Mike's Bikes Tour

(Katherine) We started the morning with some sad news - Robert’s Grandmother, Iris, had passed away. We spent the early part of the day absorbing the news and sending email communication to family. After some time for reflection, we decided to head out and enjoy this new amazing city - Iris would have wanted that.

We headed over to Mike’s Bikes for their 4:00 city tour and met our guide, Stewart, who was a friendly and talkative fellow from England. He gave us a very extensive overview of the history of Amsterdam, which actually only has about 800 years of recorded history. After that, we took off and spent the next 2.5 hours riding through areas like the Vondelpark, Rembrandtplein, Dam Square, and along the many canals.  We stopped at several points and learned about the different sites. I was particularly interested in how Amsterdam had welcomed the hippy community to arrive here in the late 60’s and that they had set up their own farms & shelters in the park. However, when the city had an issue with abandoned buildings mucking up the cityscape, they offered to let the hippies to live in any building that had been vacant for at least a year under the “Squatters Rights” act. This allowed the hippies to turn the building into non-profits, museums and art galleries - a very interesting notion.

The tour also included a stop at a local “bar” of sorts called Wynand Fockink where they distilled gin-based which had been infused with delightful flavors like cherry and apricot. This was a very authentic type of liqueur establishment where you order by the glass and have to sip off the top before you can walk away; however you can also order an entire bottle once you’ve found the right flavor. We settled on an extremely sweet cherry flavor labeled as Kersen. I think it will take a while to finish this puckery sweet bottle!

After the ride and a dinner at home, we stopped at a coffee shop called Greenhouse which is popular among many celebrities, and their photos are proudly displayed along a huge wall along with the multiple awards they have won for their products. We then went to a venue that had been recommended by our tour guide as a place for “locals”, and Monday was their Industry night called Cheeky Mondays. It turned out to be Drum & Bass, much to Robert’s delight. We also ran into someone from our tour earlier that day, Dan, and hung out with him at the club. Dancing the night away to good music with a good crowd…it was a great evening in Amsterdam!