Since I was going to Amsterdam for 5 days to attend Amsterdam Dance Event, I used the opportunity to see family who was around, and visit a few places I hadn't seen. I had combed Amsterdam pretty well in my last 2 visits, so I went to see less common things, as well as nearby enough towns.
nice weather in SFO
After Turkish Airlines nicely cancelled my flight, I ended up with Luftanza to FRA and then AMS. Service was decent1108*
Eventually arrived in Amsterdam, despite the connection (no direct flights during covid)
The first day, after unpacking and a quick meeting in my hotel, went to AFAS Live for AMF DJ 100
The next day, I took my bike on the train and went to Den Hagg to meet my cousin Frank during his lunch break. I then used the remaining time to see other things I hadn't seen in Den Hagg yet (the car museum is world class, and so is the Eischer museum):
I kind of half randomly picked Museon, a science-ish museum which was ok-ish, but was nothing to write home about:
so happy that I got to see some of those in real life
I was done quickly enough that I had time to see the Kunstmuseum next door, and that was much better, including works from Mondrian:
Mondrian:
Then I just had time to bike back to the main train station to get back to AMS in time for my 2nd evening show, ASOT 1000 special at AFIS. Sadly I got to the train station just a bit too late for bikes to be allowed (they are not allowed during 'rush' hour), so getting back was a bit tricky. Biking through Den Hagg is always fun, it's a pretty town:
They should have a remake of 'dude, where's my car' but with 'where's my bike'
Day #3, I decided to go check out the NXT Museum which was hit and miss. Not a must do, but a fun way to spend an hour or so:
Since I had a bit of time left over, I looked around on google maps and randomly found the 'WONDR Experience', also a bit out of the way in some hangar. I only had 45mn or so, which was a bit rushed, but it was just enough for a reasonable visit:
The next mornign was Day #4, I had a bit less time, so I just went for a bike ride a bit outside of the city center to a street that had art outdoors, and saw a few things on the way, and accidentally bought $100 of cheese, ooops ;)
my cheese being wrapped up
weather was surprisingly good for october
found a few street markets
finally made it to the art street
didn't do the museums again, had seen them already
Day #5, the last day, there weren't any compelling ADE parties (no music I was likely to really enjoy, and besides after 4 days in a row of partying, I was a bit partied out too :) ), so I looked for day trips out of Amsterdam, and Leiden won. It's a charming town about 30mn away by train:
I started with Boerhaave, a medicine/science museum:
Next, I did the Volkenkunde museum, which had an extensive collection of art from different civilizations:
I finished with the small Observatory and Botanical garden:
I had no idea that Holland had a wild population of parrots
Leiden had more museums than I was able to see in one day, so I did as many as I could fit before the day was over (18:00):
It was time to back to Amsterdam, buy some groceries (mostly stropwafels) and get ready for the early flight home the next morning (with another detour via FRA)
