Exploring Amsterdam | March 2018
Amsterdam, the notorious capital of the Netherlands. It is famed for it's sexual history and marijuana culture, but also for it's beautiful buildings and canals. The home of Anne Frank, more than 17 million bicycles and a welcoming host to many tourists arriving from all over the world looking to explore the culture and experience the beauties the City has to offer.
I decided to book a trip away for my boyfriend's 22nd birthday and chose Amsterdam as our destination, I'd heard many great things about the culture and sights and was interested in also learning more about it's reputation.
Here we are looking only just human before leaving!
We took the tram to the outskirts of town and found a nice little Italian restaurant after finding that Hard Rock Cafe was fully booked. We'd booked ourselves a table there for the next evening but we ordered some schnitzel and pizza for this evening and it was divine food! We shared a plate of chips and it was literally a huge portion!
After a couple of Heinekens, we decided to take the tram further into town to find a cafe where we could try some space cake, but not after having a couple of cocktails in a small bar called Getto. We ventured into cafe 4/20 then stumbled onto the tram home and ate Will's birthday cheesecake in bed until we fell asleep.
We woke up early and popped to the convenience store across the road to get some hotel snacks, then got ready and headed straight out for the day. We started with the Sexmuseum, which turned out to be pretty interesting! After grabbing some coffee we ventured to Anne Frank's house and took some selfies outside as we joined the queue only to be told they were only accepting online tickets. We were pretty sad about this but we were grateful we got to see it!
To cheer ourselves up, we took the tram a little further out of town to visit Mook pancakes. I ordered one with chocolate, fruit and coconut on it and Will ordered hummous and avocado pancakes. They were both very tasty.
After deliberating what to do with the gap in our plans, we decided to take the tram back into town to visit Ripleys wierd and wonderful museum. We saw a toy soldier made of toy soldiers, the Berlin wall and shrunken heads! It took us up until around 3pm, our booking was 6pm for Hard Rock Cafe so we decided to go back to the hotel and get ready for the evening again.
Heading for dinner, we enjoyed the twenty minute break on the tram and finally got off at the stop near the restaurant. It was lovely inside, very open and spacious with a great rock and roll vibe. Our table had an amazing view of the canal and the houses near it. Once we finished up we headed to Xtracold Icebar to have a few drinks and relax, although the name really sums up how cold it is in there! I was very glad for the heated room afterwards to relax and have a beer in.
Our last morning in Amsterdam we wanted to make the most of so we got up and got the tram before deciding we were craving a full English breakfast and a cup of tea! We found a little place that claimed to sell a Full english but we were served a breakfast consisting of toast with no butter, beans, salad (!!), a frankfurter, scrambled egg and a tomato so they were very close but unfortunately not quite there! Nevertheless we finished our food and cups of tea then carried on our adventures.
I decided to book a trip away for my boyfriend's 22nd birthday and chose Amsterdam as our destination, I'd heard many great things about the culture and sights and was interested in also learning more about it's reputation.
I looked into package holidays but opted to book flights and accommodation separately as I wanted guaranteed flights but wasn’t sure on the hotel I wanted yet. I booked our flights with EasyJet and ended up booking a stay at XO Hotels Blue Square in Slotermeerlaan. It was around 20 minutes from the centre but it was cheap to use trams and my stay was amazing. Read their raving reviews here.
I was nervous the night before our flight as I was driving to the airport leaving at 3am and there was snow falling heavily all evening, I didn’t manage to get much sleep! Nonetheless we woke up on Will’s birthday at 1:45AM and rushed around getting ready to leave for the airport. I was glad I'd given him his presents to open the day before! The parking was booked for 4:30AM and it was still snowing so we needed plenty of time to plan for any delays getting there.
We were ready and had suitcases in the car by 2:30AM and were well on our way soon after.
Here we are looking only just human before leaving!
We arrived at the airport parking at dead on 4:30AM and it was such a quick and easy transition from parking the car to jumping on the shuttle. Shout out to Airparks Luton for the amazing service!
Luckily, when we arrived with a couple of hours to spare giving us time to drop our bags off and pass security, we then were able to grab some breakfast for Will (I was so nervous to fly I couldn’t even eat!) I would always recommend checking in online and downloading your boarding passes, it made the process so much easier.
