Today was the last official day of our Contiki tour so we allowed ourselves one more busy day before starting a more relaxing pace for tomorrow and Monday. A group of four of us started the day with a visit to the Anne Frank house and museum. It was an impressive and moving tour although most of the video displays weren’t working. That was partly a bonus since we only had to pay half the price for tickets but it would have been nice to see the video components as well.

Afterwards we jumped on a canal bus to cruise the canals and transit to the Van Gogh museum. It was an interesting museum and while they don’t have his most famous piece of art (The Starry Night, which is on permanent display in New York) they did have the 12 sunflowers piece which was also the focus of many of their souvenirs at the end.

After the Van Gogh museum we visited the Heineken experience which is essentially a museum dedicated to the history of the company and their brewing processes. It had the best “4D experience” I’ve had so far and we even got several free tastes of the product along the way!

Tonight, eight of us went to an Italian place for supper where we drank more Heineken. Afterwards we cruised through more of the alley ways near the main square that we were introduced to before heading back to the red light district to have a few pints at the pubs. Alix and I each had a very small piece of Space Cake that didn’t really have a noticeable effect on us. At the end of the night we said goodbye to our new Contiki friends and retired for a long(er) sleep tonight.

As a final note if you’re ever in Amsterdam STAY OUT OF THE DEATH BIKE LANES. Pedestrians never have right-of-way there and Alix almost got hit by a Vespa scooter today because the lanes seem like such a natural place to walk.

G’night!

Jason