After our whirlwind time in Paris, we were excited to have a few days in Amsterdam! I only have fond memories of my last visit to Amsterdam, wandering around admiring art and windmills and eating all of the cheese and pancakes we could muster.

We got of the train, admiring all the stunning canals and straight-from-a-travel-magazine  architecture, and dropped everything off at the hostel. Max decided to have a rest while Roisin and I went to meet up with Steph and Dave who happened to be crossing paths with us while on their Contiki tour! We met at HardRock Cafe, and spent the afternoon catching up, swapping travelling stories and laughing while we ate and then wandered the streets!

 

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We decided to start our first full day in classic “us” style – with Sandeman’s New Amsterdam Free Tour!! Our engaging and enthusiastic tour guide took us from the National Monument in Dam Square, through the Red Light District and the Jewish Quarter, past the World’s first Stock Exchange, The Anne Frank House and Hidden Catholic churches and to the smallest house in Amsterdam! She was an American who had been living in Amsterdam for 11 years and she taught us the value to praying to the sun gods when you are living in this part of the world.. S.A.D. is a real thing as it turns out! She also made me fall in love with Amsterdam, and the Netherlands. She regaled us with stories about how the Netherlands is the only country in the western world where obesity rates are trending down, free water is available all over the city, children are NOT given any homework and are encouraged to “help” decide what is for dinner (which the kids on our tour LOVED) and how they deal with drugs in the city. She painted the Netherlands as quite a proactive and cannot just sit back and relax”.

After stopping at an adorable canal-side cafe for lunch, we decided to take a boat tour. Although most of the information we herd already received on our walking tour, this was a great way to see the city from the bottom up (and rest our feet for a while)!

After having a rest back at the hostel, we met up with Sinéad and Caitlin for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. It was a little out of the way from where we were staying, but it was well worth the effort and confusion from getting off on the wrong tram stop. It was a new little place, the waiters were hilarious, the food was delicious, there was hardly anyone else there and the cocktails were aplenty!

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This morning we started with the Heineken Experience. We were not entirely sure how much we would like it. We had heard nothing but good reviews, but beer is not our favourite drink in the world.. However, we were not disappointed! The tour is set in their former brewery and was sensational! Interactive from start to finish, we were shown old photographs and state decorations Heineken family received, a famous gold medal from The Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1889, how to make the beer, impressive brass beer tanks and a quiet horse stable. The real fun started when you ‘become’ a beer by getting shaken up, sprayed with water and subjected to heat. I mean some parts seemed more for kids than anything else, but it was such a laugh and enjoying our free beer tastings (and some of the tasting left around by other people…) we left feeling more than a little bit tipsy.

 

We needed to grab some lunch before our walking tour – not only because it was lunch time, but because otherwise I don’t think I would have concentrated on a single thing she said with my beer hat on.

The Alternative Walking Tour was great and was more focussed on what made/makes Amsterdam a must-visit destination for people over the world. We learnt about the post-WWII housing crisis that began today’s current phenomenon of living in boats or in squats, the liberal laws, the counter-culture movements, why bicycles are an integral part of the city, the gentrification and urban development and saw some of the street art hidden in the city centre.

After the tour finished, we indulged in a fresh stroopwafel. These are the most delicious things!! Literally meaning “syrup waffle”, it is a waffle made from two thin layers of baked dough with a caramel-like syrup filling in the middle. Mmmmm

While Roisin ventured off for some cultural time at the Van Gogh museum, Max and I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the Jordaan quarter – a former workers’ quarter. The area is now filled with cosy pubs, galleries and markets squashed into a grid of tiny lanes, and we enjoyed getting lost while window-shopping at all the quirky and unique shops.

Dinner tonight was at Ramen-Ya, a Japanese noodle bar. It was delicious, and we were having such a good time that we did not realise we were the only people left in the restaurant and the waiters were standing around waiting for us to leave.. oops!

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Today was perhaps the day we were most excited about – it was cycling time! Two wheeling is simply a way of life in Amsterdam, so we hired our bikes and jumped on to see what all the fuss was about. Max was certainly the most confident and took the lead. We made our way out of town to find a windmill, back through town to the IAmsterdam sign (where we battled with about 3 million other people for a photo) and to Vondelpark – one of Amsterdam’s most magical places. We rolled through the sprawling, English-style gardens, with ponds, lawns, footbridges and winding footpaths. We found a quiet patch of grass and settled down to enjoy our picnic by one of the ponds. The cheese and fruit were divine, but my favourite part had to be the pigeon man. We had unknowingly sat ourselves near a chap who had decided to make himself one with the pigeons.. with bird food in abundance he lured them close (many chose to sat on him) and proceeded to talk to them. The only downside to this whole experience was when a small child, clearly fascinated by what was happening, slowly and quietly made his way up to the man and tried to engage with him and the birds. Even sat down next to him for awhile and watched in awe, chin in his hands. Pigeon man flat out ignored this poor child, and after a while, the child gave up and returned to his mother.

 With the food demolished, it was time to return our bikes. Unfortunately along the way I had forgotten some of the bike road rules and accidentally led the girls to ride on the wrong side of the road!!! We awkwardly had to cross the busy road, shooting many apologetic glances in all directions, and we managed to return our bikes, narrowly avoiding hitting any tourists/pedestrians along the way.

With a very early flight the next day (4.30am to London), we decided to enjoy some tasty burgers for dinner and reminisce about our travels before calling it a night!