It’s here! The first work trip that I have brought somebody with me! Hehe. Heather is super excited to join me, and I can’t wait to see all that we accomplish together! Heather is a super planner and has a mental map of Amsterdam already, and basically has our entire day planned for sightseeing. Perfect!
Love the golden light! 😍
We get to the hotel and try to get to our rooms, and if you know this hotel, then you know just how hard it can be to find your room. I try to explain this to people, but it’s not easy to portray the oddness and frustrations, but today, Heather was in for a treat. We go up the normal elevators and start looking for our room number. As soon as we see the first signage, I knew we were in for it, haha. Our number was much higher than the ones we were seeing in the hall. And as I was describing how sometimes you have to go through a fire door, and it feels like you shouldn’t because they’re closed, but that’s the route to the other side of the building. So today, that was exactly our fate, and we open said fire door, and what awaits us on the other side is not a mirror image of the hall of we’re about to leave, but rather a downhill ramp floating above a large sitting area. Hahah, what?! So we both have a laugh at this, and we decide to have Heather hold the one door, juuuusssst in case the door at the other end doesn’t open, and the one we’re going through locks itself. Doubtful, but why risk it when there are two of us? So I roll myself and my suitcase down the ramp and open the door successfully. Great! Now, back to the normal hallways of this hotel. We’re getting closer to our room, right? HA! We see all the numbers except for ours and the a small range of other rooms on a sign, and it says 3B with a down arrow. Ummm…what? We’re on floor 3, presumably where our room is, but now this sign is telling us to take the elevator down to floor 3B? Hahah….welll, alrighty……here we go! Haha. Turns out, this section of the hotel has an extra floor squeezed in somewhere when compared to the other half’s 3 floors. Okay, totally bizarre, but this side tends to have the larger rooms, and ours doesn’t disappoint! Sweeeet!
We take about an hour and a half to regroup from the sleepless night and start organizing ourselves for the long day ahead. We wanted to try and get tickets to the Anne Frank house, which is notoriously difficult, but we learned that more tickets are released at 9 am the day of. So we logged on and attempted to snag any tickets but were unsuccessful. At least we tried! Hehe.
We decided to take a trip to the grocery store to grab a light breakfast and to stock pile some goodies. Mostly for me, haha. I love to get a sea-salt chunk butter, which is also readily available in Paris, some cheese, and sometimes frozen bitterballen and croquettes. Of course, the chocolate stroopwafels, but I’ve been having a hard time finding those in the grocery stores and having better luck in the airport.
Our little breakfast was a ham and cheese croissant, and we added more cheese…mustard flavor! It was delicious! We scarfed these down and washed it down with some extremely hot coffee…. Caffeinating to the best of our abilities, hehe.
First up: the Brouwersgracht canal, and a walk past the Anne Frank House. There were tons of people already there, and there was a small line of folks waiting for a picture with the small plaque. We smiled on autopilot for our picture, but afterward realized that in a place like this, with such a sinister history, maybe it’s not always appropriate to smile. I think I’d like to re-read her story.
The Anne Frank House.
We continue our morning, strolling around the canals, chasing amazing views, and discovering fun shops in the Jordaan area. We eventually realize we’re getting hungry and are in need of a bathroom, hehe. So, as we were walking, we kept an eye out for an appropriate establishment to suit our needs. For a good while now, we have been seeing tons of restaurants with pancakes, and Heather read how that is a must do in Amsterdam. So, we narrowed our search to some sort of pancake-ery. We found one in no time and settled in for a small snack and a coffee.
How cute is this place?! 😍🤩
Refreshed a second time, we make our way to the floating flower market! I was hunting for tulip bulbs that were USDA approved but couldn’t find any. Someday, I’d like to bring some back, but today wouldn’t be the day, lol. Instead, we enjoyed looking at all the displays and seeing buckets upon buckets of a variety of bulbs.
