At the behest and via the courtesy of the Netherlands Board of Tourism, Jaunted went to Amsterdam to check out what is happneing in AMS right now. Tough gig, we know. Remember, we do this all for you. Enjoy.
We stopped into this bar after a long, cold and weary tour of the city on our first day. But walking into this place instantly brightened our moods. The owners of the place are an elderly couple: a woman who goes by Blonde Sien and her husband, whose name we did not catch (center of picture). They have been running Café Rooie Nelis for 50-something years, which is a lot considering the place opened altogether in 1937.
The duo are warm and friendly and not in the least bit camera shy. The place is so popular that just the week before we were there, the prime minister of the Netherlands stopped in during a press trip as he used to drink beers here while he was in university.
Plastered on the walls are tons of family mementos and press clippings. And even though it smells like stale cigarettes, you must stop here for a traditional shot of jenever, the Dutch gin.
Visit Trippist for more information on the city's nightlife scene.
At the behest and via the courtesy of the Netherlands Board of Tourism, Jaunted went to Amsterdam to check out what is happneing in AMS right now. Tough gig, we know. Remember, we do this all for you. Enjoy.
Coming from Los Angeles, getting around Amsterdam has to be one of the greatest joys we've ever experienced in public transportation. Even better than the singing doo-wop group aboard the NYC subways that only know the words to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight."
At the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, you can take a train to Centraal Station, which is about 20 minutes long. From Centraal station you can use either the tram or the bus system to get you where you need to go. We spent most of our time on the trams, which are easy to figure; the tracks where you tram will arrive are well-marked, even listing how much longer the wait is.
For us, we relied heavily on the Jburg Tram, #26 which shuttled us in and out of the Lloyd Hotel. You can buy a ticket for the bus and trams at Centraal Station, which is called a Strippenkaart and has about 15 rides on it for about 7 Euros. Just be sure to do this before you get on the tram or bus. Otherwise you will earn the ire of everyone trying to cram on the tram before it closes.
Read more to find out how most people get around in Amsterdam
At behest and via the courtesy of the Netherlands Board of Tourism, Jaunted went to Amsterdam to check out what is happneing in AMS right now. Tough gig, we know. Remember, we do this all for you. Enjoy.
We have been traveling more since our trip to Amsterdam so it's been a bit hard to sit down and get our thoughts on the trip down on paper. But we promise to bring you the rest of the city scene for the rest of the week.
On our second day in Amsterdam we visited the Anne Frank House on Prinsengracht. The house is now a museum to the Secret Annex where Anne Frank and her family spent over two years hiding during the Holocaust. The original building, which was the Opekta warehouse, has been preserved while a building next door was bought, modernized and contains the museum's offices, cafe and a multimedia space.
As for touring the Secret Annex, it is an emotional experience and will have a different impact for everyone. For us, it was just amazing to see how much was preserved, not to mention how difficult it must have been for eight people to live in such small quarters for over two years.
At behest and via the courtesy of the Netherlands Board of Tourism,
Jaunted went to Amsterdam to check out what is happening in AMS right
now. Tough gig, we know. Remember, we do this all for you. Enjoy.
One of the highlights of our Amsterdam tour was the Heineken Experience in the old Heineken brewery. That sounds sad but how can you not like the Heineken brewery?
You can "tour" the brewery learning about the history of Heineken and its founding members but honestly, that stuff is boring. We skipped through all the museum type stuff and the How Beer is Made signs and instead headed to the first bar stop to get ourselves a drink. Your admission ticket gives you three drink chips, the first one you can use here. After you down your small pint, you can do some more exploring of the building including stopping in a room where you can watch all of the Heineken ads ever made from a space pod type of chair.
You can also bang on the drums made out of Heineken kegs as we found one pre-pubescent doing. Yes, underage children are allowed in with a parent. (Note to the woman who brought her four daughters all under the age of 8 including the newborn, that was not necessary.)
