Hello Amsterdam

Today was the perfect rainy morning in Rotterdam for sleeping in. We had an early afternoon train to catch to Amsterdam, so we spent the morning grabbing some coffee/breakfast nearby.

We arrived in Amsterdam about 2pm and we could already tell this was going to be a cool city. We had about a 35 minute hike to our hotel which was on the south side of Amsterdam (close to a lot of the museums). It was a bit of a trek with all our gear, but we got some great pictures along the way.

Our overnight accommodations are at a place called Espresso Hotel. This boutique hotel is very nice, and more importantly it has free unlimited access to its coffee/espresso machine 24/7.

After unloading our gear, we headed out to Vondelpark which was only a few blocks from our hotel. In this park we found some great biking/walking paths, refreshing greenery, and a brewery located in the center.

We then set out for the Museumplein in order to get a picture of the “I amsterdam” sign. To our surprise, we learned that the sign was taken down a few months prior. With rain immanent, we decided to head to the original Heineken brewery for their “Heineken Experience”.

While there were quite a few tourists, we really enjoyed the Heineken Experience. The price of admission included a self guided tour through the building including the beautiful brewing room and two ice cold beers at the end.

We learned quite a bit about Heineken saga. One interesting fact is that the original strain of yeast has been used since Heineken was introduced over 140 years ago. They call it the “A-yeast”. This special yeast is unique to the brewery and is kept secret in a secure vault. Only 5 employees at the company have access to this vault.

Once we finished our beers in the basement of the brewery we set out to find some dinner. After some quick internet research we landed at a place called “Cannibale Royale”. There we found some delicious craft beer and meats that were out of this world. There are a handful of them around Amsterdam, and Katie and I give this one a strong recommendation.