Every year my mum and I go on a little city trip, just the two of us. This time we decided to go the Amsterdam. It’s just a little over an hour by plane, so not a big journey.
We left early on a Tuesday morning and landed in Amsterdam at 9.00 am. We booked a hotel shuttle to our hotel, which wasn’t a great idea. It took forever and the driver was not very friendly. By 11.00 am we were at the hotel, our room wasn’t ready so we started exploring the city. Our walk took us over a fancy bridge close by to the Monttoren tower. They have some fab glass souvenirs there. Then we walked down parts of the shopping street, before getting a smoothie. Then the way led us to a different shopping street away from the centre. The weather was nice and sunny, but very windy, so the perfect weather for a little shopping. At Prinsengracht we had lunch at the Black Restaurant, it was delicious! Afterwards we walked down Prinsengracht to the nine stratjies, little shopping streets with boutiques and shops with Dutch brands. We didn’t find anything, but I loved browsing in them. Of course we had to try the famous van Wonderen waffles, I had the ones with Marshmallows, so good! We walked down to the Anne Frank house and then enjoyed a drink by the water. We were exhausted from all the walking and tired as well. I got up at four in the morning, so it was time to go to the hotel and sleep.
On Wednesday the weather was pretty much the same as on Tuesday. We couldn’t get tickets for the Anne Frank house online (you have to book months in advance), but every day a certain amount is released again. You just go on the website and you are put on a waiting list. It moved quickly, but I wasn’t successful. Luckily, my mum was and we were able to get tickets. After breakfast we headed to the King’s palace, where there is a big square right in front of it. The streets surrounding it are full of shops as well, so we continued with some shopping before heading to “de Bijenkorf”, it’s the department store in the Netherlands. We had lunch first at their self serve restaurant called the kitchen. We had pizza, it was absolutely wonderful, the best I’ve ever had. Afterwards we spent a lot of time in the store itself. On to the next place: The Magna Plaza is something like a mall, beautiful from the outside, but the stores inside were really disappointing. The rest of the afternoon we just walked around and took some photos on bridges and around the water, also deciding on what boat tour to go on the next day. We also went to Westerkerk, because we wanted to go up the tower. We couldn’t, because they only have space for six people at the time, so we booked for the next evening. Then it was finally time to go to the Anne Frank House. You get an audio guide and then you can walk around the guided tour. There are also lots of pictures and explanations around. They even have some real letters and the diary. It was very interesting, especially to see these tiny rooms and hear how they had to live in there. For dinner we went back to “de Bijenkorf”, because it was so good. In the evening we just watched TV and went to bed early.
On Thursday we headed to Ree7 for breakfast. One of my fellow potterheads suggested it to me and it was so yummy!!! Then we looked at some more shops around the 9 stratjies area and I found a lovely dress. From the Anne Frank house, we started our hop on hop off boat tour with circle lines Amsterdam. We wanted to get out in the Museum distract, but we missed our stop, so we did the whole tour and got off the next round. I was very hungry then, but we found some great photo spots first and the Rijksmuseum is gorgeous. It was hard to find a restaurant around there, but with a little bit of walking we found one, called Blushing. It had healthy food and it was hard to pick something. They also had some very yummy beer. Actually we planned to go to the Van Gogh museum after, but then we found a shopping street, oops ;). Afterwards we took the boat back to the centre and had a little break at the hotel, before heading to the Westerkerk tower for our tour. The walking up and down was quite adventurous, but it was totally worth it, the view is breath-taking. The guide told us a lot about the church, as well as Amsterdam. We were up there at the perfect time, right around sunset, the lighting was beautiful. We then had dinner at our hotel.
Friday meant going out of the city for a little day trip to Haarlem. We picked up some breakfast at Starbucks and took the train from the main station. It’s so easy and trains leave every 10 minutes and the journey is only 15 minutes long. The centre of this little town is very close by, you don’t even need a map. The shops in Haarlem are a thousand times better than in Amsterdam, very unique, chic and trendy, I found some great things. We had lunch at by Lima, so good and the beers were amazing. We then walked around more, to this square, where they have a beautiful church. The town is full of little surprised and time flew by, when we decided to go into the church it was closed already. That’s why we walked to the wind mill called Adriaan (Molen de Adriaan). It’s the perfect place for a typical Holland photo. It’s by the water and there is a bridge, where they just put a bike, so fab!!! We also had dinner in Haarlem, before taking the train back and going to bed.
Saturday was our last day already. We had breakfast in the room and packed our bags. Then we checked out and went to the king’s palace. We did an audio guided tour in there, it’s very pretty. Then it was time for lunch and we just couldn’t find a good place, until we passed this Italian place (Pane e Olivo), the best!!! Afterwards we walked down to Haarlemstraat, because we were told it’s full of great shops. Well, that was a disappointment, because we didn’t like the shops and also walked right into a demonstration. We just decided to walk back to the centre and found a little market square and did a little browsing there. With some little time left, we had another drink by the water and then had to go to the hotel to pick up our bags. Luckily, our shuttle driver was much nicer this time. He was from Scotland and we had a lot of fun with him.
I enjoyed every second in Amsterdam, it’s a beautiful city with a lot to offer. We walked between 12 and 14 kilometres every day. The only thing that was annoying were all the bikers. Of course you hear about them, but it’s very extreme. They don’t follow any rules and get annoyed at pedestrians, just be careful when you’re there.
I AMsterdam!!!
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