After leaving the Keukenhof Kate and I made the fateful mistake of missing our transfer stop on the train back to Amsterdam. The result dropped us off at the Amsterdam football (soccer) stadium where the Amsterdam team had just won the National championship for the first time in 15 years. Now if I don't stop and think about how that probably means they beat 4 or 5 other teams from much smaller metropolitan areas, it kind of seems impressive. Regardless the fans were on the brink of a riot and it was cool to see. They were singing, shooting off fireworks and rocking the trains when they arrived in the station. Kate and I were on alert, but were unscathed and were glad to have experienced this.
On the way into the city on a packed train a Dutch gentleman explained the championship to us and warned us to be on guard when we got back in town because there could be violence. The city was electric when we got back and we did see police in riot gear everywhere buzzing along in armored vans. For the most part fans were just loud and jubilant, and all dressed in red bearing the XXX symbol of Amsterdam. This symbol is not what you'd think but rather represents the coat of arms of Amsterdam, 3 silver St. Andrew's crosses, any other suggestion is an unfortunate coincidence (or fortunate dependent upon your perspective).
Kate and I wanted to wait for the crowds to thin out a bit so we decided to seek out some activities on the fringes of the center city. This is the "Skinny Bridge" that goes over the Amstel River and is considered to be one of the more picturesque. It actually isn't skinny- and while it stands apart from other bridges in the city, I think Kate and I both thought there were prettier bridges. Apparently the Magere Brug, as it is properly named, used to be skinny to the point where it was just a pedestrian bridge wide enough for one person, but it has been rebuilt.
Kate decided that we should explore one of Amsterdam's "up and coming" hipster sort of neighborhood. (Think Williamsburg in NYC). De Pijp is named for its long straight streets that run parallel, contrary to the hub like rounded streets that are common through the rest of the central city. It was built as a working class community. It appears to be dirty and quite frankly still a slum to me, although there were a couple sections that were more vibrant such as the area where the Moorish columns above were located. That section had a nice square with many sidewalk cafes/ restaurants. 
It may have been the hooligans chanting off in the distance, the copious amounts of graffiti, how sections of this area seem deserted, the trash, or the abandoned junked bikes lying around everywhere- but this was the one time in Amsterdam where my concern went a little beyond pickpockets or being bothered by perverts (I had someone following me for a couple blocks in the red like district clearly taunting me with one word that I could understand in his dutch "c*cksucker"). Kate didn't notice this at the time, and likewise, I was alone at feeling uneasy in De Pijp. Regardless we cut our touring short because deserted trash filled streets weren't incredibly interesting. It may have been the evening, but on some level I was souring a little on Amsterdam. I like the idea of working to live, instead of living to work- but I was getting the impression that Amsterdam natives were more into hedonism than quality of life- and had long abandoned any concept that they could improve the latter, rather they just waited for the government to throw them a bone. (Damm square and social protest were inseparable). Depressing on some level. 
The Heineken plant- time was tight so we didn't tour it. A sort of impressive old building anyway.
Some of the revelers above as we headed back into town.
Kate and I tried to go to the Begijnhof, a community of nuns which is supposed to be picturesque, however it was closed when we got there, and sufficiently walled such that we really couldn't appreciate it. The door is above. We'd check it out when we came back to Amsterdam prior to heading to Barcelona.
This is Kate looking dejected next to the Begijnhof gate. We walked around for a long time being really indecisive on what to eat later. Sadly it got late and contrary to what you might think, Amsterdam is not a city that never sleeps. After 9-9:30 the restaurants begin to close and you are left with the places that attract those who need to tune out (the coffee houses) or the places for those with the munchies. We found the latter.
In the tradition of our fine vacation dining experiences it was a cheap to-order place. I had a rice noodle box with peppers mushrooms, onions, chicken in a black pepper sauce. I think Kate had some sort of sweet and sour rice box. Kate had food envy ;) We sadly discovered that Wok to Walk was a chain- seeing them in both Bruges and Barcelona later. It is what it is ;)
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