Day 4: Museums of all varieties!

This is a tale of two very different kinds of experiences. These two works of art really sum up our day perfectly.

Our day started with a trip to Pancakes Amsterdam where we shared two giant Dutch pancakes: one with bacon and apple, the other with banana, almond and chocolate. Yum!!

Then, it was time to see the Anne Frank House. This is a must see in Amsterdam. We both vividly
remember reading her diary and seeing the actual space where she wrote is very special. This was
actually Alison's third visit (she also visited at ages 4 and 19) and it was still a profound and new experience. We both really appreciated the audio tour, but it was very crowded and we were at a standstill a lot of the tour. Suggestion: book first time of day. We went about 1.25 hours after it opened and it was already difficult to navigate. No pictures allowed here, so you'll just have to go for yourself.

Next up was a trip to Gassan Diamonds to see how they make/shape diamonds. Interesting stuff, but definitely not the highlight of the day.

After the diamond adventure, we went to Febo to get a snack from a coin operated machine. And then we picked up a big yogurt covered waffle because we'd be seeing them for the last day and couldn't resist anymore.

Now it was museum time!! We ended up buying a Museumcard because we were doing so many museums in Holland over the next two days. It was a deal! First up was a quick trip to the Rijksmuseum. It's a beautiful building and is huge, but this was just a quick stop for us this time as it didn't have our favorite period of art. We still saw some great stuff though including the famous Night 

Watch you saw above. 

After our quick art museum stop it was off to a different kind of museum: The Heineken Experience. This place was great and immersive! We got to see their horses, take a ride, play games, and hangout in their rooftop bar. We really enjoyed it even though it's a big tourist trap. 

To continue this theme, next up was the House of Bols Experience. This time we learned all about this liquor brand and how it is made and then got to pick a speciality cocktail at the end! There was also some sort of ride in this one and we got to smell 30 some odd liquids and touch the ingredients. It was amazing! 

Next up was a quick stop for dinner at Bouf. We had a lamb burger and a chicken curry dish. Both were yummy! 

We had one more alcohol "museum" to visit before we went back to the more sophisticated version. This one was the Brouwerij 't IJ, a brewery. It was adorable and very Dutch looking! Michael enjoyed three small beers here while Alison ran an errand to buy some cheese! Yes, Austin folks if you want to try some great Amsterdam cheese...just stop by in the next few weeks!

Our evening out ended with two more museums: Stedelijk and the Van Gogh Museum. Both are open until 10 on Fridays and it was a great time to go! No lines! No crowds! So enjoyable. We really liked 

both museums.

Then it was back to the hotel (via the I Amsterdam sign) to do some laundry and prep for our next adventure!