My two full days in Amsterdam I think deserve special post, for each day. So here I go 🙂 . For our second day after our arrival we have proposed to visit a list of museums, using several guides that we have collected the previous day at info-points (I suggest to gather these tourist-guide booklets/fliers, they contain a lot of info).
Our first target was Museumplein, Amsterdam’s square of museums. Out of the four museums of Museumplein, we have first visited the Rijksmuseum (the Dutch National museum – ticket price: €11.00, no cellphones or photos allowed). Most of the exhibits in this museum are works of great dutch artists, the most famous of them being Rembrandt, having also one of his greatest masterpieces, the The Night Watch exposed.
The next museum we have visited, was the Van Gogh Museum, a museum dedicated to the famous dutch painter (ticket price €12.50, no photos). Although I am not a big fan of his works, I could find out a lot about his life and about the people he was surrounded with in his lifetime. It is worth a visit, though I feel the price/value ratio of the Rijksmuseum is higher (I just liked it more… 😛 ).
The third museum to visit was the Diamond Museum, (ticket price: €7.50, photos without flash are allowed). Although photos were allowed, I was not very impressed with this museum. If one really does not know much about diamonds, then it provides a lot of info, but… On the other hand the crown-collection of the museum was quite interesting.
Next to the Diamond Museum lies Coster Diamonds, one of the oldest diamond polishing workshops which is still operational. Here we have received a tour-guide for free. We were actually quite surprised when we were greeted by her, in Romanian (because before entering we have completed a questionnaire of who we are/where we’re from). We were guided through the factory as well as through the diamond exhibitions. I do not know why, but I constantly had the feeling that our guide was trying to be quick enough to just get through with the business and escape from us (especially after it got obvious, as if it wasn’t before, that we will not spend thousands of euros buying their precious diamonds… 🙂 ). Anyway we learned stuff about polishing diamonds, so it is worth a visit 😉 .
The next thing we have visited, which was quite cool was the House of Bols a great experience of taste, smell and of course history: the history of the Bols liqueur. The entrance fee here was €11.50, but this included a cocktail of our choice and we were also allowed to taste different flavors of Bols. It is a quite cool place, don’t miss it: it is right across the street from the Van Gogh Museum’s main entrance.
Next we went to eat something, as we were already starving, and our liqueur tasting experience was endangering our visit to Heineken Experience. We sat down at one of the many cafe’s and ordered something to eat. The food, as it proved to be very common in Amsterdam, was plentiful and delicious. We could barely move after it.
Actually the huge lunch got to be the real danger which made us postpone our visit to the Heineken Experience to the other day: we decided to visit the Anne Frank House that evening. This house is a museum dedicated to a Jewish girl, who wrote his very famous diary here while hiding from the Nazis. Usually there is quite a long line in front of it, so we could consider ourselves lucky to wait only about 10 minutes before getting in. (I would advise anyone to go in the evening, there is much more chance of actually getting in). The entry ticket price is €8.50 for adults and it is again, worth the money. The rooms are unfurnished, but a lot of pictures, miniature models and videos present the arrangement of the house in those days. Also there are a lot of videos with interviews and stories about Anne’s life.
Before exiting the museum, do not miss the Free 2 Choose hall, where you can sit down, watch interesting and important decisions of our recent history, and the vote: what’s your opinion? It is actually quite interesting to see what other people vote and have voted over time 🙂 .
We had a little more time after the Anne Frank House, and as we were headed back towards the city center, we stopped at the Torture Museum (€7.50) completely worthless, and in the Hash Marihuana Hemp Museum and Gallery (€7.50): this was a bit better and we were allowed to take photos 🙂 .
So… nine place in one day and a LOT of walking… I think it was quite a performance 🙂 . The next day, however, I think was a bit better….
