was the daffodil room. Reminding us of home for two reasons: First is the Fremont Daffodil Festival, which probably has the same amount of Daffodils as were in this room! (Shout out Wayne County, NC!)

The second memory would be that of my mother hauling my siblings and I around town on "daffodil digs," where we would park the car outside abandoned houses and dig up budding daffodils from the overgrown yards. That's right- daffodils remind me of my criminal childhood of stealing flowers from dead people's yards.

While comical memories now, I can say these flowers did bring a smile to my face! I can only imagine what Cindy Kimble would think if she saw all the varieties of daffodils in this place!

Noordwijkerhout

Upon leaving Keukenhof, we boarded buses and continued our journey south to the tiny town of Noordwijkerhout. Upon arrival, all heads turned our way as a parade of 100+ tourists exited double-decker buses and made their way to the bleachers for our VIP seats. That's right, the Tulip Night Parade started with us as the first "float" for people to gawk at!

The Netherlands is famous for its flower parade that passes through several South Holland towns on the second Saturday of April every year. More recently, the town of Noordwijkerhout runs the same floats in the Tulip Festival's Annual Night Parade on Friday evening! Bryan and I figured parade floats decked out in flowers would seem even more impressive lit up at night, so we chose this route for our festival fun.

Remember when I said Bryan told me I didn't need a coat on this trip? Well, I nearly caught frostbite sitting on metal bleachers at 10 pm, waiting for flower-filled pagent wagons to slowly make their way through town. Shivering beside me, my lovely husband had the audacity to say he was cold.

Sometimes I contemplate murder while looking at flowers in a foreign country.

To make my mood even worse, I had 75-year-old people taking pictures with flash surrounding me and then loudly complaining when their pictures turned out badly. To top it off, the floats were spaced too far apart...with over seven minutes between each float's processional and too many cars decked out with funeral floral arrangements, I will say this parade has room for improvement. By the 11:20 pm end time, I was beyond ready to get on the bus and back to the city.

Overall, I would say the Night Parade was a unique experience. Would I do it again? No. Could I go to the Pikeville Christmas Parade and see similarities? Sure. But the floral floats were impressive.

Looking back on our Night Parade in Noordwijkerhout, there were some impressive floats. Nickelodeon sponsored a float for Dora the Explorer's 25th Anniversary, and the European Space Agency (ESA) hosted a float honoring the Netherlands as a founding member of Europe's Space Exploration. There were even floats honoring major tourist locations like Thailand, China, and Brazil.

As soon as the parade officially ended ( I say officially because halfway through the parade, the gap in floats was so long that people got up and headed back to the buses, assuming it was over...), we power-walked back to the bus for our hour ride back to Amsterdam. We made it back to our hotel around midnight and were happy that I booked a hotel right next to the drop-off point! (What a win for my trip planning!)

Saturday, April 12: Heineken Experience & Anne Frank House

Whew! One more day in Amsterdam- here we go!

De Carrousel Pannenkoeken Amsterdam

We started our day at The Carousel, a popular pancake house in the city! Based on our waiter's suggestions, Bryan ordered the bacon, egg, and cheese pannenkoeken, a thin but giant pancake, while I ordered the strawberries and Nutella poffertjes, which are small, fluffy mini-pancakes covered in powdered sugar. It was a carb and sugar-heavy breakfast, but it set us up for a great day!

Albert Cuypstraat Market

Bryan asked AI where we were most likely to find street art in the city, and he found the Albert Cuypstraat Market not too far from where we had breakfast! Lucky for us, there were several local artists set up along the market, meaning we had ample art options to choose from! Bryan and I found a lovely painting of a Zaanse Schans windmill to add to our collection!

Heineken Experience

A trip to Amsterdam isn't complete without a stop at Heineken!

Here are a few fun facts we learned during our tour:

• Gerard Adrian Heineken founded Heineken & Co. on February 15, 1864, at the young age of 22. Twenty-two and a beer connoisseur- pretty impressive!

• Heineken only uses four ingredients: water, barley, hops, and yeast. (This reminded us of Munich's similar beer laws!) I guess perfection doesn't take many add-ins, considering Munich's beer reputation and Heineken's worldwide notoriety!

• During the Great Depression, when President FDR lifted the alcohol ban ending the Prohibition Era, Heineken was the first imported beer to the States! Word traveled fast with the end of Prohibition, and Heineken took only 22 days for their beer to leave Amsterdam and arrive in New York!

1875 medal awarding Heineken as the World's Best Beer

different bottle labels over the years

only 4 ingredients in all Heineken beers!

