Phoenix Gold Phorum

So my wife and I are looking at heading off to Amsterdam for 6 days in October for our anniversary. Anyone here been? Any tips or places that are a must see?

I know the red light district is now a thing of the past as they are trying to make the city a more family friendly tourist area. Also I know a large portion of the coffee shops are closed down due to new regulations.

I was there with my brother on a backpacking trip almost 15 yrs ago. IT was a great city, nice people and plenty to do besides smoking and tulips. There is the heinikens taste 10X better there and there is always the factory tour, ann frank museum and plent of other thinkgs to see before you take in a sex show...........

yum yum....Amsterdam....I hear they make terrific brownies

Red light still going strong last year when my parents were there. They took some interesting photos.

http://www.iamsterdam.com/en/visiting


I plan to make it there one day myself.......................

oh, and their burger kings taste a little better too for some strange reason...........

Are you getting a hotel or stayin at a hostel? We were doing the backpack thing and as we got off the train we were approached by someone asking if we needed accomodations. This was the norm and we never needed to look for a place to stay because of it. It was a funny little place that we were able to get our own room at, share a bathroom and I think it was $30 a night. It was great as it had a little living room on the 2nd fllor with a tv, kitchen and everything we needed from bongs to pipes. It was FREEKIN amazing to watch the girl cook my eggs and roll a perfect malboro lookin joint with one hand(no shit true story).

The house next to us was officially the slimmest building in town as the front of it was only a small door with three windows above it. Every 45 mins a canal tour boat would pull up to tell about the house and take some pics. Us being stoned to the bajeezus belt had a great time leaning out the window and waiving to the boat thinking they were lookin at up(paranoya!). I will never forget the look of the entire boat as they all waved back.

We got in that city at 11pm, threw our shit in our room after finding the girl mentioned above and were strolling the streets smoking a J by 11:30. If I can give you one word of advise get a map before you get a joint......... Highly advise you...........

We were there one year ago in June for 3 days. Let's see what I remember

- public transit is excellent. THere's trams going everywhere and they run often enough . I think a ticket is good for a few hours.

- We walked almost everewhere, its not that big a city. But yes, we also took the tram when it was far/we were tired.

- Train station has a tourist center & internet kiosk to look up "places of interest". I was able to "break out of it" I think just using CTRL O to open a URL and do a little google searching which was easier for me.

- Red light district still exists, we walked by a portion of it (all we saw were big fat African women, I was dissapointed, wife found it amusing).

- Sex musuem was a bit dissapointing (thank you internet), if you've surfed the web you wont' be shocked. Still ,for $5 go see it and spend 30 mins wandering its fun.

- Fries shop next to sex museum has great fries. While eating fries you'll notice 100 tourists see sex museum and pose for picture.

- Shopping is one street back from street with museum. Great Euro clothes (which fit me perfect) . Prices are god. I think you don't pay tax if you show your passport IIRC.

- Food overall was lame, dinner wasn't all that great at a few places. Deserts however were great, do not pass those shops by without pigging out

- Canal cruise. Sounds boring but do it. Wife wanted to do it so I did and was glad I did.

- Musuems: If that's your thing there's a ton of them. Art musuems and history are A-mazing. If you're interested ask and I'll find out the names of the ones we went to.


- Drugs: Not our thing but I looked. I swear I saw more people smoking up in Vancouver in 1999 than in Amsterdam 2008. A few coffee shops but its not "everywhere" like I expected.

Amsterdam is quite different to the rest of the big european cities. It's far more bourgeois than the likes of Paris. Lots of people go there expecting fancy architecture and culture, and are disappointed. The museums and attractions are only par with the rest of europe. On the other hand, if you want somewhere to go and relax, have some beers, people watch, or get stoned in beautiful canal parks, etc.... it's totally worth it. I love just aimlessly walking around the canals, and chatting it up with the weird folks that the city attracts. Lots of cool little shops there too.

Don't limit yourself to Amsterdam though. Holland is a beautiful country, and the culture outside of Amsterdam is very different. You can get anywhere on the train, for a couple bucks, and most places are within half an hour. In the neighboring towns you will pay half as much for pretty much everything. Utrecht, Rotterdam, den Haag, Haarlem... the whole "randstad" is full of gorgeous towns.

The red light district is far from dead, and most of the good coffeeshops are still there. They are just cracking down on the seedier places and organized crime, especially east european prostitution rings.

Even Amsterdam on its own would be difficult to take in in 6 days though... is there any way you can extend your stay?

And yeah Scott, the beer is so much fresher and better tasting over there. Gotta love it. Same thing goes for Germany, where beer flows like water. I don't think I've ever had a hangover drinking the "local" stuff there.

This thread is making me very excited. I will be there for 3 days this weekend, and after that it's off to the northern Dutch island Terschelling for two weeks. Then I am going to meet up with Nico for the third time in three years.

Excellent. Unfortunately we only have 6 days to spend there this time, but we will likely return at another point in time. Definetly plan to get stoned and do some wandering/people watching. Just enjoy. Also want to check out the red light district, van gogh museum, sex museum, anne frank house, ride the canal, and such. We definetly wanted to try to get to Rotterdam and Haarlem.

Thanks for the info guys!

I just remembered how fresh and sticky the pot was there. I was trying to break it up and that stuff stuck to everything! First my finger tips, them up to my 2nd knuckle, then I tried to brush it off with my palms(no good). If my brother were not there to help out I might have ended up licking my palms to get high ........ I am not above that but I prefer not to.

Don't forget to see the Vondelpark!!

I can never go!!!! Shit...that sucks as I've always wanted to see europe and I've got long lost family in norway. Have fun, smoke some primo for the fella's here that wish they were there. Pic's when you return!!!

Looking at staying at a hotel that overlooks Vondelpark. Also thinking about taking one day and doing a quick swing through Brussels and Antwerp. Just got a new digicam so I will make sure to show off the pics when we get back.....if we come back.

"a quick swing through brussels"?? I don't think so

Try one or the other, or take a day for each and then go back to Amsterdam for the flight home. Really, don't touch a rental car, train is the way to go. THALYS is a magic acronym for Belgium, you should also be able to do Cologne if you fancy it, it's around 2 hours IIRC.

And weather: October might be 20C, it's more likely to be grey and 5-10 degrees C.

Bret

I'll be in Amsterdam on a whirlwind tour of Europe with my wife in September. We have way too many places planned for just 2 weeks but we'll figure shit out.

Train FTW.

well, if you got questions, ask.... ns.nl is the dutch train site. THALYS is damned quick, ICE in Germany, Eurostar if you feel the need to go to London.

Bret