I want to take them all home! Hehe 😍🤗
We were distracted by a cheese shop across the way and had to go in. We wanted to sample all the different flavors. Heather ended up buying a truffle cheese, and I was left undecided, wishing I could have tasted the coconut cheese. I love coconut, and I love cheese….though that combination had me wondering, haha. It’ll now be my mission to try it! 😁
We left the flower market area and headed towards the infamous Dam Square. A bustling city square surrounded by beautiful buildings, including the national palace. Heather and I did a few 360s in awe of our surroundings, and we decided to test out my new selfie stick. Success! It’s never glamorous to pull out a retractable selfie stick, but hey, it makes for a great picture without depending on others to do it for you. 🙂
Not too shabby for a selfie stick, hehe 😅🤣.
From here, we walked all the way back towards the Museumplein, where all the museums are located. We decided we didn’t want to try and visit any museums, not that we’d be able to get entry tickets on a Sunday anyways, but we wanted to go see the area, and a special feature that is 100% instagramable. The “IAMSTERDAM” sign. If you’ve been, you know what I’m talking about, and they have one at the airport as you exit. We wanted to get our picture by the sign, and rather than have the crew wait for us while we did it at the airport, we decided to do it at this other location. Welp. Let this be a lesson to take advantage of things in the moment, because that sign is no longer at the museums! It’s gone. We missed our opportunity. Hehe. Heather snagged a shot of the sign as we were leaving Amsterdam, but still…would’ve been neat, and probably THE most touristy thing we could’ve done. Hehe.
The gorgeous Rijksmuseum 😍.
Next up, one of my personal faves, the Albert Cuyp Market. I was taken here by another flight attendant a while back, and it was here, in this bustling pedestrian street lined with vendors of all kinds, that I sampled my first taste of heaven, a freshly made stroopwafel the size of a personal pizza, complete with dripping caramel. Now, I had obviously tried the delectable stroopwafel before, but never hot off the press, and let me be the first to tell you, the packaged ones do not hold a candle to the fresh ones. Not by a long shot. But by the time I had finished eating said stroopwafel, I had caramel running down my chin, both hands, and all over my toes and Birkenstocks, haha. The messier, the better, right?
It was also here that I was introduced to a Birkenstock store, and my heart was never so full. 🙂 If you know me well, you know that I live in my birks almost year round. I had heard tell of this Birkenstock store and having different inventory that in the US. I was pleasantly surprised by the validity of this statement and found myself a pair of silvery birks that are very different from my go-to hippie brown-leather ones. They had a red leather pair that I still regret not buying to this day. Haha. I will be back, and I hope they have something like that because I will buy them up in a heartbeat.
I digress…. Hehe. Heather and I show up, and I cannot wait to be reacquainted with the drippingly sweet caramel stroopwafel of my dreams, and to maybe treat myself to new birks, but as we rounded the corner, my heart dropped and my head fell to my chest in one of the greatest disappointments of my life. There were zero vendor stalls, zero food carts, nothing! It was deserted! And on a Sunday, nonetheless!! I never thought to check how often it was open, I just assumed it was a permanent fixture. HUGE fail. We were super bummed, but I guess not everything can go according to plan, hehe. So, we pivoted, said adieu to the sometimes glorious Albert Cuyp Market, and worked our way for a drive-by sighting of the Heineken Brewery. We snapped our pictures and continued on our way.
Because you just have to walk by it, hehe 🤣.
By this point, with no stroopwafel to fuel the next segment of our arduous yet beautiful tour of the city, I was in need of sustenance. We looked at the menu of a cute outdoor patio place, and it was essentially just pancakes. Ummm… been there, done that, and I need something a bit more substantial. The search continues!
The next stop was a cute little bar/cafe with sidewalk seating. We snagged a tiny table and looked at the menu. Not much here, but they do have bitterballen! A Dutch classic and a necessity to try when visiting Amsterdam. Heather and I shared an order of these, and I also grabbed a fancy grilled cheese, essentially, oh, and how could I forget! A pint of Heineken. I need carbs for the walk, hehe. Also, I can’t help but indulge when taking advantage of my ridiculously amazing job, especially with a new travel companion like Heather. 🙂 She ordered an Aperol Spritz, and we happily took a few minutes to sit and relax our tired legs. The sun was beating down on us, but it also felt so lovely. Sun kissed with a drink in our hands, eating bitterballen. Yum! Can life get any better than this? Hehe
Oh, so refreshing! 🤗
Once we had our fill, we quickly decided it’s the perfect time for our canal cruise. We saw some different companies while walking around all day, and we picked our favorite, based on the small boats they had, well, and the wine and cheese we could see the passengers enjoying, hehe.
