Amsterdam(n)

Back in May a friend of mine from Korea visited Germany during his Euro-tour. Of course we acted as his guides. It was nice to see the tourist-y places close to home, and a few pictures of that will follow later. One day we grabbed a car and went to Amsterdam, which is only about 2 hours by car from here.

It wasn't my first time in Amsterdam, of course, but my first time doing tourist stuff. I had been here a few years ago with university to work on a joint project with the University of Amsterdam, so there wasn't any time for leisure activities. ^^

Anyway, I'm personally not a big fan of the city, though I do have to admit it's really pretty. After we had planned a route through the city (we had to be fast since museums close quite early and we only had this one day) and purchased all tickets in advance at one of these great tourist-ticket-offices, we thankfully started with a museum only our foreign friend was interested in, so we had a chance to just chill on a meadow and enjoy the sun while waiting for him.

The rest of our day consisted of running around the city, hurrying from one attraction to the other. Highlights included Madam Tussaud's and the Icebar, a bar made out of ice. Completely. Including the seats, the 'glasses', everything. It was a fun experience, but basically you walk into one of those huge refrigerators restaurants have and you have to wear heavy gear to keep you warm. So you look really unsexy and can barely move, haha. And because it's still so cold, you only have 45 minutes until you have to go out again, which is okay since there are only 2 alcoholic and 1 non-alcoholic drinks available. At least there's a 'normal' bar attached to the fridge, where the people are really nice and the cocktails are good.

Of course you can't visit Amsterdam without visiting the flower market, since The Netherlands are famous for cheese and tulips. It's of course also famous for being the only place in Europe where you can legally buy and smoke weed, so the city is full of coffee shops and among those nice tulips you can find seeds to plant weed, but I will just disregard this part of The Netherlands here. ;) Even though it is indeed the reason why most Germans ever go there.

The last stop on our city tour was a boat tour through the numerous canals that worm their way through Amsterdam. Since it was getting dark by the time we got to the boat stand, it was a really nice atmosphere and a great way to relax a bit before we had to head back to the outskirts of town, where we had parked the car, and drive back home to Germany.

Since I have no more to write about this trip to elegantly wrap the text around the pictures, I'll just leave an inelegant pictures dump of a few shots made from the boat. Those canals are the most beautiful thing about Amsterdam, really. And there are many of them. 25% of the city's surface is made up of 65 miles of canals. Apparently it's the most watery city in the world. Anyway. Enjoy the pictures. :)