Amsterdam Adventures 2: Red Light District and Rijksmuseum

Our weekend in Amsterdam kicked off with some cheese and a canal tour. To recuperate after spending the morning in such an adventurous manner, we needed something to eat. Utilizing one of my travel books, I looked up restaurant possibilities and their addresses beforehand. For a late lunch, we ate at Latei. It was a simple, somewhat bohemian restaurant that is reminiscent of your mom's kitchen circa 1950. The food was very good, I had a hummus and vegetable sandwich, but the portions were small. Each sandwich was open faced, containing a single slice of bread. We left the restaurant around three after splitting a slice of cheesecake, and it was probably for the best we had a light lunch as we would be doing dinner in a few hours anyway.

Amsterdam is a city of many museums: Van Gogh, Rembrant, and Hermitage to name a few. For our Saturday afternoon entertainment, we ventured to the Erotic Museum. The displays were exactly as the name suggests and can spark the debate of what is "erotic" in the mind of some is profane to another, or completely bland and boring to yet another. Admission was seven euro, and rather steep for the half hour of entertainment it provided. One floor was devoted to risque celebrity paintings up for purchase, but the gift shop was a blast with squeezable breast shaped everything and many entertaining items up for grabs.

Most of our day was spent in the heart of the Red Light District. While walking down side streets glass doors let you see in on provocatively dressed women attempting to entice passerby to join them for a twenty minute stint. To add an element of class to our evening, we walked a few minutes out to Amsterdam Centraal and took some pictures of the amazing buildings in the area, train station included.

Once again referencing my handy list of restaurants, we tried out a place called Skek. They were featuring a Japanese burger with wasabi mayonnaise, which nearly all of us chose for dinner. The burger, sauce, and fries were amazing. Although the bun nearly overtook my plate and the term salad wasn't really done justice by the small pile of greens provided on the side. All in all, Skek was a great choice.

The foot traffic through the area greatly increased as the evening progressed, we walked along the roads and canals taking it all in. After ice cream and some beers, Tom and I ended up more or less stranded downtown. The trains and buses stopped running around midnight, a fact we didn't realize until nearly one in the morning. There was a taxi stand nearby and we grabbed a cab back to the hotel.

Some of the guys found a breakfast place they absolutely raved about, so we all gave it a try the following morning. We packed everything into our backpacks before taking a train downtown as we knew we wouldn't have time to go back to the hotel before leaving the city.

An interpretation of the Amsterdam flag alongside a building.

We walked about forty minutes and had to maneuver our way around some construction but we finally made it to breakfast!

I've never had a Dutch pancake prior to this trip but they are very much like a large crepe with sweet or savory items baked directly into the batter. Tom had two (did I mention they were huge???) bacon pancakes and I had a cinnamon apple and nut pancake. At least we were well nourished for the day ahead.

Post-pancake glow, we walked to the Rijksmuseum. Amsterdam is a bicycle heavy city, some people even say there are more bikes than people, so seven of us walking from one side of the city to another with our belongings in tow was quite the undertaking. The views were worth it though.

Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum contains a history of Amsterdam and was crazy interesting. Our backpacks were not allowed inside, we had to leave them at a baggage desk, but I was glad to be free of it for a few hours! There were amazing paintings, sculptures, scale model ships, and intense displays. I had two favorite paintings. One was of Mary and a very buff baby Jesus, and another by Ferdinand Bol displaying a father who ordered his son to be beheaded for not following orders. Parenting gone old school. Honestly though, being able to walk through each wing and get an in depth look at the culture and details of each time period was very moving.

Self portrait by Van Gogh

After picking up our bags, we headed for the train station. The train originated from Amsterdam, meaning we were able to swoop in and find open seats. Amsterdam made for such a relaxing and fun weekend. I would go back in a heart beat, I could spend days sitting by those canals drinking coffee and enjoying the rich history at every corner.