After a short Heineken history and learning about the brewing process, we were set loose in their bar! After watching a cool bottling video (below) and filming Bryan's comical commercial, we were ready to enjoy a few drinks!

Raïnaraï: North Africa Restaurant

By 3 pm, we were ready for a shared snack! Smelling the delicious scents coming out of this North African restaurant, Bryan and I split a flatbread pizza thing before continuing our walk to the next tour!

Anne Frank House

When people think of Amsterdam, they normally think of Anne Frank.

After trying to get tickets during our first visit and them being sold out, this was a top must-do during this trip. I set the alarms, logged in to buy tickets as soon as they were released, and within 4 hours, they were already sold out for the other days of our visit. Lucky for me, I was able to book tour tickets for Saturday! If you plan to visit the Anne Frank House during your visit, I'd recommend you only book direct, and remember that they release tickets six weeks out! They DON'T sell tickets at the door!

We started our tour with a 30-minute presentation that taught us about Anne Frank and her family. We learned that Anne and her sister, Margot, were born in Frankfurt, Germany, to Edith and Otto Frank. Otto served in the German Army during WWI. When Germany started their Jewish propaganda, Otto moved to Amsterdam and started a company, Opekta, that supplied products for canning and jamming various fruits. With a successful business started, the rest of the Frank family moved to Amsterdam and enjoyed eight years of regular life before the Nazis overtook the Netherlands and started passing out yellow stars.

Seeing the downward spiral and watching neighboring Jews disappear, Otto sold his company to Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman while secretly making arrangements for his family to hide in the factory's walls. With the help of those two men and Bep Voskuijl and Miep Gies (two women who worked in the building), Otto hid his family for over two years. Alongside the Van Pels family (Hermann, Auguste, and Peter) and a dentist (Fritz Pfeffer), the Franks hid in "the Annex" until they were discovered in August 1944. All eight Jews were sent off to camps, where only Otto Frank survived.

After our history lesson, we got to tour the Opekta factory that served as the hiding place for Anne and seven others for 761 days. While we weren't allowed to take pictures during the tour, I couldn't stop myself from snapping a photo of the original bookcase door that hid eight Jews for over two years. Visiting this site was numbing. Standing where the famous 16-year-old journalist lived was sobering and an experience we aren't soon to forget.

Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, Miep Gies, Otto Frank, Bep Voskuijl

Otto Frank's business product

Hermann, Auguste and Peter van Pels, and Fritz Pfeffer

Replica of Anne Frank's Diary

the actual bookcase

room replicas of the attic

Above are some doll-house replicas of The Annex, alongside my photo of the actual door. I found the display wall filled with numerous translations of Anne Frank's diary moving, as it represents the massive impact her story has had on the world.

Mikkeller at Morebeer

Whew. That was a lot. You know what calms those big feelings? Beer.

That's right, Amsterdam is home to our all-time favorite brewery: Mikkeller. We have visited every location across Asia and have enjoyed their bar in Paris, so we were eager to stop by the Amsterdam location. It did not disappoint! We enjoyed ourselves so much that we didn't take a single picture (and you know that's saying a lot for me!)

The Madras Diaries - Amsterdam

For dinner, Bryan made us reservations at a nearby Indian restaurant. As we walked in, we realized we were one of only four non-Indians in the entire restaurant. This food is about to be BOMB. And it was! Bryan and I split two different curries that the staff recommended, alongside some rice and naan, and left full and happy! Indian food is one of our favorites, so finding good restaurants while traveling does our hearts good!

De Wallen: Amsterdam's Red Light District

Visiting Amsterdam isn't complete without the infamous Red Light District. While not our cup of tea, we did have calories to walk off after our dinner, and the Red Light District was between us and our hotel. Following the crowds, Bryan and I walked through some of the alleyways and side streets hosting window displays of women in barely any clothes.

We were too early in the night for the "bare necessities" displays, but seeing women posing in windows in lingerie was enough to bring reddness to B's cheeks and to keep us moving towards our hotel. Prostitution may be legal in the city, but this whole area gave off Vegas vibes and reminded us why we never want to visit Vegas ever again.

Sunday, April 13: Back Home

Sunday morning came early with that 4:30 am alarm. After a quick pack of the suitcase, we caught the ferry over to the train station and then took the train to the airport. We were back in Sevilla by 10 am and home to these cute babes before noon!

Another amazing trip is in the books! I won't lie and say the Tulip Festival was worth the hype, but I will say Amsterdam was a great city and one I would visit again.

Until next time,

--Katie