Anne Frank House

A sad welcome to my final blog post ☹

This last blog post will discuss other outings from Amsterdam including the Anne Frank House and a cool rooftop bar.

One of the top things on our to-do list in Amsterdam was to visit the Anne Frank House and for obvious reasons no pictures were allowed to be taken.  To be honest, I didn’t really know a lot about the Frank family or even the war.  However, this did not matter as the headset that was provided was very informative of everything I had to know to understand Anne Frank’s House.  The experience was so eerie - to see behind the bookcase and be exactly where such fear had existed.  The whole house is emptied of furniture, but pictures show exactly how the family lived during their time in the Annexe.  As you go through all the rooms, more and more of their story is told - up to and including when they were captured, it then takes you through a brief story of their time at the different camps of which they died, and follows on a little about how Otto Frank survived.

This experience was very hard-hitting, however so intriguing, would 10/10 recommend if youre interested in that type of stuff. 

So just to end on a happy note – the rooftop bar - DoubleTree by Hilton

We went here 2 nights as after the first we had to go back! They did some fabulous cocktails and had a fabulous view – what more do ya want???

Here’s Clare pretending shes drinking and if you are a “sucker for a rooftop bar” like Roxanne, then this one is for you!

Alas my blogging days are over.  Special shoutout to Clare and Roxanne for sharing these experiences with me!!

Thanks for reading !

Heineken Experience

Welcome to my 4^th blog post!!

This blog will tell the tale of my Heineken Experience experience.  

This, for me, was one of the best parts of the trip and costs €18 when booking online, which includes the guided tour, some fun games, 1 drink during the tour, and 2 drinks tokens at the bar at the end. 

Firstly, the guided tour gives a detailed insight to the history of Heineken and how it was made when Heineken was founded in 1864 by showing videos and getting the audience (well, just Clare) involved in some of the activities that were carried out – she enjoyed herself.  Then showing how it is made now on a huge scale. 

Following this, we seen some horses that were used in the production of the lager – one which was called Jean-Francois to which my French friend Roxanne was very displeased when I said in my Scottish-ish accent Jean Francis.  I was abruptly corrected it was JON-FRANCWO!! 

THEN!! We were led to this room full of games n stuff and let me tell you, there was an argument during this as no one told me what my face was in so that I could pull a relevant expression.  

But alas, this was the end of our tour, and we were led to THE BEST ‘DAM BAR and let me tell u, it was up there!! So as I said, the ticket includes 2 drinks tokens but if you’re planning to go to the Heineken Experience, get the table closest to the door, as countless people gave us their tokens when they were leaving if they didn’t want to stay for a drink.  Roxanne and I left here significantly shapeless which made it a 10/10 trip, and Clare, although she was not drinking had a fab time listening to the techno!! 

Thank u all, see u again for the last post!

A'DAM Lookout

Hey guys and welcome back to my channel!!

This blog post is going to discuss my visit to the Amsterdam Lookout.  My friends were drawn to this attraction because of the swing that it has over the building and the amazing views that can be seen from this spot.  I am a weee bit scared of heights so was a bit reluctant, but I had to go for the views!

Our uber java dropped us off and we were greeted at the Lookout by getting some pics.  Don’t think Roxanne got the falling memo, sorry Roxanne x

We were then taken up to the Lookout in a lift (a bad day for people who are scared of lifts and heights ://).  But lemme tell you – these fears were quickly forgotten about when you got to the top and looked out (haha).  But still couldn't look down - photo cred to Clare.

The main part of this visit was of course the over the edge swing, which was only and additional €5.  Which was extremely popular and had a huge queue, but I heard it was “so worth it”.  

There were different packages that you could choose from for the A’DAM Lookout:-

1.      Entry to the lookout

2.      Entry to the Lookout + 2 free drinks + a goodie

3.      Entry to the Lookout + 1 free drink + a hamburger + a goodie

And so on. 

The ticket package we opted for was the one which included two drinks at the rooftop bar, and because of our fabulous timing of going in the evening, we were able to enjoy these while watching the sun set over Amsterdam, would be perfff for a date, but was also fab with my besties.  

See y'all next time 

Van Gogh Museum

Welcome back to my blog!! So, following on from my last post on canal trips, I am going to talk about our visit to the Van Gogh Museum.  We stayed at the other side of the city to the Van Gogh Museum so we got the canal boat down to that end of town.  Clare and I decided to go to this museum to pretend that we are SO cultured. 

 

The building was very modern along with the inside of it, perhaps a bit too modern for me.  I would recommend getting a multimedia guide for an additional €5 for adults – this is a headset which has scanning technology that explains to you what the paintings are about, along with why it’s relevant to Vincent’s life – without this we would be lost and probably would have left within 5 minutes.  However, the scanning part and the headphones are separate, and if they fall apart, do no say to the person working “oops I’ve just broken this” because they will not give a toss and you will find yourself saying “oh I’ll just fix it myself then ://”. 

When we finally had the headset working and were ready to go, we dived into some Van Gogh artwork.  He is most famous for his painting “Sunflowers” which is really all people go to see.

He was also famous for all of his self-portraits which reflect how he was feeling when he painted them – the information from the headsets allowed us to see the times where he was joyous compared to the times that he was filled with depression.  We couldn’t resist a cheeky photo with him thoooo

The final part of the museum was Asian paintings in which some of Van Gogh’s work was inspired from.  This, though, didn’t last long before Clare says “Do you want to just go to the gift shop??”

Hope you enjoyed, will see you for part 3 !!

Intro to my blog

Hiya, I’m Zoe, a third year business student at the University of Strathclyde, and I’m writing this blog on things that you should defos do if you are going to visit Amsterdam (along with some personal experiences)! Amsterdam is growing in popularity as more and more people are going there for a city break as opposed to a sun holiday.  That was the case for my friends and I who went to Amsterdam in May of this year for a post-exam break (which was extremely needed)! I know what everyone thinks of when they think of Amsterdam, however I am only going to blog about activities that would be legal in the UK, sorry xo

So, for my first post we will have a look at the canals of which Amsterdam is built on.  If you don’t fancy cycling around the city, or walking and nearly getting hit by a bike, the canal boat trips should be on the cards.  We went on the sightseeing trip which allowed us to just sit back and take in some culture if we wanted to – although we just sat and took in some pretty viewz.

A free tour round the diamond factory was offered with this trip, in which you could see real diamonds being manufactured in front of you, along with lots of pretty jewellery that I hope to afford soon :)))). At the end of this, a diamond worth €76,000 was presented in front of us – if I ever get a man he needs to step it up to this!!

That’s all for part 1, see u next time for part 2 x