Amsterdam Trip — Blogish

We took our time in the morning, we had a long day yesterday, and our entry time for the Rijks Museum wasn't until 11:45. We picked up a coffee and pastry along the way and enjoyed our walk over to the museum. We spent more of our afternoon strolling and enjoying the city again. The weather had been calling for rain but cleared up a wonderful surprise. In the evening, we had the Heineken Experience scheduled; this was loads of quirky fun.

Coffee

• Morning Coffee: A second visit to Scandinavian Embassy today. In addition to coffee, we snagged one of their last two very popular cinnamon rolls.

Food & Drink

• Scandinavian Embassy. Worth mentioning this again. The cinnamon rolls had been pegged as something we wanted to try out. It was tasty, and I enjoyed the smaller size.

• Wok to Walk. Another chain, fast food restaurant. As much as I like to hit local, nice food, it was nice to grab something quick but fresh. I often lack veggies on vacation, and I was able to get a pile of them in this quick stir fry. Super satisfying!

• Original Stroppwafels. We stopped by the Albert Cuyp market just around the corner from our Air BnB. I, in fact, enjoyed this original stroopwafel more than the jam-packed one from earlier in the week. I also grabbed a package of smaller stroopwafels to go!

• Heineken. Our tickets included two beers to be enjoyed at the end of the experience, and we also got a beer tasting during the tour. Heineken isn't new to us, but it was fun to enjoy them in this context.

• De Duvel. In keeping with our apparent tradition of an evening, patio beer to finish the night, we stopped by another cozy restaurant. Keeping with the theme, we both enjoyed a Duvel in the quaint, lantern and candle-lit patio.

Highlights

• Heineken Experience. I expected a typical brewery tour with history and the "how it's made" spiel. It was that and more. The Heineken experience was filled with quirky, unexpected, sometimes cheesy phases. This included a VR-type experience in which we all "became beer" and photo and video booth sections in which we recorded ourselves on green screens biking through Amsterdam. We laughed a lot and enjoyed our beer at the end.

• Rijks Museum. A museum is always a great rainy day activity. Eight hundred years of Dutch history and art filled a few hours for us. While historical art is incredible, it was also fun to note that in some ways, things have not changed. While now it is on Instagram, we are still capturing moments with our friends, dogs, and photo (then paint) worthy food in the many years that have passed. Another fascinating part was getting a chance to see "Operation Night Watch" in action. This is the largest research and conservation project ever for Rembrandt's masterpiece. Read more about this fantastic project here.

• Heinen Delftware. I had read about and watched some videos of Delft Blauw pottery and was interested in checking it out. While we didn't get to see it in the making it was nice to visit a shop and browse the beautiful designs. We also always enjoy picking up little souvenirs for our families, this was a perfect choice. We also took this chance to buy our annual Christmas tree ornament.