What I did in Amsterdam

Hello peeps!

How are we all doing today? Positively well I hope.

For today's post, I thought i'd write about a few of the things I did while I was enjoying my time in Amsterdam.

What can I say about Amsterdam - It's such a beautiful city, Holland is a beautiful region, the Netherlands is just gorgeous with so much to offer.

With the opportunity to live in this place for 3 months what should I do? Of course, I would use the opportunity to explore some of Europe, but I also had to explore Amsterdam and its surroundings and try to immerse myself into the Dutch lifestyle.

Here's a description of a few of the things which I did while living in Amsterdam.

Exploring the beautiful canals around the city

Amsterdam is a city built on canals. Known as the Venice of the north, some say Venice is the Amsterdam of the south. The canals scenery is gorgeous. While being in Amsterdam for 3 months I could see the progression of the seasons from winter to Spring to summer. Look at the beautiful transformation of the canals below. I loved spending the nice days just strolling around the canals, sitting and eating and just chillaxing. Also another fantastic thing is to during the summer time is rent a boat and chill on the waters of the canal. For tourists, I highly recommend doing a boat tour. It's absolutely brilliant, especially during the summer time when you have lovely long summery days.

 

 

Getting educated with museums

Amsterdam is known for their many museums and these have become one of their main tourists attractions. There’s so many to choose from, that they have a Museum Pass (Museumkaart) to give tourists free and discounted entry to a myriad of museums. 

I’ll list a few of the ones I was able to visit.

Van Gogh Museum

I love Van Gogh, he’s an amazing artist whose work just leaves everyone in Aw. The one of my favourite Doctor Who episodes was Vincent and the Doctor, Tony Curran did an amazing job portraying Vincent Van Gogh. The Van Gogh museum is located with many other museums in Museumplein, and is a popular choice for tourists. Due to this I’d advise to pre-book tickets or get a Museum Pass or just line up extra, extra, EXTRA early. The lines become massive, I’ve seen people bribe people just to get in front of the line. Inside this museum you’ll see works by Van Gogh himself and his contemporaries, various pieces include;

- Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers

- The Starry Night

- Almond Cherry Blossom

- Wheat Field Under Clouded Sky

Rijksmuseum

This museum has the famous Iamsterdam sign behind it. A must have photo when visiting Amsterdam. The Museum pass gives you access to the general admission part of the museum which shows various artwork and history of Amsterdam. There are also special exhibitions held here, at the time there was a Rembrandt exhibition.

Anne Frank Huis

This is another popular tourist spot for obvious reasons. I read her diary back in high school and have always wanted to visit her house.To avoid the crowds, I booked my ticket online, which helped me immensely, instead of lining up for two even three hours, I just walked in 10min before my tour time. With the online ticket, I was able to attend a talk about the history of Anne and her family and the other residents of the house. The house itself is now empty, so as you tour, you’re observing the surroundings which Anne and her family lived and hid in. People are impacted differently when they are walking through her house. 

Rembrandt's house

Rembrandt’s house was pretty cool, they re-created his kitchen, bedroom and work room. I liked walking through his house and seeing how he use to live and when you looked out the window, you could imagine yourself as Rembrandt looking into the streets of Amsterdam.

Seeing the tulips of Keukenhorf

What do you do when you are in Amsterdam and it's Spring time? You make your pilgrimage to the famous flower garden of Keukenhof to admire the botanical beauties, especially the tulips. Located in Lisse, Keukenhof is one of the world’s largest flower gardens.  This place is beautiful especially during the month of April when Tulipmania hits. We got lucky when we drove down here on a lovely sunny spring day. We came just before the full bloom of the tulips, however, the gardens were still gorgeous. While there, there are many activities on including wine tasting and yoga, there’s a giant windmill which you can walk up and view the tulip fields.

Visiting the dialects, windmills

When I think of the Netherlands I think of clogs and windmills. So obviously I had to make a trip to Zansse to see the windmills. (they look like Dialects! I swear one day, when we don't realise it the Dialects will awake and we are all doomed. But it's ok, that just means the Doctor will come and save us). Throughout the Netherlands there are still some windmills in operation. I got to visit one windmill that chops timber, it was really cool seeing this giant saw in operation. 

Visit the various markets

There are so many markets situated within Amsterdam, that it’s hard not to go and visit one. I loved spending sunny days just roaming through the markets and trying the various food samples. A few markets which I visited were;

- Albert Cuyp Market - located on Albert Cuypstraat, this is one of the largest markets in Amsterdam. It sells everything from fruit, vegetables, cheese, fish and spices to clothes, cosmetics and bedding.

- Bloemenmarket - the famous floating flower markets. It's lovely to stroll through and see all the flowers on sale and admire all the lovey displays. Opposite the gardens are souvenir shops and restaurants.

- Noordemarkt - farmers market opened on Saturdays. Fantastic to stroll through and smell the beautiful food cooking as well as buy fresh produce.

Other points of interest
- Vondelpark - this park is beautiful and gorgeous and just fantastic to sit and chill. I celebrated the 4th of July here with some friends. 
- Amsterdam Bos - I came here when the cherry blossoms were blooming and it was amazing. It was nice to just sit and chill. The park itself is massive and also very fun to explore!

- Dam Square - the town square of Amsterdam. Located around the square is the Royal Palace and the New Church (Nieuwe Kerk), off photo, is Madam Tussards and opposite the Royal Palance is the National Monument. During King's Day there is small fun fair set up here. During normal days there are people dressed up as Batman and other characters roaming around ready for photo opportunities. During memorial day, the royal family will attend New Church for the service and locals gather around Dam Square for the outdoor service.

- Begijnhof - the secret garden of Amsterdam, this place is beautiful. It's maintained by the local resisdents, and thus courtesy to be respectful of the surroundings and opening and closing times. Most walking tours will take you here.

- Centraal station - the beautiful red building represents Amsterdam's central station. Located here is the tourist centre and free wifi.

And there's plenty more to do a great source for anyone looking to travel to Amsterdam would be the iamsterdam site.

Hope you enjoyed this little snippet on Amsterdam. I did way more, but that would make this post way too long! It's a beautiful city and i'd definitely go back.

Until next time peeps!