june 13

Previously: May 31, June 1, June 2, June 3, June 4, June 5, June 6, June 7, June 8, June 9, June 10, June 11, June 12

We are at the penultimate day of my journey.

The morning started with a visit to the Anne Frank House Museum. I'm not going to say much about this other than a) it's moving and b) the movie(s) is(are) pretty darn accurate. I'd seen many historical places on this trip; places where horrible things happened. But it all seemed real here. It was all so relatively recently. Powerful.

Once done we were off to buy Missy and Franklin an extra suitcase because they may have bought a lot of stuff on the trip.  

Maybe.

We went to 2department stores, both of which said they opened at 11, and had crowds forming outside, but neither of which were open at 11:15. We knew it was a 3day holiday weekend (Pinksteren aka Pentecost), but this only served to confuse us further. Here in the land of consumerism a 3day weekend means SALES and EARLY BIRD SPECIALS! None of this opening at lunch stuff. Speaking of... we got lunch and then did the quick suitcase purchase.

Then it was time for the Van Gogh Museum. So remember that holiday weekend I was talking about? Yeah... that made the lines for the museum uber long. Unfortunately, we got our wires crossed and I didn't pre-purchase tickets like M & F did. I was in no mood to wait over an hour just to get in, so I told them to go ahead and we'd meet up in an hour. During that time I walked around the museum district a bit, went into a diamond factory, and found a park that smelled distinctly like the ocean sound. Perplexing.

From there we walked about 1/2 mile to the "Heineken Experience."It's pretty much - as Missy pointed out - the Disney World of beer tours. This isn't an actual brewery, but more of a museum taking you through the history of Heineken and the beer-making process. There are also various exhibits and rides and videos and things to entertain you. PLUS: beer drinking. Now that I'm looking back on the pictures, it's all kind of alien-looking:

 

Once sufficiently buzzed*, we spent the remainder of the afternoon just hanging out in the city. From there it was dinner and then back to the room, fairly early, because we all had to be up early for our flights back to the States. And I was NOT going to be late for this particular ride.

Quick note: I took 2pairs of shoes with me - toms and sneakers - which I probably wore equal amounts on the trip. My toms, though, were wrecked by the end. Here they are in their dirty glory (in poor Heineken light)... I felt so homeless:

(Once home, a toss in the wash fixed them right up. Hooray for canvas shoes.)

All June 13 photos (a final thanks to Franklin!):

Up next: Homeward bound.

* Everyone gets 2+ beers, plus Franklin and I** drank most of Missy's.
** I may have been the only one that was actually affected.