our Heineken Experience

One of the surprising highlights of the weekend in Amsterdam, was an afternoon at the Heineken Experience.  While the factory isn't opporational any longer, it was still interesting to see where it all started!

We booked a hop on-hop off bus to tour us around the city.  It's more expensive than taking an Uber, but we enjoyed the history lesson as we got a lift to the neighborhood outside the main downtown area (although I will not do this again in AMS - it was pretty bad vs other cities I've enjoyed this mode of transportation).  Everything in AMS was booked weeks/months in advance and we were not able to visit the Van Gogh museum or the Anne Frank House.  For some reason, we thought we could get these tickets when we arrived (it was a Monday in February!) but that was not the case.  Lucky for us, we were able to book the Heineken Experience last minute and it did not disappoint.  I may not be the biggest fan of Heineken (or beer in general, thanks to my gluten intolerance), but I really loved this experience.  We started with a 1.5 hour tour, including the history of the family, the ingredients, and the brewing process.  Finally, were able see the factory where the beer was originally brewed.  The space is beautiful with the stained glass windows, copper vats, and antique light fixtures.  After a taste and a prost, we were dumped out into the F1 Experience, which was of course, my favorite part!  They played up the Dutch GP and Max Verstappen (He's Dutch and a spokesperson for the non alcoholic brand) so it was cool to see his Driver's Champion trophy and one of his race suits.  Our final stop of the main tour was the bar area.  Here we were able to use our two tokens for real size beers.  Matt and my mom learned the technique for the perfect pour, and everyone got nice and toasty.  After drinking, laughing, and swaying to 90s rock, we headed to the last part of the tour, the rooftop lounge.  While it was a cold February day, the view was worth the chill!  Back inside, we tasted more free beer, this time, opting for Heineken Silver (less alcohol) and 00 (no alcohol).  Across the river from the Heineken Experience is a Dutch Pancake House (AMS IHOP?) where we soaked up the alcohol before hopping back on the bus and wandering the downtown canals.