I must admit I wasn’t that excited about our long weekend in Amsterdam. Don’t get me wrong, I love to travel anytime, anyplace. But I guess my expectations were low.
Sex shows, prostitutes and drugs don’t feature highly on my things that a good holiday destination should have.
Great food, friendly people, pretty sourroundings and lots to see and experience do.
And perhaps this is why I fell in love with Amsterdam.
The canals were so pretty. The food fantastic (and especially the cheese – oh the cheese!). The people friendly. The houses stunning. The shops so quirky and cool.
We fell in love so hard we have even been speaking about moving there to live. At some point. (Our families breath a collective sigh of relief).
I think we really fell in love our B&B first, and then this just set us up for a weekend of happiness. We were greeted by a beautiful dog called Beethoven – a bearded collie, border collie cross. He was just adorable. After noticing the dog, we noticed the house. It was a 16th century canal house that had been kept intact – meaning it hadn’t been chopped up and turned into apartments. Floor to ceiling windows overlooking the canal. Beautiful features and fittings. You can see more photos here – but to be honest, I don’t think it does the place justice.
We arrived early evening, and our friends weren’t arriving till much later so we wandered the canals for a few hours. The sun went down, people turned on their lights but didn’t close their curtains; I was in heaven. So many amazing houses to look into. Such great spaces, so well fitted. Lamps and artwork and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. I was pretty much drooling. And when there wasn’t houses to drool over there were little boutique shops to peer into. The houses are all pretty old in the central city and I loved the fact that some of them were leaning one way or other, with windows sagging – it all added to its charm.
In our usual travel style, we stumbled across a neat looking restaurant just as we were getting hungry. When we walked in all we could hear was Dutch being spoken and we let out a smile. Away from the tourists once again! However as the evening progressed we heard more and more English, but the meal was so good (and pretty cheap) we weren’t heard to complain. And just as we were finishing up dessert the older Dutch couple next to us started chatting. They had travelled so much (you mention Vietnam, and they say they have been there yes, just 3 times!) and had heaps of great stories to tell. It topped off a great dinner experience (and the fact that they have been going to that restaurant for 25 years, and he used to teach the owner Economics in high school…)
We then met our friends at a local bar and met up with some locals and not so locals and chatted away until the wee hours (well wee for me – 1am!!). After a great sleep we came down to the dining room for a great breakfast. The sun was streaming through the windows. The canal was sparkling. The food was yummy.
Then we got on our walking shoes and walked. And walked. And walked. And ate fantastic apple cake. And walked some more. We saw markets and canals. More lovely houses. And just a few bicycles!
We stopped at various places along the way
but we walked a lot. Stocky’s old man hip flared up, so we went home to have a nap (for me) and reading of a book (for him) in the late afternoon. Our friends (Morgan and Eva) went out for a flash restaurant but we wandered the local streets and found a great place for a meal.
Then on Sunday it was a bit of wash, lather and repeat excercise. More walking. More enjoying. More food. And just a little bit of shopping!
Amsterdam. A great city. One I would recommend. And perhaps a home city for us one day!
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