Last week, I went on a 3-day trip to Amsterdam as a “post end of school term pre revision for exams” trip and had the most amazing time! ♡ Amsterdam is relatively warm during this time of the year when the sun is out (although it still gets REALLY windy and rainy) and tulip season has just started! 😀
Day One ♡
We arrived Amsterdam by Eurostar at noon and was greeted by the Amsterdam Central station 🙂 From there, we took a tram to our hotel which was right in the Leidsekade area where the city centre is.
View from our hotel room! ♡
We then took a stroll around the city centre where all the canals and high street shops are located! 😀 The weather on the first day was actually DREADFUL. It was raining really hard and the wind was super strong when we arrived! Nevertheless, this didn’t stop us from walking around and taking in the vibe of the city <3
The pretty Leidsekade district 😀 (Ignore the bike that fell because of the wind :P)
Beautiful canals everywhere ♡
One of the most interesting thing we saw in Amsterdam – burger vending machines?!
We also walked our way to the flower market where they sell tulip seeds, gardening-related and touristy things 🙂
Right beside the flower market are tons of these cute cheese stores – they literally have every flavour cheese you can imagine! These stores all have cheese samples for you to taste and I tried a piece of lavendar flavoured cheese which I found to taste really strange… :O It was a great experience looking at all the cheeses though and some of them do taste really really good 😀
Amsterdam is also famous for… substances that are basically illegal in most other countries. There are shops like these all around the city centre and I was shocked to hear how serious and professional-sounding sales assistants are when explaining to their customers how to consume the products :O These shops along with the Red Light District definitely reflect the more racy side of Amsterdam; but I do believe these are worth seeing as tourists in order to get a sense of part of the culture of the city 🙂
Since the wind and rain was getting so strong that my umbrella broke (LOL), we decided to hide from the horrible weather and went into a vintage coffee shop ♡ I absolutely love the vibe of this shop and we ordered a coffee each and chatted with the vintage shop owner who was lovely 🙂
After the weather got slightly better and the rain stopped, we wandered to the Dam Square, which is a town square right in the middle of the city centre where Madame Tussaud’s and the high-end department store De Bijenkorf are located 😀 We did go into De Bijenkorf for a while and admired the beautiful belts at Hermès but decided that it was probably not the best idea to spend all our trip money on the first day 😀
The Dam Square 🙂
Day Two ♡
On Day 2, we woke up extra early because we know we have a long day packed ahead of us 😀 We decided to visit the Van Gogh museum and arrived at around 8:40am and started queueing up even though the museum only opens at 9am. We were so glad we arrived and started queuing up early because by 9am long queues have already formed and I have previously heard people waiting hours and hours just to get in!
The I amsterdam sign outside Rijksmuseum 😀
Sneaky photo inside the Van Gogh museum – don’t think I was allowed to take this 😛
The museum is extremely well thought out and organised according to Van Gogh’s timeline in my opinion and we really enjoyed it. We then took a tour to Keukenhof, which is a tulip garden around 45 minutes away from Amsterdam 🙂 Tulip season has just started in the Netherlands and tulip gardens are attracting so many tourists. The flowers haven’t fully bloomed yet at this time of the year but the garden still looks beautiful ♡
Fresh stroopwafles sold in Keukenhof! ♡
The weather on the second day was (thank goodness) so much better than that on the first day! The sun was out most of the time and after our Keukenhof tour (it took around 5 hours in total), we got back to Amsterdam city centre and had a relaxing dinner at the Dam Square <3
Day Three ♡
Our last day in Amsterdam was spent mainly food hunting 😛 We didn’t have much time to go sight-seeing as we are leaving to go back to London late noon 🙂 We first went to the Anne Frank House but was told that it would take FOUR HOURS to get in, which was obviously crazy so we left. One thing about museums in Amsterdam is that I would definitely recommend pre-buying a museum pass/ the tickets online beforehand or else the queues are torturous!
We then decided to visit a special omelette/ breakfast place called Omelegg and let me tell you I ate probably one of the BEST omelettes I have ever eaten anywhere here – the dates, walnuts, honey and cinnamon omelette was delicious! ♡ I would definitely recommend giving this breakfast place a try if you are in Amsterdam and I am kind of sad that they don’t have this restaurant/ cafe in London!
The cozy atmosphere + heavenly food = a big thumbs up for Omelegg <3 (Their juices are great as well!)
My Dates Omelette!!! ♡
After breakfast, we decided to get MORE food so we paid a lovely visit to the famous Lanskroon Bakery where apparently the best stroopwafles in Amsterdam are made 😀 I have always loved stroopwafles and to be able to get them freshly handmade in Amsterdam is just divineeee <3 Lanskroon makes them in two flavours – honey and coffee caramel and we ended up taking away 6 of these lovely stroopwafles with us to eat on the train home and in London hehe 😛
My extremely happy stroopwafle-eating face 😀
And that basically concludes my Amsterdam trip! I definitely had a great time and think that Amsterdam is the kind of place I would not mind going back again and again <3 There is a certain charm to this city which is completely different to other European cities and is definitely worth visiting in my opinion! ♡
♡
Aw, I'd love to go to Amsterdam! It looks always so amazing and tulips are one of my favorite flowers! One day who knows! The pictures look beautiful! Xx
riitamacedo.blogspot.pt
Thanks! <3 If you get the chance definitely visit in the summer! That's when all the tulips are fully bloomed and the weather is warm 🙂 xx
Great post! Loved the cheese shop pictures and the burger vending machine looks so odd!! Glad you had a good time, I'd love to go 🙂
Rosanna x
Rose’s Rooftop
aww, all these flowers I definitely need to travel to the netherlands during tulip season
http://www.thefashionfraction.com
Haha yes the burger vending machines were the oddest things! 😛 You should definitely visit Amsterdam one day <3 xx
It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL during tulip season! 🙂 I wish I had travelled to Amsterdam a little bit later on in the year to see all the flowers fully bloomed but… no regrets for this trip! 😀 xx