We buy our tickets and have to hoof it back towards the Anne Frank House, about a 20-minute walk. We had trouble finding the spot to pick up the boat, as the company was set up on either side of the Anne Frank House, so the first stop was incorrect, but we were graciously guided to the other side, where our VERY fancy boat awaited us. Now, we did pay for the “luxury” cruise, as it included wine and cheese. Well, we were expecting an open-air little boat with a 15-person capacity, 20 max. What we got was the “Titanic,” literally, that was the boat’s name. Haha. Or Uh-oh? 😅😂It was a long covered wooden boat, with seating around the edge, complete with cushions, and down the middle were tables covered in little cheese boats, hehe. Plus, the wine bar 🙂 As we get settled in, the guides come around offering us our wine choices…fill ‘er up! Haha. The cheese was to die for and served with mustard, and I had to control myself and not eat it all in one go, hehe.
Cheers! 🥂
We learned so much on our cruise! I had taken one before and heard different facts and tidbits, but this was far more detailed. I even took notes on my phone! Hehe. And now, as if this blog post wasn’t long enough already, you’ll get to learn some of what we did! 🙂
Canals and bridges built in 16th/17th centuries
Dutch East India Company is still considered one of the richest, most successful in history
Stole spices from Asia, black pepper was SUPER important
Could purchase a house for a cup of black pepper (wish that were the case now, hehe)
Canals dug for transport of said plunder from the Trading company
1.5 million for a one floor apartment on the canal
Canals are 10 feet deep
Houses tilted forward so when hauling things up by rope/pulley, the goods wouldn’t smack into the house. That’s how people get furniture in to this day because all homes have tiny and steep “Dutch staircases,” and no furniture will fit up those
Black houses are a remnant from the days of the black plague where giant black “X’s” were painted on to alert others of a black plague case, now the houses are a UNESCO heritage deal and cannot be repainted
There is a city job thats only purpose is to dig out bikes that have fallen in the canals, 12,000-15,000 bikes/year are pulled out!
A view from the Titanic, hehe 🤣.
Overall, our wine and cheese canal cruise was totally worth it, and we did our best to get our money’s worth of wine, hehe. And cheese. Not a single cube of cheese was left by the time I was done, lol. As we were getting ready to get off the boat, we noticed a bunch of people using the bathroom on board. Heather and I look at each other and, without saying a word, somehow go against the sage advice of a long-term traveler friend, Dana…..to never miss the chance to use a bathroom, hehe. We figured we could wait until the next stop, which would be a food festival! The guides on the boat told us about it, and we both love trying new foods, so that became our next mission.
My dear friend, Josie, a fellow flight attendant, had already suggested we go there, but I had forgotten about the tip, and was gonna check in on that if we ran out of things to do. Well, it just so happens, it was the same food festival! Score!
On our way over to the park, Heather starts mentioning how she needs to pee. Grrrreat. Why didn’t we just pee on the boat?! Idiots. Amateurs. Lol. 😂We’re having a grand time walking the streets, happily buzzed on our canal wine, and the joke arises to pee in an abandoned looking park over yonder. I draw the line here, as there is no way I’m getting arrested for peeing in public while on a layover, lol. So we soldier on, keeping a keen eye for a little coffee shop, or anything. And then, in the distance, the neon orange glow of a row of port-a-potties glistened and beckoned us closer. I’m super doubtful that they’ll be open, as in my running experience, when nature calls, these portable toilets are typically padlocked for use only by the construction workers, or whoever they’re meant for, and that’s definitely not tourists who didn’t take advantage of a paid-for bathroom. 😂 But, I’ve learned to never leave a stone unturned, so towards the toilets we go! And what luck! At least one of them is open and padlock free! OMG! AND! It’s impeccably clean! What?! Haha. What is this? Dropped down from heaven itself? Lol. So we take care of business and are quite tickled with our fortune and continue on to the food festival.
