Amsterdam part 2 - the forgotten

I read the blog of another person who went on this trip with me, and his was more chronological with what we did, and I realized that despite the length of my first post I missed a few things worth mentioning.

An experience I would recommend to all Amsterdam travelers is the Heineken Experience. It was supposed to be a 1 hour stop that turned into a 3 hour tour. The building is where Heineken used to be brewed but now it's just a big interactive museum type thing. There are brew kettles, some exhibits on the Heineken history, a ride/video which allowed me to experience what it's like to be a beer bottle from the factory to the bar...lots to entertain us. For the 10 Euro entrance fee we each got 3 small beers and a 'gift' which turned out to be a nifty bottle opener worth 5 Euros at the gift shop. It's the only museum I've ever been to that pretty much pays for itself.

We also checked out the Van Gogh museum which had an incredibly long line for entrance, but was worth it. That guy was crazy, and you can see it as you view his paintings in chronological order. He was usually all messed up on absinthe when he painted, suffered from horrible depression, and eventually went out into a field and shot himself in the chest

The last 'must see' on my list was the Anne Frank house. I went inside and explored the actual house where Anne and her family hid from the occupying Nazi's for two years. It's been partially restored with items from the house, and her original diary is on display. For all the fun and merriment in Amsterdam, it didn't take long for this to put me in a very somber mood. I almost cried.