In the land of clogs, pastries and coffeeshops...
So... i never really had any great desire to visit The Netherlands, and when my boyfriend proposed we go for a short break in December 2007 i was slightly dubious. I always had a very stereotypical view of Amsterdam before i visited... imagining there would be prostitues on every street corner, dodgy drug dealers and not much else. Oh, how wrong i was!
So the first visit to 'The Dam' was from December 21st - 24th. This time we stayed by Vondelpark at the Park Plaza Hotel, which was a three star hotel i think. Having stayed at a lovely Park Plaza in Nottingham i was expecting a really nice hotel, and it was pretty good. The rooms were a nice size, with a lovely comfortable bed, a good sized LCD TV and a nice big round bath. The hotel wasn't too central, and being beside the lovely Vondelpark meant we had a nice view from our room. Getting around was so easy as there was a Tram stop right by the hotel, going all the way to Centraal Station via the busy areas such as the Leidesplein.
On our first day we took the tram to Centraal as we thought it would be good starting point, we made our way to a nice little Italian restaurant and ate some wonderful pizza. If you ask for a soft drink in Amsterdam you're often presented with one of the little glass bottles which cost about 3 euro's each, and they don't go very far, so if you're on a budget... drink water lol. We headed towards Dam Square and stopped by our first coffeeshop... when in Rome, as they say ;) Unfortunately, i ended up trying a space cake and the rest of the day was a bit of a blur. As it was our first trip there we didn't have any specific itinerary in mind to be honest... so we spent our days just walking around, exploring the different districts of the city and eating nice things, namely french fries with mayo, and waffles covered in chocolate... yum!. Dam Square had been decorated for Christmas and there was a big beautiful tree with lots of lights, so it really put us in the festive mood. I think we were both pleasantly suprised at how easy it was to navigate the Tram system, they're very reliable and convenient.
Our next trip came two months later, we went back in February 2008 to celebrate Valentine's Day. This time we stayed by the Zoo at the Hotel Arena. Upon checking the hotel's website we were very impressed with what seemed to be a very stylish, modern and fashionable hotel, with a built in nightclub... wow. Upon arriving we were quite disappointed. The actual hotel building is very lovely, with a gorgeous lobby, big grand staircase etc. The rooms themselves left a lot to be desired unfortunately. The hotel was previously an orphanage and you couldn't help but get the impression that there hadn't been any renovations for quite some time. The bed was okay, there was a 'wardrobe' which was actually a metal locker, one that you might find in a high school. There was a tiny television, on a wall bracket which you had to squint to see, no remote either, so getting up to browse the channels via the buttons on the front of the TV was highly annoying. And it was a very cold room, with only one small radiator that appeared to have been there for about 100 years. So yeah, could have been better but we weren't deterred from trying to have a good time... and we did. The area was much more residential than Vondelpark and there wasn't many cafe's or restaurants, but the nearest tram stop was only about three minutes away so getting about wasn't a problem. On this trip we stayed for three days, and we visited the Zoo! On the day we went it was extremely cold so we were concerned the Zoo might not be open, thankfully it was. The Zoo itself is very well kept, with a big variety of animals, and it took us a good 4 hours or so to get around it, stopping for a quick bite of lunch in it's restaurant, which was reasonably priced considering it was a tourist attraction. It would appear that the staff weren't too worried about animals escaping…it was like a scene from '12 Monkey's' at times…peacocks meandering along with the tourists, lizards leaping out of their enclosures. It was an interactive experience to say the least, but very fun.
The rest of our time was just spent chilling out and trying to keep warm, checking out the shops around Leidesplein, eating, and we went to see a movie. At Rembrantplein there are a couple of theatres, and the majority of movies are shown in English with Dutch subtitles so it's good to know that you can catch a movie over there when you fancy it. I would highly recommend visiting the sweetie/candy shop 'Jammin' where they have a great selection of goodies... and its perfect if you have the munchies ;) We visited a nice Italian on Vijzelgracht, although i can't remember what it was called, it was near the Mellow Yellow coffeeshop if that helps.. and i had amazing garlic king prawns served with rice and vegetables, sooo tasty. So we hailed our second trip as a success, and vowed to go again by the end of the year. It's only an hour flight from home so it's really convenient for us to get there.
The most recent trip was in November 2008, this time we stayed beside Rembrandtplein, in a little hotel called Armanda Canalview on the Kaiserstraat which was the most central hotel we've stayed in. It was a cosy establishment, and we had a nice little room in the basement with a view onto the canal which was sweet. It was quite basic, we had a TV, Shower, Hairdryer etc but the location was the big plus point. It was great being within walking distance of the main areas of interest. Again we just did the normal leisurely things... visited nice restaurants, shopped, admired the beauty of the city, ate etc. Please don't worry that it's not a great place for couples, it definitely is. We never venture near the Red Light District so we tend to avoid the big groups of lairy young men who are on Stag Weekends or whatever. Amsterdam can be a very romantic place, lots of pretty walks by the canals and various restaurants where you can indulge in a candle-lit meal.
If we weren't into the coffeeshop culture i doubt we would visit as often, but i think everybody needs to go at least once. It really is very picturesque, the people are friendly, the food is good and there are some good attractions... Anne Frank's House, Amsterdam Zoo, Rijksmuseum etc. I think there are a lot of options for people of all budgets and tastes. The local airport Schiphol is great, i get the impression that they run a pretty tight ship over there as i've never been delayed once, and you can jump on a train to Amsterdam City Centre at the cost of about 4 Euro's and they run very regularly, about every 15/20 mins.
Sorry if the blog wasn't particularly detailed but i'm a bit rubbish at remembering restaurant names and stuff... if there's anything you want to ask, ie good coffeeshops etc then please let me know and i'll try to help where i can!
Happy Travels Everybody! :)
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