Amsterdam

[slark01]

Been invited to a double 40th birthday weekend in Amsterdam, nice you might think, however I don't enjoy drugs at all and the red light district does not interest me. So what else is there to do in good ole Amsterdam, any ideas appreciated. :-)


Ste.

[Tim in Belgium]

Van Gogh Museum, House of Bols, Jordaan area is nice for restaurants/bars, Anne Frank's house, Nemo http://www.e-nemo.nl/en/?id=1

etc... loads to see/do:

http://www.iamsterdam.com/

[slark01]

Cheers Tim :-)

Ste.

[JamesMio]

Also, the south end of the city is a really nice place to just go for a wander, down Damrak near Rembrantsplein (sp?). It's almost certainly worth a walk through the red light district, purely for the experience of it all, but there's much more to Amsterdam than that.

You'll enjoy it.

[SV Mad]

Been about 5 times work. Fantastic place - and I've never done the drug / red light thing. I'd recommend it to my mother.

[shonadoll]

Take a canal boat cruise, they're regular and cheap and very informative.

[muzikill]

Boat cruise deffo. And try some food most of it is very good as it caters for those with the 'munchies'. I went to the gallery that had the painting called 'The night watch' simply incredible. And walk around a bit especially around the area where there is a big square, dunno the name of it.

[Biker Biggles]

Been about 5 times work. Fantastic place - and I've never done the drug / red light thing. I'd recommend it to my mother.

Well I call that rank hypocrisy:smt018
You dont do the drug/red light thing yourself but recommend it for your mother?;)

[great_kahn]

Heinieken experience is good way to spend an hour to two.

[Mrs DJ Fridge]

Take a canal boat cruise, they're regular and cheap and very informative.

+1 to that

[slark01]

Great guys, thank you. While they're getting wasted, i'll be jaunting around.
Heinieken experience sounds interesting.

Ste.

[Tim in Belgium]

Heinieken experience sounds interesting.

.

Go on the ride that simulates being a beer bottle. Excellent.

[Stenno]

Going again in June for... blimey... 6th time I think? I love the place.

There are numerous churches around which are worth a visit if they're you're thing. The Oude Kerk often has the World Press Photo exhibition too.

The Verzetsmuseum which is about the second world war in Holland. They have English translations inside.

Rent a bike. Your feet will kill you if you walk all over Amsterdam sightseeing whereas you can cycle around for the day for about £10-15 which sounds a lot but you'll see so much. One day the missus and I cycled about 20km along the Amstel river to Amstelhoek. Lovely if the weather is good. We visited Amstelpark on the way back too, very eerie park.

If you want to see some working windmills, take a 10min train from Central to Zaanse Schans. Nice place to visit and costs a couple of euros to go in one of 3 or 4 working windmills open.

Vondelpark is worth a visit.

A couple of my favourite bars are De Beiaard on Spui and also on Nieuwmarkt. Then there is In De Wildeman on Nieuwezijds Kolk.

[Tim in Belgium]

Free trams, well they were, ;)

Now they've an oyster card type system and the "I'm an ignorant foreigner," doesn't work so well.

[Drew Carey]

If you fancy getting out and having a nice walk round forest etc, just outside Amsterdam city centre - on boarder with Amstelveen is the Amsterdamse Bos. It is where the Olympic rowing was held many moons ago.

The forest is full of tracks, people walking dogs, horses having some exercise. There is also a great bar to have a beer and watch the world go by at the edge of the lake. They have a go-ape type thing on site & bicyle hire too. Best of all however is that in the middle of the forest is a Pancake Hause - where as the name suggests they serve nothing but ammmmmmaaaaazing pancakes of every variety.

My bro lived in Amstelveen for 3 years until recently and we visited a bit. Loads to do whilst skipping out the coffee houses & red light district. As Tim mentioned - the Nemo museum is ace, which is their science musuem. Even walking round all the streets is a nice experience.

Have fun.

[slark01]

This is sounding better and better, thanks guys :-)

Ste.

[Stenno]

Oh and if you do reach De Beiaard, sit yourself down outside, especially the one at Spui, grab yourself a beer and order some kaastengels (contains cheese) and watch the world go by.

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/3430/damyk.jpg

[-James-]

Vondlepark is a nice place for a wander, and it gets you away from the busier part of the centre.

Try to find a decent Indonesian restaurant if you like asian food. Indo food is awesome in Amsterdam due to their colonial past, and decent Indo food in the UK is very hard to find! (outside of London)