Amsterdam Day 3: Heineken Brewery Tour and Hermitage/Van Gogh Museum

We decided today would be the day we would go on the Heineken Brewery Tour. It was something both Samantha and I really wanted to do. The factory doesn’t open until 11 am so we got to sleep in a little again (so nice) and then we bought tickets from our hostel because they sold tickets that were reduced or line skipping. We got breakfast at a new place, right down the street from our hostel and I got an egg sandwich on wheat bread with tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, and some salt and pepper. It was delicious. I also got my daily coffee; can’t live without it.

We took the metro to Central Station and then the tram to the Heineken factory. Buying the tickets ahead of time was so nice because we got right in. The tour was self-guided too so that was also nice. Heineken had their factory all decorated with Christmas stuff so it was a great time to go.  The first part of the tour was just kind of a Heineken family history lesson about the company.

            The next part was the brewery room where you got to taste the beer in the first step of the process. It tasted really sweet and wheat-y, kind of like soggy cereal after its been sitting in milk for a while. After the brewery room there was this interesting simulation thing were “you were the beer” and they put us in this room and made us stand on this platform that moved and we went through the whole process that the beer would go through, and we felt everything (they turned a heater on when the beer was being pasteurized, they sprayed water on us when we were being brewed, ect, ect). It was interesting and creative. I was not expecting that.

            There were also a bunch of random parts of the tour like a DJ booth thing, and all these photos and digital postcards you could send. It was fun.

            At the end of the tour you got two free beers and you could also have a bartender teach you how to pour the perfect beer. There were a bunch of annoying Spanish men in front of us so we ended up not doing the beer pouring. The drinks were so good though; being factory fresh and they served them ice cold. I had a Heineken a week earlier and it was so bad I was asked Samantha if she actually wanted to do the tour but I think it ended up being one of the best things we did when we were in Amsterdam so I was really glad we did it.

          

Heineken Experience

Merry Christmas!

Me and Samantha, posing

more posing

Spanish!

The four ingredients in Heineken

DJ-ing with my Spanish boyfriend, can't even escape Spain in a foreign country

Canal boat ride?

Some cool new heineken cans that change in black lights

Proost! That's cheers in Dutch

In Love with Vincent 

Christmas at the Heineken Factory

  When the Heineken Tour was over I really wanted to go to the Hermitage Museum, which is already supposed to be a good museum, but it was also housing most of the painting from the Van Gogh Museum as it undergoes renovations. It was kind of expensive (about 18 euros) but I think it was worth it. I think I’ve seen a few Van Gogh’s before but this collection was amazing. His use of paint and colors is astounding. He puts so much paint on the canvas in so many layers, it made me really want to touch the paintings just to feel the texture. I felt kind of bad dragging Samantha there because I know she doesn’t really care that much about art and it was a really expensive museum but I think (hope) she liked it too. 

Classy seating area in the Hermitage Museum

After the long day at the Heineken and then going straight to the Hermitage we were both worn out and really hungry since we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. We both wanted to try a dutch pancake because they are sopposed to be a delicacy there so Samantha asked the lady working at the Hermitage if there was any local place she recommended. She happened to be the perfect person to ask because she used to work at a pancake place and gave us direction there. We kind of took our time walking there, when in a few shops, walked in a vintage store and I got an 8 euro 80's giraffe tunic and Samantha got this amazing sequin jacket and then when we finally made it there it was full. We were really sad but we decided to just find another place because they were everywhere. We ended up going to this place near the Anne Frank Huis called Sara's pancakes. They had an amazing menu, we both labored over our decision of what to get. I ended up with a banana, caramel and whipped cream pancake and Samantha got a banana, chocolate sauce and whipped cream pancake. We were both in heaven.

Coffee with Whipped cream

My pancake, what a beaut

me with my giant pancake, I still ate the whole thing

After the pancake we went back to our hostel to get ready to go out. However, once both of us got back to the hostel we realized that neither of us actually wanted to go out but we also didn't want to let the other person down so we both pretended like we did. When we both realized we were fine staying in I think we were both relieved. We ended up just watching a few movies with the girls at our hostel. It was like a GNI (girl's night in) everynight we were there but I thought it was awesome. All the girls were really nice and almost all of them were study abroad students from the states. One of the best things about studying abroad is just meeting new and interesting people. You have to be a little bit adventureous to spend at least a whole semester (or more) in a foreign country without friends or family so all the girls were really cool.