Hello hello! Earlier this week, my friend and I went to Amsterdam for 3 days. We did a lot (no seriously though) of walking. Everyone told us to get bikes but we decided against it, as we'd have to constantly stop to check google maps and so it wouldn't be worth it.
I loved Amsterdam. All the lil' narrow houses were so quaint and there were so many cute cafes, restaurants and shops down the many streets. We were quite glad we were on foot for the hol as we could do so much exploring of the city. There are so many streets compacted in such a small area that we easily spent ages winding around Amsterdam.
(My camera is still away for repairs so I had to make do with my iPhone camera)
On one of the days we went to breakfast at Bagel & Beans. They have the largest array of bagel fillings with the choice of seven (!!!) different bagels. There's also salads and breakfast-y foods with superfoods like goji berries, chia seeds, that sort of stuff. Plus they have juices, an impressive list of cold and hot drinks (including my favourite: soy matcha latte ♡).
Smoked chicken, avocado, basil dressing (it was like a pesto), pine nuts and lettuce on an 'Oathie' bagel.
Yes, it was as good as it looks.
STACH was my favourite shop in Amsterdam. Obviously my favourite shop was a food shop. STACH is a kind of mini Wholefoods, where you can get the tastiest fresh foods - salads, sandwiches, lunch foods (rice/noodles/etc), lil' yoghurt pots, bakery foods, healthy snacks, etc. Basically they do everything and it all looks amazing.
Plus they do little free tasters round the shop which is always a beautiful thing.
They also sell granola, other packaged foods, and a variety of drinks - I tried some TAPPED birch water in the apple & root ginger flavour (see the pic above), which was really refreshing in the hot sun. It got up to 30 degrees celsius when we were there. A piece of advice: pack layers!!! Amsterdam was so much warmer than we expected.
We did a free walking tour with Sandeman, which I could not recommend enough! It was nice to be led around Amsterdam with a purpose, instead of aimlessly wandering about. He took us through a tiny corner of the Red Light District, the Old Church, the Jewish Quarter, the Royal Palace, and the Jordaan District (not in that particular order). Our guide, Onno had some really interesting facts and stories about Amsterdam.
He pointed out things that we hadn't noticed/realised: houses in Amsterdam were built very narrow as taxes were based on the width of the house - so people built houses upwards rather than outwards. As the houses were so thin, the stairways were very cramped which made it difficult to move furniture to the upper floors of the house. To get around this problem, hooks were built on top of houses (if you look closely in some of the pictures you may be able to see them) to act as a pulley to move large pieces of furniture - like sofas and beds - into the higher rooms. Until our guide pointed this out, I hadn't even noticed the little hooks on top of the houses, and ever since the tour, I couldn't stop noticing them everywhere.
My tip would be to book in advance for the free tour - no matter how many people are in your group. We turned up at the meeting place (outside the monument in Dam Square) for the morning tour, but all the places had filled up. You can book on their website here.
The tour is technically free, but you can tip the tour guide at the end of the tour if you feel like they've done a good job. They also do tours in other countries in Europe too, which I may look into when I go to Prague and Berlin next month.
I could not stop taking pictures of all the houses and buildings in Amsterdam - they're all so different and all equally beautiful. I said half-jokingly when I was there that everything looked 'so IKEA', but it was so true. Especially the interiors of every single place we went to - everything was so minimalistic and simple, basically 'so IKEA'.
After a couple of recommendations to go to the De Pijp district for food, we decided to go find a place for breakfast/brunch (We never really got up early enough to class a meal as 'breakfast'). My rule when it comes to a restaurant/cafe is that if it looks busy, it's probably really good. De Wasserette fit the bill.
We both ordered eggs - I ordered the Eggs Norwegian with smoked salmon and my friend ordered the Eggs Benedict with spinach. The eggs were cooked perfectly, the muffins were so soft and light, and the smoked salmon was so fresh and amazing.
For dinner one night we went to the Foodhallen, a large warehouse converted to a food court.
Unfortunately we went quite late at night at 10. Many of the stalls had closed/were closing. One of the only places still open was a burger bar called The Butcher. I ordered the Babaganoush - a beef burger topped with mashed aubergines and tahini on a brioche bun. The burger was cooked perfectly and hit that spot of hunger perfectly. I inhaled the whole thing in about 1 minute.
The Foodhallen is a bit out of the way from the centre but it's well worth the visit for the variety of food. I'd recommend not going too late into the evening if you're looking to eat. There were still a few bars open when we went though if you're staying late. I also saw a sign saying that they had jazz nights on a Tuesday, which may be well worth a lil' visit.
On our free tour we had a break where we bought a skip the queue ticket for the Rijksmuseum. It was about the same price as queuing for a ticket at the Rijksmuseum, and earlier in the week we had passed the Rijksmuseum and the queues for tickets looked crazy, so we didn't need much convincing to buy a ticket from the Sandeman walking tour company.
The famous 'I amsterdam' sign can be found outside the Rijksmuseum. There are people clambering all over the sign, so don't expect to get a picture without having at minimum of at least 12 other strangers in the photo too.
We visited the Rijksmuseum the day of our flight home, so we didn't actually have as long as we wanted to walk around the museum. The interiors of the building was just as beautiful as the pieces of art. I had a bit of a sore neck from staring up and gawking at the ceilings.
The Night Watch by Rembrandt van Rijn
We grabbed dinner in the airport before our flight. There weren't many choices for food at the airport, so another recommendation I'd make is grab dinner before you get to the airport! I noticed a lot of the airport was under construction though so maybe in the future there'll be more choices for food - but for now, eat before you get to the airport. Seriously.
Even though our trip was very short, I loved what we got to saw of Amsterdam and am definitely coming back. Tot de volgende keer!
P.S. my blog layout's acting up and won't view older posts. I'm trying to get it sorted though!
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