Our cosy floating home in Amsterdam
A canal and a bicycle...must be Amsterdam
A classy souvenir store
Inside a giant clog, beside Dam square
The Royal Palace, on Dam Square
On the roof of our boat, probably a nice place to sit in the summertime
In front of De Waag, which used to be a weighing house, and now has a restaurant inside
Inside Cafe Hoppe, over 300 years old, with some very old-looking barrels
A house beside one of the canals
One of the stalls at the flower markets...lots and lots of tulips!
The best pancakes ever....
The best pancake house ever
Everyone seemed a bit scared to have their photo taken with these two in Dam Square...
And finally, just managed to squeeze in 'frites with mayonnaise in a cone' before we left Amsterdam...mission accomplished.We arrived in Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon, and faced our first challenge - finding our hostel. This was a bit unusual, as our hostel did not have a street address, because it was a boat!So we had to walk along the water looking hopefully for the 'Vita Nova', our home for the next two nights, and which we were very happy to find eventually. We were shown to our cabin -with it's economical use of space - and then we headed out to explore Amsterdam, trying to ignore the persistent rain. We soon realised how to tell who was a tourist - we were the only ones walking anywhere, all the locals were on bikes. We had to be careful crossing the road, bikes would come whizzing past from all directions. There were even parking buildings for the bikes.
We walked along the canals, marvelling at the huge variety in the houses - everyone with its individual style, a different style and different height to the next one, a nice change after the houses in England which are the same street after street! After lunch in a reasonably-priced, nice Italian restaurant, we stumbled upon the heart of the red light district, a canal which is bordered by rows of brothels, souvenir stores and women dancing in windows. Then we headed to Dam Square, to see the impressive Royal Palace and the National Monument. As it was still raining, we decided to set out in search of a movie theatre - easier said than done, as we got lost in the maze of curving canals that all look the same - very confusing! Luckily we found our way out and to a movie theatre, one with very impressive Art Deco architecture.
On Monday we walked to the southern part of the city centre, to see the van Gogh museum (from the outside at least) and 'Amsterdam's answer to Central Park', Vondelpark (not quite as impressive as Central Park, but a nice park all the same). Then the rain drove us inside, to the Magna Plaza shopping centre, where we made the most of free cheese tasting (very nice cheese) and saw one shop with devices that people lie inside and get massaged by strong jets of water - interesting! Then it was on to visit the Amsterdam Historical Museum, and learn about Amsterdam's sailing history and the growth of the city. After all this education it was time for a rest - so we stopped for a drink at a 300-year old pub, one of the 'brown cafes' of the city - walls stained brown with cigarette smoke, in business for up to 300 years, sand on the floor - this one ticked all the boxes. We felt like we were stepping back in time when we went inside.
Dinner that night was at another Italian restaurant as the Dutch fare was quite limited, including a fast-food restaurant where the burgers and fries sit in vending machines for an unknown period of time, until someone comes to buy them.
On Tuesday we headed to Anne Frank's house, to see where the Frank family was hidden during the second world war. It was a sobering experience to walk through the hidden doorway behind a bookcase, and walk around the rooms used by the family, imagining what it was like for them to hide here, living constantly in fear.
Then we walked along the canals to see the flower markets, where the flowers are sold from floating stalls permanently moored on the side of a canal. As expected, there were lots of tulips, as well as a huge variety of other flowers and plants. One store was almost entirely dedicated to cacti, from a table of different varieties as small as your thumb to a room full of cacti as big as us (nearly), to stores selling 'grow-your-own-cannabis' kits. Then it was time for lunch, so we went to a pancake house, a Dutch delicacy: where they create a pancake with your filling on the inside, by double-layering your pancake, which comes out to you the size of a large pizza - and they were the best pancakes ever! And this was followed by the best apple pie ever (another Dutch speciality). Then we walked through the Waterlooplein markets, with an interesting array of hippy clothing, tourist shops and bicycle accessories.
And then it was time to head to the train station to catch a train to the airport - but there was just enough time to squeeze in one more Dutch delicacy - fries with mayonnaise in a cone! Very tasty....quite messy and difficult to eat, but a good end to our Dutch experience.
We walked along the canals, marvelling at the huge variety in the houses - everyone with its individual style, a different style and different height to the next one, a nice change after the houses in England which are the same street after street! After lunch in a reasonably-priced, nice Italian restaurant, we stumbled upon the heart of the red light district, a canal which is bordered by rows of brothels, souvenir stores and women dancing in windows. Then we headed to Dam Square, to see the impressive Royal Palace and the National Monument. As it was still raining, we decided to set out in search of a movie theatre - easier said than done, as we got lost in the maze of curving canals that all look the same - very confusing! Luckily we found our way out and to a movie theatre, one with very impressive Art Deco architecture.
On Monday we walked to the southern part of the city centre, to see the van Gogh museum (from the outside at least) and 'Amsterdam's answer to Central Park', Vondelpark (not quite as impressive as Central Park, but a nice park all the same). Then the rain drove us inside, to the Magna Plaza shopping centre, where we made the most of free cheese tasting (very nice cheese) and saw one shop with devices that people lie inside and get massaged by strong jets of water - interesting! Then it was on to visit the Amsterdam Historical Museum, and learn about Amsterdam's sailing history and the growth of the city. After all this education it was time for a rest - so we stopped for a drink at a 300-year old pub, one of the 'brown cafes' of the city - walls stained brown with cigarette smoke, in business for up to 300 years, sand on the floor - this one ticked all the boxes. We felt like we were stepping back in time when we went inside.
Dinner that night was at another Italian restaurant as the Dutch fare was quite limited, including a fast-food restaurant where the burgers and fries sit in vending machines for an unknown period of time, until someone comes to buy them.
On Tuesday we headed to Anne Frank's house, to see where the Frank family was hidden during the second world war. It was a sobering experience to walk through the hidden doorway behind a bookcase, and walk around the rooms used by the family, imagining what it was like for them to hide here, living constantly in fear.
Then we walked along the canals to see the flower markets, where the flowers are sold from floating stalls permanently moored on the side of a canal. As expected, there were lots of tulips, as well as a huge variety of other flowers and plants. One store was almost entirely dedicated to cacti, from a table of different varieties as small as your thumb to a room full of cacti as big as us (nearly), to stores selling 'grow-your-own-cannabis' kits. Then it was time for lunch, so we went to a pancake house, a Dutch delicacy: where they create a pancake with your filling on the inside, by double-layering your pancake, which comes out to you the size of a large pizza - and they were the best pancakes ever! And this was followed by the best apple pie ever (another Dutch speciality). Then we walked through the Waterlooplein markets, with an interesting array of hippy clothing, tourist shops and bicycle accessories.
And then it was time to head to the train station to catch a train to the airport - but there was just enough time to squeeze in one more Dutch delicacy - fries with mayonnaise in a cone! Very tasty....quite messy and difficult to eat, but a good end to our Dutch experience.
