Amsterdam🚲🌈🧀

In November my parents and I spent the weekend in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands and is known for its canals, cheese, bridges, bicycles, and its slanted, gabled houses. The city prides itself on its liberal and tolerant attitude, and this applies to its thriving LGBTQ+ community, soft drugs, and prostitution.

We were able to pack a lot into a few days, and we checked out the following:

Rijksmuseum: the national museum of the Netherlands. Home to Rembrandt’s largest and most iconic piece, “The Night Watch,” as well as Vermeer’s “The Milkmaid.” Both representations of Dutch Baroque art style, which played with light and shadow and portrayed its figures in action as opposed to posed/static.

Red Light District: a touristy area full of brothels, sex shops and sex workers.

Albert Cuyp Market: a popular street market that originated in 1905 and is popular among locals and tourists alike.

Anne Frank House: the actual house where Anne Frank and her family went into hiding during World War II, now turned into a museum full of her diaries. The modern museum surrounds the actual house and contains her diaries.

Van Gogh Museum: a Dutch art museum dedicated to the Dutch Post-Impressionist works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries (like Gauguin and Monet) in the Museum.

Canal Tour: it was awesome to see a different perspective of Amsterdam from the water.

Coffee Shops: Interestingly, here “coffee shops” sell marijuana and cafes sell coffee.

Also, beware as bicycles have the right of way in Amsterdam. There are many bikes and they are moving fast!