What an eye-opener to say the very least! Our weekend trip to Amsterdam was full of surprises!
It started off in a bit of a rush. Trying to get to King’s Cross station was a challenge in itself! When we did get there, another couple was rushing madly to the finish line as well – low and behold, it was Toby and Charlotte who were off to Bruges for the weekend. Had a quick chat to them then headed to our different carriages on the train.
We then got to Brussels and changed trains to Amsterdam. Poor Kim’s legs were a wee bit sore after a good workout the previous day, but he managed to pick up the pace to make the first train.
Surprise number two happened when we got to our hotel room. I was just about to put our passports in the safe when I caught a furry little animal scurry across the floor. Straight under our bed. Lovely. As much as I don’t mind the little creatures, I wasn’t keen on sharing a bed with him, so I called the front desk and asked for another room. Finally in bed and not at all afraid of visitors during the night, we got some sleep!
Next day, we were up bright and early to start exploring the city. We wandered down the main streets, then took some detours into small streets passing countless canals. Such a pretty place! Cyclists everywhere, we stumbled across Anne Frank’s house with a queue the size of the Thames, so we decided we’d conquer that one the following day. We walked on and discovered some gorgeous outdoor markets. The flowers are always so big, bold and beautiful in Europe! The benefit of not being in a drought! Found ourself some lovely homemade pancakes to much on then strolled through some more markets before we found a coffee shop to warm up our bones.
The people are so friendly in Amsterdam! And oh so relaxed. Maybe that’s because they’re all breathing in that smoke you get a whiff of every 10 steps on the street?
After chilling out for the afternoon, we made our way to the infamous red light district. It was still broad daylight, but that didn’t stop the ladies, or their customers so it would seem. So we did some window shopping and after we readjusted our jaws, we found a great Malaysian place for dinner. We revisited the next shift of ladies on our way back, just to see what all the fuss was about 
The amount of people swarming around the windows was a sight in itself. Quite amazing indeed.
Next day, we checked out and made a beeline for Anne Frank’s house. Lucky we did, because the line was a fraction of what it was the previous day and we only waited 15 minutes. It was a sad sad place – you really got a feel for what these people went through. How sad it was for them to be locked up in fear of their lives. A good preparation (I guess) for our next weekend in Krakow, Poland.
We had another coffee while we let what we had just seen sink in. Then we had enough time to stroll around the shops, grab some dinner and walk past the flower market before catching a train back to London – which was another surprise in itself when we left ourselves only 10 minutes to checkin in Brussels! Nothing like keeping life interesting
Entries (RSS)