The flight only took literally 45 minutes, we were up then down!!
After landing at Schiphol, we took a taxi to the hotel is Slotermeerlan, around 25 minutes from the city centre and upon arrival the staff let us check in early! I'd booked balloons and a cake for the room as a surprise for Will. The view from our hotel room was beautiful, our bed even more and we flopped into bed, it was around 2pm but we were exhausted from travelling so we passed out and didn't wake up until 5pm! The bed was amazingly soft so it was hard to drag ourselves out of it and get dressed for the evening.
The flight only took literally 45 minutes, we were up then down!!
After landing at Schiphol, we took a taxi to the hotel is Slotermeerlan, around 25 minutes from the city centre and upon arrival the staff let us check in early! I'd booked balloons and a cake for the room as a surprise for Will. The view from our hotel room was beautiful, our bed even more and we flopped into bed, it was around 2pm but we were exhausted from travelling so we passed out and didn't wake up until 5pm! The bed was amazingly soft so it was hard to drag ourselves out of it and get dressed for the evening.
We took the tram to the outskirts of town and found a nice little Italian restaurant after finding that Hard Rock Cafe was fully booked. We'd booked ourselves a table there for the next evening but we ordered some schnitzel and pizza for this evening and it was divine food! We shared a plate of chips and it was literally a huge portion!
After a couple of Heinekens, we decided to take the tram further into town to find a cafe where we could try some space cake, but not after having a couple of cocktails in a small bar called Getto. We ventured into cafe 4/20 then stumbled onto the tram home and ate Will's birthday cheesecake in bed until we fell asleep.
We woke up early and popped to the convenience store across the road to get some hotel snacks, then got ready and headed straight out for the day. We started with the Sexmuseum, which turned out to be pretty interesting! After grabbing some coffee we ventured to Anne Frank's house and took some selfies outside as we joined the queue only to be told they were only accepting online tickets. We were pretty sad about this but we were grateful we got to see it!
To cheer ourselves up, we took the tram a little further out of town to visit Mook pancakes. I ordered one with chocolate, fruit and coconut on it and Will ordered hummous and avocado pancakes. They were both very tasty.
After deliberating what to do with the gap in our plans, we decided to take the tram back into town to visit Ripleys wierd and wonderful museum. We saw a toy soldier made of toy soldiers, the Berlin wall and shrunken heads! It took us up until around 3pm, our booking was 6pm for Hard Rock Cafe so we decided to go back to the hotel and get ready for the evening again.
Heading for dinner, we enjoyed the twenty minute break on the tram and finally got off at the stop near the restaurant. It was lovely inside, very open and spacious with a great rock and roll vibe. Our table had an amazing view of the canal and the houses near it. Once we finished up we headed to Xtracold Icebar to have a few drinks and relax, although the name really sums up how cold it is in there! I was very glad for the heated room afterwards to relax and have a beer in.
Our last morning in Amsterdam we wanted to make the most of so we got up and got the tram before deciding we were craving a full English breakfast and a cup of tea! We found a little place that claimed to sell a Full english but we were served a breakfast consisting of toast with no butter, beans, salad (!!), a frankfurter, scrambled egg and a tomato so they were very close but unfortunately not quite there! Nevertheless we finished our food and cups of tea then carried on our adventures.
We arrived just outside the Rijksmuseum and were amazed at it’s beautiful architecture. After taking our touristy photos around the Iamsterdam sign we had a coffee in the coffee shop nearby and enjoyed the relaxation of sitting down.
After hunting for a charity shop, we found one slightly near and had a look around but didn’t find anything that would fit in our suitcases to take back home! It was then time to get our luggage from the hotel and take a taxi back to Amsterdam airport.
We treated ourselves to some pasta for dinner before checking in our bags and heading to security. The flight back was even quicker than the flight there and we landed in England, slightly happy to be home but sad to be leaving.
I would definitely go back to Amsterdam and do a couple more things but we had a lovely trip and are so excited for New York next on our lists!
Thanks for reading this, hopefully the first of many more adventures!
G x
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