Amsterdam Day 2

Norman:


The second day we woke up feeling better than the first and decided to check out the more southern parts of central Amsterdam, namely the Museum District and Vondelpark. The Museum District is actually my favourite part of Amsterdam, both in terms of attractions and overall beauty of the city. And of course, as tourists, we had to take the picture in front of the the big Amsterdam letters!

The tram rails greenery

Easy part was getting up... hard part is getting down

From then, we went to the Van Gogh Museum. Though I was skeptical that I'd be able to apprepciate art, reading the museum's description and giving context to the artwork allowed me to appreciate the genius behind Vincent Van Gogh. Most interestingly was his evolution as an artist, and his technique and style advanced rapidly over the short 10 years he was an artist. Who knows, maybe now I will become an art aficionado when I grow up.

Park outside of the Van Gogh Museum

Afternoon Dutch snack.. Stroopwafel 

Afterwards, we continued enjoying the weather and went to Vondelpark to line on the grass and soak up some sun. Vondelpark is quite pretty, and the park was quite packed the day we went. I bought a beer, laid on the grass and Mandy and I enjoyed the sunshine that Amsterdam seldom receives.

We then had plans to check out Albert Cuyp market, but we relaxed for too long at Vondelpark, and unfortunately by the time we got there, many of the stands were closing. We decided to head back to Dam Square, check out some of the sights there. Mandy ordered a "small" order of fries as an appetizer before dinner, but and it turned out to get a gigantic portion that both Mandy and I could not finish together.  We killed more time by wandering Amsterdam and hanging out at another coffee shop, but Amsterdam was starting to bore us. We decided to head home, rest up for a little and then go back into the city to check out Red Light District at night.

We had dinner at Wagamama because we were craving noodles (poor choice...), but wandering Red Light District at night was very interesting. We had some fun checking out the prostitutes, and even hanging back to see if anyone would solicit them (we noticed a few people bargaining and entering). Afterwards, went back and pack to move on to our next destination.

The red lit blockade goes up everyday at 7pm to prevent cars from entering the Red Light District

Overall impression of Amsterdam is that it is pretty cool in a sense that it's the only place where there are coffee shops and prostitutes on display, but two days in Amsterdam was already a little bit too long.