We had been at the Van Gogh Museum (my choice so it was Chris’s turn to choose the next trip we did.  It was getting later in the first full day we were in Amsterdam, nearly dinner time in fact.  We headed across Amsterdam for something to eat followed by a visit to…. you guessed it (by the title)

The Heineken Museum.  This was another trip booked through Viator, we even got a canal cruise thrown in with this one.  This was a really good deal.  How cultural is this trip, LOL! We have been to two museums in the same day, not that we could compare the two.  Both hold amazing surprises and we both love one each.  We arrived about two hours early for our  Heineken Museum Trip  booked ticket time.  We were both quite tired by this time as it was our first full day in Amsterdam and we had been out since about nine in the morning.  I approached the staff on the door and asked if we could maybe go in on an earlier entry time.  It is quite quiet now if you wanted to do the tour now!

That was good timing.  Yes please.  In we went to the Museum.  The first thing they do is give you an overview of what to expect within the museum and then hand you a green band which had 2 small removable buttons.  These are for later he said.  OK, weird gift but ok!  We went to the what used to be the old brewing room complete with all the old copper (I think) vats.  They used to brew all of the beer in these vats and believe me they were massive.  As you made your way around they room they had a few staff explaining all of the processes.

Turns out it was really interesting process you have to go through to make beer.  I was fascinated by the amount of work it takes to make a pint.  At the other side of the room was a man with a tray of what looked like shots and I thought it must of been free alcohol the way people were gathering around him.  We made our way around the vats and finally arrived at the man with the trays of shots!  How wrong we were!  He was not giving out shots.  He was letting people try the juice from the first part of the process of beer making and let me give you a small piece of advice, DO NOT DRINK IT! it tastes awful.  The Heineken Museum  tricked us LOL!

After this part of the tour we were directed upstairs to the next floor, on the way up to the next floor you can see the old stables and the horses and carriages.  There is an amazing sort of Beer Hall of Fame with all sorts of memorabilia from the makers of the original Heineken and his family.

On the next floor is the twenty first century Heineken.  You are told to stand in any line of four and wait for the doors to open.  You are taken into a room where you are surrounded by a kind of 4D cinema.  While you are in this room you are the beer been made.  This sounds weird but stay with me, imagine you are part of the ingredients which makes the beer, they add more and more ingredients and start to mix.  The outcome is you are in a machine full of beer.  Actually you are the beer.  I know it sounds weird but its one of those things you have to see to believe.  Anyway it was great.  Have a look a the video to see for yourself.
[wpvideo BO8N82NQ]
We left the room and were shown to a small bar where some of the staff handed out sample size drinks of Heineken.
I don’t usually drink beer but this was really nice.  Next we headed   to the bottling line where you can actually watch the bottling process and put your names on beer bottles as souvenirs.  Obviously Chris made a couple with his name on them, no I did not as I said I don’t really drink beer so why have a bottle of it with my name on it.  You will have to forgive me if I get any of the levels of the museum back to front as there was so much to take in I feel I might have some of it backwards but hey-ho! LOL!

Finally we headed to the Heineken Bar and found out what the two small buttons on the green band were for.
They were beer tokens…….. Can you believe this…….. You go for a trip around a beer museum and at the end of it they give you free beer!!!!!! We have to say this WE LOVE THE HEINEKEN MUSEUM!
So for now this is the end of the latest adventure from Thegotogirlsblog.
Thanks for reading and please come back to read the next part of the series in Amsterdam and the evening cruise after we left the Heineken Museum.  It was very relaxing after such a busy day.
Always loving being me……
Love Thegotogirlsblog xxxx