Today was the last full day of our trip! I can't believe it is almost over! Since we had such a busy day yesterday we decided to sleep in for a little bit this morning. We got up around 9, showered and packed up a little bit then headed out for the day. Our first stop this morning was the Sex Museum. Believe it or not, Amsterdam has a Sex Museum, an Erotic Museum, a Condom Museum and a Weed and Hash Museum. We felt like we had to go to at least one of these museums to complete our Amsterdam experience and since the Sex Museum was listed in the Europe on a Shoestring book we decided to give that one a try! It was interesting...they had displays of famous sexual art, a "history of sex" exhibit, famous sexual photos and some wild outfits! We definitely had a good laugh there!
After the Sex Museum, we walked around for a bit and did a little shopping. With the current exchange rate being pretty bad, we didn't buy a whole lot but we did each want a few little souvenirs to take home. We then stopped at a cute little pizza shop for lunch and finished off our lunch with a stop at what we were told was the best fry stand (big thing in Amsterdam), Manekin Pis. Doesn't that name sound familiar, haha?!? The fries were really good and we got a spicy mayo type sauce with them that was delicious! After our lunch, we decided to stop in the Royal Palace located in Dam Square. Kim from our Red Light tour last night recommended we visit and were we ever glad we took her advice! A lot of the outside is currently under construction but the inside is phenomenal! The Palace was built in the 1700s and Napoleon lived there for a short time. Nobody currently lives at the palace but the King and Queen still use it to house and hold meetings with dignitaries, as well as for other royal functions. As you can imagine, the decorations, painting and sculptures were all amazing! This museum gave you a free audio tour with your ticket that was great. It gave the history of each of the rooms as well as discussed some of the art and sculptures, making the whole experience that much more interesting. Kristin and I both said that we wished we had done the audio tour at the Lourve and Van Gogh museums as I think we would have gotten more out of the visit.
After the Palace we headed to the other side of town for Mike's Bike Tour. Mike's was recommended to us by one of Kristin's friends as well as Kim from the Red Light Tour. I don't remember how much I wrote about it but EVERYONE in Amsterdam rides bikes. We were told there were over 2 million bikes in the city and I definitely believe it. At Central Station they even have an entire 3 story parking deck just for bikes! Apparently bike theft is a huge problem in Amsterdam so everyone rides crappy beach cruisers - they say people spend more money on their bike lock than they do the actual bike! Mike's takes you on a 3 hour bike ride all around the city to show you the sights as well as some of the history. First let me just say riding one of their bikes was just a tad different than riding my nice road bike! While the seats were very comfortable, the gears were rough (I was surprised they even worked!) and I totally missed my clip in pedals! Also, the brakes were on opposite sides as they are on my bike at home so that took some getting used to! That said, the tour itself was a ton of fun. It was great to ride all over the city, I felt like a true citizen of Amsterdam weaving in and out of crowds and ringing the bell on my bike at people who were in the way! During the tour saw some new areas we hadn't come across yet and the history lessons were very interesting. Our guide Pete was really knowledgeable and funny and the rest of the people in our tour were really nice as well so it made for a great afternoon.
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