Ending and beginnings

After what was the longest month of our lives, Greg and I finally made it to our beereuropean trip!

We took the redeye flight from JFK to Amsterdam on aer lingus and over all the flight was great.  We were so exhausted from the last couple months that we slept whenever they were't giving us food, or trying to sell duty free products.  

During a quick layover in Dublin at 9:30am I  got to try my first Irish Guinness. Amazing.  I hate Guinness in the states but it is nothing like it is in Ireland.  Smooth, creamy and the malt finish is beautiful.  Finally after a quick flight from Dublin to Amsterdam we arrived in Holland around 2pm, about 10 hours after we left in NYC.

We took the first train to central station after we cleared customs, which consisted of a sign saying "nothing to declare" and a series of doors which led right out of the airport.  We were so shocked we thought for a minute that we had done something wrong.  We thought for a second...should we got back? Naw...so we headed into town.

The little hotel was only a 5 minute walk from the station, right at the beginning of the red light district.  We threw our stuff down in our tiny little room on the top floor, with 3 flights of the steepest stairs I have ever seen, and headed out to see the city. Our first stop was right across the street to a little pub called Busters.  We had a great chat with the Englishman who owned the bar and got some great advice about sights and a few breweries we should check out.

 We grabbed a quick bite and headed over to De Bekeerde Suster.  They had a tiny little copper kettle in the back which they brewed beer for all of their 
Locations.  The bartender was hilarious.  He saw Greg taking pictures of the equipment and promptly poured us 3 tasters of their beers.  

Blond ros - a  light blond ale 6.2%
White Ros - a delicious wit beer with light notes of citrus and a delicate head. 4.9%
De Manke Monnik - a belgian style triple,  sweet and malty 7.2%
(supposedly the Manke Monnik is the limping monk.  I have copy of the story but it is all in Dutch.)

We continued our walk along the red light district while also trying to avoid the fast moving bicyclists.  The city is beautiful with tinie tiny streets, allys and a canal that runs through most of the city.

Fortuitously we stumbled upon a place called Beer Temple and stopped in for a pint. Turns out it was an American beer bar with all kinds of our favorite beers available from back home.  We chatted with the bartender and a few of the other customers. Another lucky thing for Greg and I...almost everyone in holland knows english.  Thank goodness...our Dutch is terrible.

We successfully  found the best burger in amsterdam (on advice from the beer temple bartender) and decided to call it a night.  Even the noise from all the foot traffic didn't bother us. We were that tired.

FRIDAY

We had a free breakfast downstairs at our hotel and the receptionist told us that he could make us reservations for the Van Gogh museum.  Finally after trying to figure out how the ticketing system worked, we got on the tram out to the museum.  

The museum is beautiful but very modern looking. Cinderblocks and a Getty inspired  metal building behind the main exhibit.  It was fantastic to see paintings I had only seen in books and read more about Van Gogh's crazy life. 

On our way back to pick up our baggage at the hotel we decided to walk instead of taking the tram.  Amsterdam is a relatively small town so it only took us about 40 mins to walk from the southern part of Amsterdam to the northern part where our hotel and the central station was.  On the way Greg ate some Dutch herring with onions.  I wanted to run away but he said it was tasty.  

Since we decided we would need some down time after august we booked a week in a national park about 2hours outside of Amsterdam central.  We are currently staying in our own little bungalow with nothing really to do but ride bikes, hike and relax with all the other Dutch families and retired couples.  It is a very large compound with over 400 bungalows.  So far we are the only Americans.  We will be resting up over the next week in preparation for our 10 days in Belgium. 

More to come.

Missy and Greg