Amsterdam

We started our second-to-last day having breakfast with the Candells, and then we headed to Amsterdam via the InterCity train, which takes about 15 minutes. From the central train station, we got on a local metro to take us close to the Heineken brewery. It was a somewhat drizzly day, and we had a scheduled tour of the brewery at 1:30. So, we walked around a bit, past a “cheese bar”

and found an Irish pub where we had lunch, and then headed to the brewery for our tour.

Apparently, this original brewery building has been essentially a museum and tourist attraction since 1988ish, when the city of Amsterdam told Heineken that they would have to move as they were causing too much traffic with the trucks going in and out of the brewery. At that time, they built a huge new facility in Zoeterwoude. We learned that like Budweiser, Heineken still uses horses as brand ambassadors in their marketing.

We got to see their first international award,

and a series of different bottles they used over the decades,

and the brewhouse where the beer used to be brewed.

We had a quick lesson in beer tasting after a weird “ride” that had us in a variety of rooms with videos projected all around. Kinda gimmicky, in my opinion. We then got to walk through a gallery of advertising media, both printed and video, and a showcase of signed sports jerseys (soccer, mainly) from teams they sponsor. There were even goofy games to play.

After all that, we made it to the “Best ‘Dam Bar” (get it?) and were given a full pour of their flagship brew. Exit through the gift shop, of course. We got a personalized bottle of Heineken to bring home. Susan bought the extra feature on our tickets of going to the rooftop,

where there is another bar, the Heineken Studio, serving some test recipes that they are working on,

and up there, we also got some good views of the city,

and saw some evidence of someone creative being a bit bored while sitting up there next to the plants.

Our only other scheduled activity for the day was a canal tour, which started at 5:00, so we had some time to walk around the city a bit before that. The tour departed across from the famous Rijksmuseum, which we did not go into, but even from the outside it was super impressive.

The tour took 90 minutes and brought us all around the city (if I were clever, I would have brought my GPS to track where it went!), and the guide (Lon) gave us an overview of the history and culture of Amsterdam. It was well worth it.

After the tour, we walked back to the Amsterdam Centraal train station, by lots of little shops

by the Old Church and through a bit of the red light district, though it was too early for anyone to be out on display. A nice dinner at Loetje’s and then we got on the train back to Haarlem to end the day.