The second and last bar stop is where you can use the remaining of your drink chips as you groove to disco hits which is apparently really big at the brewery. And on your way out you can hit up the souvenir store in case you decide you really want some Heineken bathrobes.
Insider Tip: Take the 16, 24 or 25 trams from Amsterdam Centraal Station to the Heinekenplein stop. Also, if you are looking to find American frat boys, this is a good spot.
At behest and via the courtesy of the Netherlands Board of Tourism,
Jaunted went to Amsterdam to check out what is happneing in AMS right
now. Tough gig, we know. Remember, we do this all for you. Enjoy.
We know you're dying to see our pics from the Red Light District in Amsterdam but these lovely ladies of the night don't allow their picture to be taken. Although, maybe if you slipped them some Euros they will oblige.
We were able to take a pic of the Prostitute Information Center which serves as both an information center for prostitutes and the public. You can learn about the "business"--not so much how to get in it as how it works--which is all legalized and highly regulated from the mirrors and alarms outside the brothel doors for protection to the taxes prostitutes have to pay. The place also offers Sunday morning walking tours which may sound paradoxical but so is the fact that many prostitute windows are next to churches. If you're not brave enough to enter a brothel yourself then you can visit the PIC which showcases a replica of a window brothel where you can pick up a regular sort of souvenir instead of the kind prostitutes may give you.
And just so you know, there are women of all ages in the business. Don't expect pretty young things in every window like we did.
There's more to Amsterdam then the Red Light District, so check out Trippist for other things to do, like the Sex Musuem.
At behest and via the courtesy of the Netherlands Board of Tourism,
Jaunted went to Amsterdam to check out what is happneing in AMS right
now. Tough gig, we know. Remember, we do this all for you. Enjoy.
Our Amsterdam high has worn off and we're back today reporting on all that we saw and did. We spent our first few hours in Amsterdam checking out our hotel, the Lloyd Hotel, which is a few miles from the center of town on the Oostelijke Handelskade, a little island created in the late 19th century to accomodate steamships coming into the port.
Then we headed out for a guided walking tour of the city and found that Amsterdam is surprisingly walkable. You can definitely cover most important parts of the city by foot. Just try to visit when the weather's warm as we were unfortunate to have cold, windy and rainy weather.
That's why we ducked into De Bakkerwinkel (The Baker's Shop) just off the Red Light District for tea and pie which hit the spot. Yup, we got another bakery tour for ya. The place is a little bit like what you would find in an independent coffee shop, in the states of course. As you know, Amsterdam's coffee shops have a very different meaning. There's a bit of eclectic furniture like wooden tables and fabric-covered chairs, along with living room lamps and floral wall-paper. But its all very cozy.
As for the fare, obviously this place sells delicious bread but also on the menu are salads, soups, sandwiches and desserts. We tried the apple pie (on the right of the plate) and our fellow travelers sampled the chocolate and carrot cakes.
We hit up the Bakkerwinkel on Warmoesstraatt but there are a few other locations throughout the city as well as in nearby Rotterdam and Utrecht.
HotelChatter editor/Jaunted editor-at-large Juliana Shallcross is currently wrapping up her whirlwind tour of Amsterdam, courtesy of the Netherlands Board of Tourism. We'll be giving you a day to get all the pot jokes out of your system, so that you might appropriately comment on her reports. We'll have those for you starting tomorrow, but until then, here's a preview.
Above is a picture snapped at Schiphol Airport. Though they don't appear in the picture, airport security guards at Schiphol apparently ride around on Segway Personal Transporters. Juliana spotted some renegade staffers on their scooters, but they rode so fast and furiously in pursuit of official scooter business that they couldn't be caught on camera. Not as elusive, however, was the glorious assortment of beauty products upon a KLM flight--you can catch that picture after the jump.
Juliana also reports on this nugget of irony from the gates of AMS: "Right when you get off the plane, the airport says its a no-smoking airport but then there' s a bar in the terminal where people are puffing away." Stay tuned for more. In the meantime, you can visit Trippist for more on the Amsterdam scene.
0 Comments - Add Yours
by juliana
