Friday 14 April 2017

Amsterdam


Finally, I’m putting this post up. I’ve been saying for ages I was going to upload a post of my recent trip to Amsterdam, and by ages I mean about 2 weeks! So at the end of March we headed off to Amsterdam. I had always wanted to go, so for Valentine’s Day I booked the flights for myself and Stephen (this was more a present for myself!). I’m a wagon for choosing the earliest flight so we flew out at 6:16 am and arrived in Amsterdam at about 9 am. The issue with this is that you can’t actually check in to most hotels until after 1 pm.

Location…

By the time we got out of the airport and onto the train, it was about 11 am by the time we got to Amsterdam central. From here we got a bus to our hotel which was literally up the road. Thank god for google maps because otherwise we would have been completely lost.

Top Tip: If you’re getting the train from the airport to Amsterdam Central, you will need a lot of change, as the ticket machines don’t accept notes or visa debit cards.

We found our hotel, which was literally a door in between a row of shops, and chanced our arm at checking in, or at least dumping our bags somewhere! I was completely taken a back by the fun house stairs up to the reception (these stairs really weren’t fun), there was no mention of this on the website or booking.com. Luckily when we got to the reception we were told our room was the only room unoccupied last night and we were able to check in straight away. Unluckily, we were told to get to our room we had to go back down stairs, turn right and find the other door about 5 shops up. This had MORE stairs up to it and we were on the fourth floor. I was so out of breath and tired by the time we got upstairs that I needed a little nap. I think I ended up sleeping until about 4 pm when Stephen woke me up and said we had to go exploring. Our room was fine, a bed, a bathroom, a TV – by fine I mean this was the deluxe room and there was nothing deluxe about it, the TV didn’t work and it was a little cramped. Other than the stairs, the cramped room and the TV that didn’t work (who needs a TV anyway), we were in the perfect location. If you don’t mind walking up 4 flights of steep stairs everyday then I would recommend this hotel, it is in such an ideal location and didn’t break the bank (€300 for 3 nights). If you want to find out more information you can visit the website here.

Things to do…

We had been told by a few different people to pick up a tram card because we’d need one… we didn’t, we walked everywhere, like literally everywhere. The weather was perfect and its mainly all flat (apart from walking over certain bridge’s) so it’s easy to walk wherever you want.

There’s so much to do in Amsterdam, there’s museums around every corner. Everything from cheese museums to sex museums. We tried to fit as much in as we could. We ended up doing Madame Tussauds, the Ice Bar and the Sex Museum on Tuesday. We were out for the whole day, but we were kept so busy. I wasn’t a massive fan of Madame Tussauds, I had been to the one in New York and Stephen had been to the one in London so I think we both had high expectations. I think the best part of our trip was the Ice Bar. For €16 you get two drinks inside and one cocktail in the lounge area, and the cocktails are delish.

On the Wednesday we went to the Heineken experience and then walked back towards the Anne Frank house. The queue was massive so we couldn’t go in unfortunately. We had been to the Guinness Storehouse at Christmas and we both felt that the Guinness tour was better, even though the Heineken Experience was really interactive. It cost €16 each and I had booked the tickets before we left Ireland. That night we went for a stroll down the red light district and went for a drink beside the canals.

Top Tip: if you want to go to the Anne Frank House book it in advance, like 3 months in advance.

Our last day was the Thursday, and our flight wasn’t until after 9 pm that evening so we left our bags at the hotel and went off to do a bit more exploring, and shopping. We ended up doing the prostitute museum and taking another stroll up the red light district during the day. It felt like we were literally trying to kill time and there really wasn’t anything else for us to do. I wanted to visit the zoo while we were here but we couldn’t do this on the last day as it would take too long to do and get back from.

I really felt like we had done everything we wanted to do (apart from the Anne Frank House and the zoo), so if i was coming back I wouldn’t be going back to do sightseeing.


The Food…
I love food, but it doesn’t always love me. I always get weary about eating abroad as it might not react well with me, and to be honest it's not just aboard I get that fear at home also. The food in Amsterdam is sort of like at home, there seemed to be a lot of Italians and steakhouses. On our first day we went to a little cafĂ© and I had salmon which was delish. The second day we had a pizza which was fine, but I couldn’t finish it. And on our last evening Stephen found this lovely Argentinian restaurant. I was so weary, because I thought I wouldn’t like a thing on the menu, but it was a steakhouse. It was delicious, really really well done and the perfect cut.

If you’re like me and eating abroad scares you, there is nothing to worry about in Amsterdam. Plus they seem to be mad about pancakes, pancakes everywhere (their version of pancakes are our version of Crepes).

Overall I had such a lovely trip and was knackered once I got back. We ended up doing so much walking and fit in so much more than I could have ever imagined. I would 100% recommend you visit, but book stuff in advance as it can work out cheaper and look at the reviews before you book accommodation! In terms of cash, it is expensive, but that was because we went to so many different sights.

Have you been to Amsterdam? What was your opinion?