Amster-dam Good Time

Cam and I left Brussels, Belgium early on March 7th and made our way to one of the cities on my "Must Visit" list - Amsterdam!

March 7th:

We arrived in Amsterdam via bus around noon and were able to quickly catch a taxi to drop our luggage off at the hotel. We stayed at The Alfred Hotel, which was about a 20 minute walk away from Museum Square and felt bigger than your average European hotel room. After dropping off our things, we headed to our first (and, arguably, most exciting) part of the trip.

The walk to the Van Gogh museum was lovely. We passed by cute streets, saw a plethora of bikers, and got to enjoy the significantly warmer weather. It was crazy how we left sleet in Brussels and a couple hours later were enjoying 60 degree weather in Amsterdam.

The Van Gogh Museum was huge, split into two sections, and had a new temporary exhibit about Van Gogh's life. Cam and I decided that it was worth it to pay 7 euro for the audio guide and went to the temporary exhibit. After touring the first exhibit, we stopped by the huge gift shop to pick out some souvenirs and headed to lunch at the cafe in the museum (which was really delicious). Afterwards, we went through the other three floors of the museum and saw a lot of Van Gogh's iconic art. In total, we spent just over 4 hours in the museum.

After leaving the museum, we decided to get some dinner before heading to our next activity. We began the walk back towards the hotel and decided to head down a side street to find some place to eat. We ended up stopping at a place called Carter for dinner before catching a cab to the Amsterdam Ice Bar.

Cam and I have been in an ice bar before, and it was super cool. When we saw there was one in Amsterdam, it was an obvious "yes" when it came to doing it. You could spend however long you wanted in the ice bar and got to choose between candy-flavored vodkas or a Heineken. Afterwards, you had time to warm up in a non-ice bar and got a free cocktail. The bar was pirate themed, which was fun, and was significantly warmer than the ice bar we went to in London.

After the ice bar, we took the 45 minute walk back to the hotel. It was really beautiful, because we got to walk along the canals and look into some of the smaller art galleries around Amsterdam. Soon, we were back at the hotel and preparing for the next day.

March 8th:

Our first activity was a wine and cheese canal tour around the canals of Amsterdam. We went to Le Pain Quotidien for breakfast and set out to the tour meeting spot. The walk to the beginning of the tour was beautiful, and we passed lots of little shops and beautiful bridges. The tour began right outside of the Anne Frank house, so we saw the outside of the museum, but didn't go in. The tour was great, the Amsterdam cheese was delicious, and our tour guides gave us a lot of great information about Amsterdam.

After our tour, we began wandering through the streets of Amsterdam and decided to stop in the Lego store. We got the cool souvenir of custom Lego people and saw some amazing Lego art pieces. Then, we decided to go to the Royal Palace of Amsterdam to take the guided tour. The palace was stunning and had some beautiful marble work. It was cool to hear about the history of the crown. After touring the palace via audio guide, we headed to Lido for some lunch and Bakery Cafe for a treat afterwards.

Finally, we were off to Cam's favorite part of the trip - The Heineken Experience. Heineken was invented in Amsterdam, so we made sure to book it when we decided to go to Amsterdam. We learned about the history of Heineken, how you make Heineken, what you're supposed to smell and taste when drinking Heineken, and see the old factory. I don't even like Heineken, but it was still very cool to see. After your tour, which takes well over an hour, you're led to "the best Dam bar" in all of Amsterdam where you can order - you guessed it - only Heineken.

After leaving The Heineken Experience, we headed to Kaasbar Amsterdam, which served fancy cheese and wine on a converter belt. It was pretty cool. We enjoyed the scenic walk headed back to the hotel and enjoyed a dinner from 24/7 Burger Amsterdam. It began snowing that evening, so we got to watch it snow and the tiny cars zip by from the windows.

March 9th:

We woke up early on March 9th to have some time to enjoy the morning in Amsterdam before we headed to the airport. We began by headed back to the Museum Square to see if we could get into any of the museums. We started by getting a freshly made waffle outside of the Van Gogh museum for breakfast before trying to get into the Rijksmuseum. Unfortunately, we couldn't manage to get tickets so we simply walked across the square to the Moco Museum.

There were lots of different types of art in the Moco Museum, including Banksy and Warhol. There were immersive displays, iconic pieces of art, and some things that reminded you art is subjective. After leaving the museum, we grabbed some fries before heading back to the hotel to finish packing the last of our things and catching a cab to the airport.

We finished packing right as our cab arrived and we headed down to go to the airport. We had planned to arrive two hours early just so we would have time to get some lunch and find our gate. We had a bit of trouble at check-in, but it turned out it was because we got to check our bags for free. We dropped our bags off and headed through the most effective airport security I've ever seen, and then headed to McDonald's to try Netherlands McDonald's.

We saw that our flight to London was delayed 45 minutes, so we took our time exploring some of the different shops and playing the airport simulation game that the airport has. I tried an Amsterdammed, a cocktail that's very popular in Amsterdam, and then we took the long, 20 minute walk to our gate.

Once we got to our gate, we realized our flight was no longer delayed 45 minutes, but instead, 4 hours. We sat and watched the planes take off, talked about our favorite parts of our trip, and watched some of the show we had started (you've got to take advantage of European Netflix while you can). After a long four hours, we were on the way to London.

Once we arrived in London, we immediately headed to King's Cross and bought tickets to get back to Hull. We had about 45 minutes before our train left, so we got some dinner and boarded our train to Hull, where we spent the rest of Cam's time in the UK.

The trip to Amsterdam was one of my favorites of all the places I've been. From the art, to the streets, to the tiny cars driving around the city, I loved it all. And I cannot wait to go back.

In Order: Cam and I in Front of the Rijksmuseum; Irises - Van Gogh Museum; Cam and I at the Amsterdam Ice Bar; Sunflowers - Van Gogh Museum; Long-Stemmed Tulips in a Shop Window; Smallest Cheese Shop in Amsterdam; Bedroom in Arles - Van Gogh Museum; Chandelier in the Amsterdam Palace; Heineken Bottle Display - The Heineken Experience; Lego Van Gogh; Cam and I at The Heineken Experience; Cigarette with Skull - Van Gogh Museum; Cam with Old Heineken Bottle; Tiny Car