Amsterdam and Berlin

My trip has come to an end, and as usual, I’m behind on my posts 😉 Although I’m back in the US, I’ll be using my next two posts to reminisce on my final weeks in Europe. It was an amazing experience, and I’m so glad that I could take advantage of this opportunity to travel.

Amsterdam

After a long day of traveling from Marseille, we arrived in Amsterdam. As I noted in Lisbon and Marseille, we had a bit of a hiccup getting from Marseille to Amsterdam. Our flight was cancelled and we had to get a last minute train ticket, but we made it! We stayed in an Airbnb near Vondelpark. Our accomodations were nice and easily accessible via the tram system. Amsterdam was beautiful. It’s definitely on my list of favorite cities in Europe. We had 3 days there, but I could have easily stayed longer. The city’s architecture is gorgeous and I loved the laid back vibe of the city.

After settling in, we ventured out to find food and ended up getting Thai food. The food was cheap and delicious, always a good combo for me. After eating, we walked around a bit and tried to see the Anne Frank House, but realized that that probably wasn’t going to happen. If you ever think about going to Amsterdam and want to visit this museum, book your tickets online the day you book your flight. The tickets were completely sold out for the time slots during the day. Each evening, you can wait in line for in person tickets but the lines can be 2 or 3 hours long. I can definitely see myself coming back to Amsterdam, so I’ll catch the museum on the next trip.

The next morning we had a free walking tour which was great. In about 3 hours, our tour guide gave us a great background of the history of the city. He also helped us understand how the Dutch, especially those in Amsterdam, have become such open minded people. There are a lot of different cultures in the city and over the years, the superficial divisions among people became less important. The pragmatism of survival and prosperity outweighed the judgment of others just because their lifestyle happens to be different than yours.

We visited a few museums during our stay. After the walking tour, we went to the Heineken Experience. We aren’t big beer people, but seeing the history of the Heineken brand and it’s place in Amsterdam culture was interesting. We also visited the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Bols Factory. I would say my favorite was the Van Gogh Museum. They had a really interesting exhibit on Van Gogh’s final few years that dove into the deterioration of his mental state and the infamous “ear incident”. Of course, his earlier works were also on display. I was quite proud of myself because I set the audio guide tour to Spanish and understood 90% of what was said! The Bols Factory was fun and was more our speed than the Heineken Experience. Bols is an older Dutch brand and also contributes to the Amsterdam culture, but I’ll take a fruity cocktail over a beer any day and that’s what we got at the end of the Bols tour.

While walking around, we noticed a poster for a comedy show that probably sums up the international opinion of the upcoming US elections. In just about every city that I visited in Europe, I got questions about my opinions on Trump and essentially what are Americans thinking given that he’s made it thus far. The timing didn’t work out for us to make it to the show, but I’m sure it was hilarious 🙂

Berlin

After Amsterdam, we headed by train to Berlin. When we booked our trip, we didn’t know exactly what to expect from the city. Because of this, we only planned to stay for two nights. We spend our only full day there doing a free walking tour and then explored the city some more on foot. Berlin is actually where Sandeman’s started the free tour concept, and our tour guide was really great. She had lots of energy and gave us a great rundown of German and, more specifically, Berlin history. Berlin was very modern, which was a surprise to me. It makes sense given the damage it sustained during WWII, but it was still very interesting to see such a new city in Europe given how old a lot of European cities are.

Another interesting thing is how although the city is new, the history of the city is strongly preserved. The good and the bad parts of Berlin’s history are in the forefront, which was surprising. A lot of times, when atrocities happen, cities or countries tend to sweep them under the rug instead of owning that they happened (I’m looking at you America). In Berlin, the mistakes that led to the Holocaust and Communist regime are kept out of the shadows, seemingly in an effort to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself. The Holocaust Memorial was designed by an architect who gave no insight into the thought process behind the memorial. He wanted those that visited it to come to their own conclusions. The memorial is a sea of gray blocks of varying heights. To me, it reminded me of a cemetery, representing the lives lost during the Holocaust.

Although it was a short visit, Berlin was cool. Not my most favorite city on my trip, but definitely unique. After we left Berlin, it was setting in that my trip was really coming to an end. We only had two more stops, Prague and Santorini. Well, two and a half. More on that in my next post. Later gators!