Amsterdam is one city where the main focus always appears to be on the red light district and the coffee-shop culture (not to be confused with a cafe, where you purchase coffee). It wasn’t until we visited that I learnt there is definitely more to this city than most tourists travel here for.
We arrived on a busy long weekend, the streets packed with people. It’s quite easy catching the train from Schiphol International Airport to the city centre but it was from there that we felt inundated with people celebrating in the streets. We jumped on a tram, trying to follow the directions I had researched prior to arrival but we had no idea if we were travelling in the right direction, or whether we could even ask someone for help. We jumped off the tram and flagged a taxi for an easy way to our accommodation. With Amsterdam being the first city we visited where english was a second language, we were definitely out of our comfort zone but I honestly love the feeling – exploring the unknown, you have constant butterflies and at the same time intrigued to explore more. It doesn’t take long until you start talking to locals, finding out most people speak english anyway.
Amsterdam, along with London and Paris is where we decided to splurge on accommodation. Greeted by the owner, we dragged our bags up the steepest and most narrow staircase with barely our toes to step with before entering our room, excited at the sight of our private balcony and beautiful views of the canal. The owner offered to take us on a private boat tour through the canals of Amsterdam to see the sights and what an unexpected beauty.
Like we do in most cities, we bought a 48 hour hop-on hop-off bus pass to get us introduced to the city and sites. Top of our must sees was the Anne Frank house. Ensure to arrive early to skip the midday queues!
We visited the Amsterdam cheese museum and sampled all the different flavours of freshly made cheese before exploring the Jordaan area filled with cute houses, cafes and restaurants.
Jumping off the bus at Centraal train station, we grabbed a Starbucks coffee and walked the streets of Damrak to Dam Square. We visited a sex museum with very bad taste, before exploring the red light district. As dodgy as this area may seem, the rest of Amsterdams streets and canals are beautiful as trees that lined the waterways sprung to life in spring.
Another great way to explore and get around in Amsterdam is to hire bikes! This bike friendly city has dedicated bike lanes to travel along side the road. We rode around beautiful Vondelpark, explored Rijksmuseum and the Iamsterdam sign. If you have spare time, head to the Heineken brewery for a tour. Close by to Rijksmuseum is the De Carrousel cafe, a must visit to give into your sweet tooth and enjoy the best crepes. So good, we ate there twice! We biked around to the Artis Royal Zoo (without visiting inside) and came across Nemo, the science centre where we climbed the stairs to the top & relaxed in the water features.
As you may know, Amsterdam is famous for a few things and it took us days to puck up the courage to enter a coffeeshop so we could buy weed. Even though it’s legal in Amsterdam, it still felt weird buying a drug that is illegal back home. Sitting on the corner of the canal across from Damrak, we went inside the Grasshopper and bought hash brownies before entering another small cafe, one I didn’t get the name off. We were greeted by the laid back lady behind the counter with options of pre-rolled joints and what strength we preferred. Smoking some in the shop, we hopped back on our bikes and head back to Vondelpark.
I can hear it now, the sirens of ambulance and police zooming around the streets. Hoping the sirens weren’t related to the above, it soon became a familiar sound throughout our Europe travels.
With 5 days I was worried how we would spend our time in Amsterdam but it became one of my favourite cities – the feeling in the air, the sights and the smell of spring. Amsterdam was surprisingly beautiful!
Hotel: The Amstel Corner Guest House
Room type: Honeymoon suite
Price: $170 per night for 5 nights
ONLY HAPPY WHEN I TRAVEL 