I was asked to post this here with all the noobs that'll be checking it out for the Israel deal... Its an exerpt of a much longer tr.
Amsterdam- Amsterdam to me was like a best of all the cities I visited on my trip and was a great city to end my trip.
It has the beautiful canals of Venice, museums that can rival Florence, and classic Dutch architecture dating back to the 1600’s, that does not even come close to the architecture of Prague, but is unique in the sense that you won’t see such beautiful buildings of this style anywhere else.
The first thing we did was buy a three day unlimited tram, bus, and subway pass for 16 euro. The transit system is phenomenal in this city. Next we bought the yearly museum pass good for nearly all major museums in the Netherlands for 45 euro, and it lasts an entire year. It was well worth it because we would have spent more than that just our 1st day (most museums are either 14 or 8 euro)!
I will list the museums in order of what I liked:
-The Van Gogh museum has the biggest collection of Van Gough paintings in the world. I am biased towards Van Gogh partially because his bedroom is probably my favorite painting all time. None the less him and his contemporaries made undisputedly some of the most mesmerizing paintings in history. Be sure to see all the floors, I almost skipped the basement exhibit which is one of the most moving art displays I ever walked through, it puts you in a different world of nature, truly amazing.
-The Rijksmuseum with great paintings of mainly Dutch origin, do not miss the the nacht vatch is the most famous art display in Holland, it features Rembrandts largest and most famous work.
-The maritime museum is a GREAT museum for kids and adults alike with a pirate ship to walk through, and tons of other exhibits you can easily spend 2 hours here and not get bored.
-The Royal palace is only open when the queen is not there with foreign dignitaries. Be sure to check that its open before you go. The palace is exactly what you would expect, ornately decorated rooms and hallways. This comes with a free audio tour which is suggested being that there aren’t any signs as to what things are.
-The museum of resistance is all about the Dutch resisting the Nazis in WWII and about the Jews in WWII. It takes a good hour and half to do, I unfortunately didn’t have that much time but it was very interesting none the less.
-The Museum Geelvinck is an old Dutch house that is open to the public to walk through. It consists of a coach house and a main house with 6 different exquisite rooms. The thing I like most about this museum is you can sit on most of the furniture and it is just really relaxing to be in. If you need a place to chill for a bit and take in some of the most beautiful granite you’ll see in a house, this is your place.
-The Jood museum had some interesting artifacts. Especially a very beautiful megilah with illustrations on every column. The old shul is included in the Jood museum ticket so may as well go see it but it’s nothing to special, just old.
-The Foam museum was interesting and nice to walk through seeing the many different photo journalism displays. Not one of my favorite places though.
-The van loom museum is nice but a bit to regular type of art for my taste although the house it is in is quite nice to see. The Allard Pierson museum was a bit lame. It had a bunch of old objects from Egypt and Greece which I have seen a thousand different places before. If you are into artifacts from those times you may enjoy it otherwise don’t bother.
-The hermitage museum was the worst museum we went to on our trip. It was extremely plain mostly portraits and Christian paintings really advise not to bother going there.
-The Stejdlik museum was closed but they had a temporary space with 3 film exhibitions. No point in going until the full museum reopens.
-The Anne Frank house has massive lines if you plan on going make a reservation before through heir website. I do not see the big excitement about the house but that’s personal feelings so I won’t get into it.
-The Diamond museum was a total waste of time.
The most fun thing we did our entire trip must have been renting a paddle boat and driving the canals for 2 hours. We were having so much fun discovering birds’ nests with eggs in them and waving to everyone, the people of Amsterdam are so nice.
The flower market is nice I bought a beautiful orchid for my host there.
The kosher sandwich store sal-meijer has extremely unique tasting meats being that they are all handmade by the owner. He also has stupendous mustard for the sandwiches and mayo for the fries. I am completely sold on the mayo and fries concept. You must have a few sandwiches from here.
The pizza shop Pizza co. had pretty good pizza nothing amazing but nice to have fresh good pizza while traveling, also the fries were good.
There is one main kosher grocery store and a kosher bakery, they both sell Sheffa yogurt which is the most amazing yogurt/breakfast food I have ever had! It has fresh fruit in the bottom and delicious yogurt on top. This is an absolute must have!
The food I tried at the bakery was pretty awful, although a loaf of bread was cheap and good for sandwiches.
I did not go on the tour of the Heineken factory because it was 17 euro and didn’t seem even close to worth that price. Instead I tried a local brew in a bar called IJ brewery it was a very good beer.
Also a must have while you’re in Holland is jonge jenever which is just gin, but I have had gin in America and it tastes nothing like this stuff which is delicious.
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