Lots of walking today. Chris and I slept in, had a big breakfast here at the apartment, then got ready and headed off to face our day: the Van Gogh Museum, the Heineken Experience, and a few bars.
We got the the Van Gogh Museum and then promptly kept on going to the Heineken experience due to the long line. The Heineken Experience is exactly that...an experience. It is a brewery steeped in Marketing and flash, but if you like Heineken, it promises a really tasty fresh beer for you. The weirdest thing was the "Brew You Ride" where you stood on a platform that moved to simulate what you would experience if you were being made into beer. Um...what? The best thing about it was the fans that blew on us because every building here is set at about 78 degrees. CB/JM - I want those two hours of my life back.
Then we headed back to the Van Gogh museum. It's pretty amazing. In the US, you don't get alot of chances to see these painters works up close and in reality. A painting like Sunflowers, which I'm sure many have seen, just can't be really appreciated unless you are standing there, two feet in front of it, imagining Vincent Van Gogh painting it. I also found a few Van Gogh's that I hadn't necessarily seen before - brilliant and amazing!! In addition to the Van Gogh works were originals by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. WOW!! Thanks to Mr. B's freshman year French class for turning me on to that amazingly creative art!! All in all, glad we went there. Just incredible.
We then left and couldn't help but notice the increasing number of young men in soccer - excuse me - FOOTBALL - jerseys. Apparently there was a big match today between the Amsterdam team and some other team for the Netherlands title. Amsterdam won, and I thought maybe we would get killed in the revelry. Sorry America, our bloated, drinking Bud Light, sitting on our fat asses on the couch, SuperBowl watching has got NOTHING on these folks. They know how to root for a team a fuck anyone who gets in their way.
We had lunch at an Indonesian restaurant - thanks to MK at work for telling me about Rijstaffel! It was pretty damn good, and we had a good view of the soccer fans across the street. A nice safe distance away. Bought a kilo of unpastuerized cheese that we need to eat in the next 10 days before we come home - no hard work there.
Looking forward to the later evening and going out to Arendsnest (recommended by Uncle/Godfather NL) for some great beer. More later, after a nap, and after more to drink!
Oops, sorry for the suggestion. I really enjoyed the Heineken experience. It was cool to see how large they've become with a single, relatively unexciting beer. Either way it's definitely not your typical brewery tour.
ReplyDeleteI think they keep it @ 78 degrees and blast you with heat on the ride so that you think that their beer is more refreshing. Did you see the horses?