We were so happy to find these portapotties 🤣.
Holy food festival! Haha. We get close and witness the sea of bicycles that sums up Amsterdam in a nutshell. Then we could hear music, and we let our legs lead the way, winding through a short path in the woods, and then our noses picked up the lovely scent of BBQ, and we drifted forwards, in search of the holy land that was the food festival. We see a barrier and inside all kinds of tents and music, and it’s a big ole tease…there doesn’t appear to be an entrance this way! Haha. We love to explore and see where things lead us, so onwards we go, circling the food festival and enjoying the golden light of the setting sun.
So many bicycles! 🤯
Eventually, we make our way back to the front area and find the entry point. In we go! We made it! We did a lap to get the lay of the land and to check out what options we might have for dinner. Honestly, at this point in our day, we’re feeling exhausted, and it’s almost too overwhelming to decide on a place. I was sort of hankering for Asian food, but the lines! Oh, the lines were so long! Haha. So we agreed to find the place with the shortest lines and grab food there. Empanadas, it is! Now, with the shortest line, my expectations on the quality of the food were quite low…but I was pleasantly surprised! The empanadas were freaking delicious! Hehe. After we finish our light dinner, we peel ourselves off the bench we found, and start to head back towards downtown. But not before using the bathrooms, haha.. We won’t be making that mistake again! 😂
This place was packed! 🤩
We still have one more site to check off the list, and we’d been waiting for nightfall to do it. Something to note here is that the sun doesn’t set until 10 PM! Haha, and we’d been going since 9 AM, and I didn’t sleep all night on the flight….so….we were pretty tuckered out at this point, lol.
We use what little calories the empanadas filled us with to slowly walk towards the red light district because, when in Rome, ahem, Amsterdam, lol. The Red Light District is just something that you gotta see. Whether you choose to indulge in any of it or not, it’s a sight to behold. Scantily clad women in full-length glass doors, advertising the goods and beckoning you in for a closer look, sex shops and shows galore. While potentially uncomfortable for some to walk through this area, I truly appreciate its existence. It seems anything and everything in regards to intimacy is taboo to talk about, to see, etc. Although, listening to some popular songs, lyrics can be quite sultry and forward. 🤔 It’s interesting to me that something that is so fundamentally human could have become so taboo. Maybe it’s the anthropologist in me speaking, but I wonder how we became socialized into hiding this side of our human nature?
Exploring the Red Light District 🙃.
After perusing what was to offer the passerby on the streets, we began making a weary attempt to head back towards the hotel. But not without first sampling some frites! Basically, they’re the best French fries ever, with a wide range of dipping sauces! We tried curry, sweet chili, and mayo. Soooooo delicious, fresh, hot fries with a fairly good-sized container of sauce. I’d say a Nana-approved amount of condiments, but honestly, there are not enough condiments on this beautiful green and blue marble to satiate her needs, hehe. Love you! ❤️🤪
After pausing for a moment and snacking, we looked up an Uber back to the hotel, but eventually found some energy hidden amongst the sauces and potatoes, and agreed to take the 35-minute walk back. Here we go….haha. It was nice to finish our walking tour the way we started it, but let me just say. We were BEAT. We clocked in about 17 miles on our watches, and that is a record for me. Haha. 10 miles is a fairly average amount for walking around and sightseeing, but 17 is just plain reckless, haha. I mean, that’s longer than a half-marathon!
Back at the hotel, Heather jumped in the shower, and I was lights out before she was done, hehe. I slept solid and awoke, ready to tackle the day….though admittedly, quite sore. 😂
Heather got a seat in Delta One, our lay-flat seat cabin….and how fitting it was! It was her first time getting those seats, and it was her birthday! 😁 Happy Birthday! I’m so happy she made it there, and what a fabulous end to our first layover together! The first of many! 😁🤗
Where to next? 😁🤔
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