Now usually I pride myself on having rarely succumbed to over-marketing ... but truly, this was one experience which was totally worth it. Its a fairly shameless 'drink heineken, buy the t-shirt and drink from the glass' venture, but they have succeeded in ensuring there's enough fun spread through the whole shindig for you to actually go out and say - wow, wouldn't mind doing that again!
The Amsterdam main train station ...
Of course before that, a quick test - can you actually figure out what this clock / instrument is doing / measuring? I spent a good 5 minutes staring at it and stopping traffic - but I still couldn't actually get what it was doing. Y0u can find it perched on the main station building.
And now the pictures from the Heineken Experience ... interesting piece of trivia for fans - the 3e's in Heineken are in fact not plain-jane, but have been slightly turned over on their backs to give the impression of 'smileys' ... check it out!
The first part of the experience is this lovely quaint-ish bar type area where you see a movie about how Heineken came into being blah blah ... BUT it was totally not blah-blah. Fun, witty and the video runs in such a way that it looks like your bartender is telling you the story. (Below)
Followed by words of wisdom ...
Can almost put a lump in the ol' throat ... until you realize he's talking about making beer.
We were then taken through the entire beer-making process ... the giant vats in which they are heated and all the ingredients are added ...
Just outside are the stables - for some reason Heineken brews beer and palo-s horses. Couldn't see any 'obvious' connections (or maybe my mind just doesn't want to :-)
And now - the fun part! I think the funnest thing in the Heineken Experience was the 'Brew You Ride' where you actually stand on this platform (as part of the ride) and through this interactive video, they actually 'brew' you ... so at random times water is thrown on you, the temperature of the room suddenly increases, and the platform jiggles and shakes. So I can't obviously recreate THE ride, but managed to catch a fair bit of it on my camera. Enjoi!!!
Of course after such a tiring ride, you just HAVE to have a beer. So a chotu beer is served (all complimentary of course) in this very cute tasting room. And after the beer, what else are you supposed to do but simply chill out? The Heineken Lounge follows.
After some rather obvious marketing gimmicks - make your Heineken video, picture, shirt, underwear and dog collars and literally anything else they can sell you - then you have the actual Heineken bar ... where everyone gets 2 beers! It was a tough challenge for my husband (I don't like beer - though I did have the chotu one and one more here) to quaffle his 3 beers - but he bravely soldiered on and found all the beers a home in his stomach.
Our 4 beers stand tall.
After then making some mandatory purchases at the gift shop (ahem ahem - we are tourists!!!), we then headed out of the Experience into broad daylight, our tummies and minds swilling with beer. The next stop was to deposit our luggage at our modest accommodation for the night booked on bookings.com, which listed our room as 'cosy and comfy' = read 'small and cramped'. When we reached our hotel, we realized that we would have to literally suck it up on the comfort front, since the hotel name was written on an A4 sheet of paper and stuck up with tape on the glass door. Never a good sign. We mentally prepared ourselves for a night NOT at the Ritz and walked in, only to be politely informed that they were overbooked. The usual name-calling ensued, but the gentleman at the reception was firm, and assured us that he would be putting us up in a much better hotel nearby.
Of course being Indians, we never believe that anyone really means it when they say something like that, so with sullen faces and pursed-up noses we pulled up at our alternate place of stay, ready with the choicest selection of local gaalis. But gulp - sure enough - it was actually a nicer place! A nice bar cum reception, bigger rooms, flatter TVs, and a softer bed greeted us - learning? Believe these Dutch guys when they say something - they usually mean it.
After this welcome piece of luck, we wandered out to hit the streets of Amsterdam - in the 'colorful' sort of way as we walked around the red light districts and more 'famous' parts of the city. But as a friend had dismissively told me and to which I now firmly agree - you've seen one prostitute, you've seen 'em all ... so we just saw the characters who had turned up. Loud Americans, desi honeymooners looking suitably horrified in that shy come-hither way with one another, Indian families complete with children in prams (I swear ... WHY WHY WHY??!! Its a red light district for pete's sake!!!) and the usual drunk undergrads.
Although I'm sure I may be asked for pictures from my regulars, it seems the managers of the above-mentioned business establishments (read: sex shops) are fairly intolerant of pikchur-clicking tourists, and many a Canon have found themselves swimming in the canals. So you'll just have to rely on mental pictures :-) But did take a couple of odd ones.
Baba coffee shop (yes - the more tolerant variety of coffee shop) complete with little Ganesha statues (just above the entrance) to namastey visitors in. Charming. Wonder what the VHP would have to say to this little display of Indian hospitality.
Random pic. No one gave poor Bar Second Chance a second chance. Hee hee.
Din-din was at this 2 floored Chinese place which was so packed to the gills, that they brought us our starters, main course and dessert at the same time. But what totally sold me was that they even had an entire vegetarian menu - so would totally thumbs up the place.
Pictures from around town. Some lovely old buildings.
The rest on another post. Whew. Cheers folks.
Sushma
(PS Am in testing since there seems to be some issues with the Blogger videos - let me know if they don't play. Aargh. Technology :-)
5 comments:
:o) The videos play. and i really like your blog too, read it every time u update.
Thanks Sonia! Always feels great to know that my digital endeavors are being appreciated :-)
Mooi post... :)
BTW, the frisian horses are an old tradition with Heineken, which continue till date. I am surprised you guys did not notice any Heineken horse carriages on the streets of Ams, loaded with barrels of beer
i bet gg had a good time. sounds like fun. they should have the flavoured beer for non-beer people. they don't care about an opinion of a possible visitor, do they?
@kedar - no we didn't!!! so they take their own ghodas to deliver the maal as well?! chee chee ... :-)
@goldbug - I totally second that. i will push my way through the drunk hordes, frustrated bartenders and broken glass and spilt beer on the floor and offer our opinion the next time around :-)
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