We drove to Philadelphia for our flight to Amsterdam. The movie (top right) shows our flight path to London. We arrived in Amsterdam without our luggage (it arrived the day after) but we were prepared and all went well. See that map above? Well, it’s not accurately reflecting our trip. A lock on the Danube was broken when a boat crashed into it on June 5. Its door has been under repair since. We’ll eventually join our boat but for now, we are using hotels and buses to get to our planned destinations. Another adventure!
After checking in at the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel, we found the Red Light District in Amsterdam and got one eyeful of a micro-bikini (we scrubbed her face). This is a very relaxed town!
No, we did not do the boat ride through the canals because we have done this before. Besides, Jorge was very keen on visiting the Red Light District, don’t you know. ;-}
We booked a tour to the Heineken Experience the next day so we skipped our tour group guides and information session. We got the scoop on what we missed, later at dinner.
We purchased two day passes on the city Blue Line to move us around town. At the Heineken place we were to pretend we were water that becomes beer. What a hoot! At times it seemed like a Disneyland ride. Not only did they serve us a sample glass of Heineken…while demonstrating how to drink it…but we also got a couple of free rounds at the end. You can’t beat that! Go if you can.
The Hard Rock Cafe served us for lunch. More Heineken! Then we took a walk around town before boarding the Blue Line again. During our walk we were fascinated by how people got heavy equipment (washers and dryers) up several stories. Many buildings were built before the elevator was invented.
Then it was off to the Dutch Resistance Museum. It was dealt with the country’s treatment by the invasion of Hitler’s Nazis. Bad things wen’t on then. They supplied us with speakers for the tour which proved very informative and sobering. It was wonderful to see how the people celebrated their freedom in 1945. We highly recommend visiting this place.
Next we stopped to visit a ‘house church’ museum. It is called the Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder. Below you’ll see an exploded map of it. The part on the right is where the entrance is located but the church itself is on the other side.
There are many uneven and steep stairs to negotiate to get around so you have to hold on to the railing. Again, we were given speakers so we knew what we were witnessing. It is amazing what people will build to preserve and practice their faith. Very inspiring!
