Canal Tour with Those Dam Boat Guys

Today we went on a canal tour! We went with a company called Those Dam Boat Guys. It’s a tour guide company founded by 3 American guys who moved to Amsterdam.

But before we went on the tour, we had to stop and get the best frites in town - Vlaams Friteshuis Vleminckx. You know, to carbo-load.

Amazing! Adam had a spicy-mayo sauce, while I had curry sauce

We also popped into Westerkerk, a Dutch Protestant church. It’s the church that is right next to the Anne Frank House, and both Rembrandt and his son Titus are buried there! Like St. Bravo’s Church, the floors were all gravestones, and also housed a beautiful pipe organ.

Next was the tour! There were about 12 of us (including the tour guide) on the boat, and it lasted about an hour and a half. It also wasn’t your typical tour, which made it even more fun! We were free to bring whatever food, drinks, and “other recreational" substances onto the boat, and share if we wanted to. Everything was super casual, and the tour wasn't scripted at all, which was refreshing. We started off by introducing ourselves and the tour guide boated us all around the city, telling us interesting facts about Amsterdam.

To name a few, here's some things that we found especially interesting:

1. Seeing the Nemo Museum, and it's shape. The architect says that the shape of the building is supposed to represent a frog, buuuutt...it really looks more like a sunken ship, or a whale. Additionally, the rooftop is a bar for the adults that visit, and it's slanted!

2. Why the canal buildings are tilted forward. We learned that was done on purpose back when the buildings were mostly businesses or warehouses, to prevent goods/furniture from swinging into the building and breaking windows when there was bad weather.

3. The houseboats came around about 10 years after World War II, and were used mostly out of necessity. After the war, those who were able to come back to Amsterdam could not go back to their homes due to serious damages. So instead, they started living on nearby shipment boats, where they made life on them more hospitable. In return, the city decided to issue 99-year leases so the people could continue to live there. Nowadays, if you wanted to buy a house-boat in the Netherlands, you'd have to buy the property, the 99 year-lease from the current owner, and the houseboat itself. Pretty expensive! Or...you can just rent one. =)

The Skinny Bridge

Nemo

A windmill that is now a brewery - Brouwrij 't IJ. We will definitely be going there!

"The Drunken Ladies"

Bloemenmarkt

After the tour, we slowly made our way back to our bikes to ride home. But first, we stopped by a coffeeshop to pick up a "special" cake to eat for later. We also stopped by a cafe to enjoy some refreshments and bitterballen!

If you're curious as to what the difference is between a coffeeshop and a cafe in Amsterdam...a coffeeshop is where you go to get pot, a cafe is where you go to get food and drinks.

Couldn't NOT go in!

Bitterballen: deep-fried, chopped veal with gravy balls. Served with dijon mustard.