Amsterdam 2023 - Day 5: Grachtengordel, Heineken

 As was becoming habit by now, I did some work in the morning while waiting for the sun to thaw and businesses to open, then emerged to explore more of the city.

Today, though, I thought I'd bring the laptop and experience the digital nomad lifestyle.

After stopping at a bakery, I took the metro up to the Rokin area and cut through the Dam, looking for a cafe to enjoy a cappuccino and answer some email.

There's always a bit of sidewalk under renovation, no matter where one goes in this city. This is the first one I saw that was still open for traffic while the brick was being re-laid.

It was almost noon when I left the cafe and wandered west into the Grachtengordel.

I spent the next few hours roaming aimlessly back towards De Pijp, weaving back and forth over the bridges in the Canal Belt area.

It was another beautiful day (sunny and cold with a light breeze) as I searched for my favorite canal-bridge photo.

I had read that one of the tips for seeing Amsterdam is to walk on the shaded side of the canal, to take photos of the sunny side, but it was a bit chilly in the shade and the severe angle of the sun wasn't helping.

I was tempted by the houseboat museum, but I didn't see anyone onboard.

Around 1 PM, I stopped for lunch (kroketten on brown bread, and a beer) and a bit of light laptop work.

After lunch, I resumed meandering, now heading toward Rembrandt Square.

Now that is a clever name for a restaurant.

I don't know if this one is "clever", but it got my attention.

I should clarify: I didn't know I was heading toward Rembrandt Square, but it's where I found myself just before 2 PM. 

Lest anyone get the wrong idea, this was the first place in the city I saw these particular signs, for the record.

By that point, the conference was over, and Munroe was finally getting to see the Albert Cuyp street market, which was only about 1/2 a mile south of where I happened to be, so I aimed vaguely in that direction.

Here, we see the fate of unwanted bicycles. This article quotes an estimate that 100 people and 35 cars end up in the canals each year, but nobody can agree on how many bikes are drowned.

First, though, I got thirsty and had to stop for some hydration. While I was sitting at the bar, I figured I might as well try another sample of the digital nomad life. See if you can spot the cat.

Having finished my refreshment, I caught up with Munroe; we returned the hotel for a few hours of work.

One of the only remaining (very) touristy things I wanted to do was to hit the Heineken Experience, conveniently only about 1/2 a mile from the hotel. It was open until 7:30 PM, as I recall, and we were able to book tickets for the 5:45 PM time slot without any trouble.

We collected our third adventurer for the evening and ventured forth for the night. It was just starting to rain lightly as we got to the Heineken Experience (henceforth "HE").

The Experience commenced with a short guided tour and a history lesson.

The HE is the site of the original brewery, before they moved it out of Amsterdam to further expand the brewery. They kept all of the kettles/tuns/tanks, which are perfect as bright-and-shiny crowd-pleasers. 

After that, it got a bit weird. There was a sort of... "media experience", in which you see how the process goes from the perspective of the beer itself.

We also had the option to customize a personal bottle, for a small fee. We declined.

Munroe and I did try the DIY karaoke video, which was a virtual bicycle ride around the city.

I don't speak any Dutch, but I put all of the captions from the video into Google Translate:

When spring comes I will send you

Tulips from Amsterdam

When spring comes I will pick for you

Tulips from Amsterdam

When I come back I'll bring you

Tulips from Amsterdam

[One] thousand yellow, [one] thousand red

Wish you the very best

What my mouth can't say,

Say tulips from amsterdam

The last part of the HE was to enjoy two small beers at the end, in a club-like setting, complete with loud music, flashing lights, and sticky floors.

On our way out, we visited the merch store, naturally.

It was almost 7:30 PM when we left the HE, without really having a plan for dinner. In hindsight, that was a bit of a mistake, because it was Friday night and everywhere we tried was 100% booked.

We wandered the streets of De Pijp for almost an hour, looking at menus, making inquiries, and debating options. Eventually, we settled on a Turkish/Mediterranean restaurant where we could sit at 8:30 PM.

It was after 9 by the time we got our entrees, but it was worth the wait.

After dinner, we returned the hotel briefly, then Munroe and I went back out, took the metro to Central Station, and wandered down towards the... party area.

We meandered around the canals for a bit, but it was crowded and somewhat windy so we didn't dwell for too long.

Instead, we found some quiet streets and strolled along the canals, vaguely headed back towards the Dam / Rokin metro station. The city is truly beautiful at night.

It was probably around 11:30 PM when we got back to the hotel. We tidied up a bit and organized our bags for the morning.

Tomorrow, we'll check out some time around 10 AM, hop the metro to Amsterdam Zuid, then take the intercity train out to Schiphol airport. Our flights are all around 1 PM. I did receive an email (this morning) from Icelandair about some impending weather in Reykjavik, offering to change flights to a day earlier/later (ominous foreshadowing).

Or, if you prefer the Icelandic version (which was above the English translation, in the message):

I'm not sure why my mail client decided to spellcheck it...?