Plucky Survivors See Europe Day 71: Amsterdam

The cold is still hanging in but still not a bad one so I decided to head out on my final morning in Amsterdam and my final day before flying home to do a little more exploring.

One of the things I’ve noticed in Amsterdam is that a lot of buildings are tilted – some to the side and some to front toward the street.  I figured it was because they’re old and everything is built on marshy ground and so they have settled over time.  Research has told me that I was right about that for the buildings tilted to the side, but many of the buildings that are titled forward were designed that way on purpose.  Most Amsterdam canal houses have very narrow staircases and are many stories tall so getting furniture to the upper floors was difficult.  They titled the house forward a little so they could tie ropes to the top and hoist furniture to the upper floors without it banging against the walls or windows.  Fascinating.

I took the subway – very well organized, very easy to use, and not at all crowded – north a few stops and hiked a bit to get to the Barbie Experience.  I know… when you think of me, you immediately think Barbie.  I don’t know why I wanted to do it, but it seemed silly and fun and guess what?  It was.

The Barbie Experience maps the history of Barbie from the 1950s until now, but instead of a dry museum experience they have created life-sized experiences based on popular Barbie themes of each decade.

For the 1960s, it was all about Barbie going to space, complete with a rocket you climb into as it blasts off to Barbie parts unknown.

The 1970s had Barbie’s “Country Camper” motorhome and a disco stage.

The 1980s was “A little country and a little rock and roll” with a western set and a stage to rock out on complete with a Barbie Corvette.

The 1990s involved snowmobiles and a beauty salon.  Not sure what the connection was, but that’s what they had.

The 2000s was all about BFFs in school.

The 2010s featured a Barbie airport, airplane, and baggage carousel.

And current Barbie featured a giant, two-story Barbie dream house not unlike the one seen in the movie.

I was amused by the whole thing.  Totally worth the trip.

From there I took the subway south to go to the Albert Cuyp Market.  These kind of street vendor markets are my happy place and this one almost made me giddy.  It’s four very long blocks long – about a mile total – of vendor stalls featuring produce, meat, food, clothing, accessories, and much, much more.

It was on the early side, but I made this my lunch stop with visits to several different food vendors.  I started with a chicken schwarma pita followed by a salted Dutch cheese crepe, chicken meatballs, and a cup of strawberries covered with Dubai chocolate.

There wasn’t a bum note in the bunch.  Everything was fresh, delicious, and cheap!  All of the above cost under 20 Euros.

I also stopped at the American Brownie Company and got a 6-pack of flavors including mint, caramel, oreo, and more.

Then it was back to the hotel where I spent the afternoon getting some work done and going through all of my credit cards to try to figure out exactly how much money this trip cost me.  The good news is that with expected expenses, I came in under what I had budgeted.  I was almost spot on with hotels, airfare, car rental, and parking.  Gas, meals, tolls, sightseeing, and the catchall “other” category (subways, taxis, Ubers, laundry, souvenirs, etc.) didn’t cost me as much as I thought it would.

The bad news is that I had some unexpected expenses involving a new, very expensive computer, some time in a few casinos along the way, and some medical things I hadn’t planned for.  Factoring those in, I went over budget, but only by about 15% so overall I’m very happy.  This was an expensive trip, but I think it was totally worth it.

I had one last dinner in Amsterdam and it was where I had my first one – Lavash.  I got the tzatziki and chicken souvlaki because I like what I like.  I’ll spare a second picture of it.

Tomorrow, I get up at the ass crack of dawn to catch a 9am flight and should be home in time for dinner.

I’ll do a final wrap up post at some point in the next few days, but if you’ve been reading along, thanks.  I hope you enjoyed it, got a laugh or two, and saw some stuff that maybe you want to go take your own Plucky adventure to see.  I’m not even home and I want to go back to so many places!

See you tomorrow, Savannah!