And we love Amsterdam! We had a fabulous trip to the capital city of the Netherlands, enjoying the food, the people, the shopping, the beautiful canals, and the local, eh em, “flavor.” As soon as we hopped off the train from Paris, we were in awe of the hundreds of canals weaving throughout the small, quaint streets lined with classic Dutch architecture and rainbows of colorful flowers. Walking down the cobblestone paths, we couldn’t help but feel as if we had stepped into a storybook picture from another century.
We spent our time wandering the streets, finding cute, quirky shops and cafes around every corner. Although Amsterdam is considered a fairly big city, it felt more like a small town- and learning our way around was much easier than Paris, as we found everything was closer than originally anticipated. The main problem we encountered was reading and understanding the street names, like Kloveniersburgwal and Egelantiersdwarsstr, which all seemed to sound the same and more like a jumbled mess of letters to us than actual words. Renting bikes made our exploration of the city more user friendly, as soon as we got used to the insanely aggressive style of cycling. If you’ve never been to Amsterdam, here’s a little insight we learned about transportation. The majority of people travel by bike, and bikes have the right away when driving (above pedestrians and cars). People do not take this lightly, and will have no problem running you over or off the road. Although the Dutch culture seems to be extremely laid back and easy going, when it comes to biking, it’s the complete opposite. We quickly adapted to this way of life, as they say, “When in Holland…”
We also quickly adapted to the way of eating in Amsterdam. The food was absolutely amazing, but how could you not love pancakes topped with fresh strawberries, ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate?! There was also a plethora of vegetarian restaurants, which was a relief as eating tomato and mozzarella baguettes can get old after three weeks. Other highlights of our visit included:
Hopefully one day we’ll return, it is definitely a unique city full of character and lots to do. Until next time, afscheid Amsty!
Claude Monet
