just one week in paris, and i was already on a train heading north to the netherlands. together with my au pair family, we spent a phenom weekend in a-a-a-amsterdam...
wheels, water & weed - the three most common things you'll find in amsterdam:
1. wheels. amsterdam is a city that runs on two wheels. old-school push-bikes with super skinny wheels & cliché european vespas dominate the roads. apparently 80,000 bikes are stolen in amsterdam every year... happy days!
between us all we hired a bunch of bikes for the weekend and rode around the beautiful city. scariest thing ever trying to switch to the right-hand side on a bike - especially with a million +1 other bikes whizzing around. i just never know which way to look...
2. water. canals criss-cross their way across amsterdam, meaning that there was a never-ending number of bridges. at first it was confusing & so hard to tell where i was - it kinda felt like a maze. bit hard to read a map while riding a bike... sssssooo pretty cycling along the edges of canals, then up & over the little bridges. at night it's especially beautiful because all the cities light's are reflected in the water. amaze!
3. weed. no matter where i was in amsterdam, there was always a whiff of pot hanging in the air. there are coffee shops left, right & centre - this is amsterdam and there's nothing quite like it.
apart from these, i also cycled to the incred
van gogh &
stedelijk museums. got to see van gogh's famous sunflowers, as well as a tidal wave of impressionist & pop-art works at
de stedelijk. i couldn't come to amsterdam and not go to the
anne frank huis, so i pedalled on to check out where she hid away for two years during the WWII. it was a bit spooky to be standing in the actual house & reading (pretending to understand dutch) her actual diary...
in the centre of
nieuwmarkt there's a chateau-turned-restaurant where we ate on our first night here - then in the morning the whole square was transformed into a market. i lost track of time looking through a huge collection of old postcards, sketches, drawings and photographs of amsterdam & dutch culture - and eventually ended up buying several of my favs...for a grand total of 80c.
lining one of the central canals is the
bloemenmarkt - amsterdam's floating flower market. it's full of life with bright & bold flowers blooming from every free space - including a pile of wooden clogs.
gotta say though that my delish breakfast of
poffages on sunday topped off the entire weekend. omnomnom dutch pancakes with lemon & dusted with icing sugar...
dag for now, amsterdam ...but i'll be back
S.
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| noah the chocolate face |
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| red light district |
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| de waag, château-turned-restaurant |
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| bloemenmarkt |
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| de rijksmuseum |
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| zelfportreet, van gogh 1887-88 |
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| fishing boats on the beach at saintes-maries, van gogh 1888 |
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| luckily there was a diagram - i wasn't sure what to do with the button |
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| what is puch? |
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| our hotel |
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| amsterdam = bike city |
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| necessary addition to the mug? |
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| second-hand books for the taking on geldersekade |
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| just a couple of bikes |
