Absolutely Amazing Amsterdam

Amsterdam. What a city! Because I really do not know where to start this post, due to its (Amsterdam’s) amazingness, I am going to try something new. I will just start to write down the best bits and pieces that come to mind and hopefully it end up as a coherent piece!

 

Flight off to Amsterdam

Due to an abundance of good luck (and the existence of RyanAir) I have been able to see my best friend, Laura Bonney, once a month since her arrival in France. First in Paris, then Italy and last week; Amsterdam! We had originally planned to go there just for the World Rowing Champs (post on this next week perhaps?) but ended up making a week long holiday of it. The first 3-4 days in Amsterdam city and the last 3-4 days at the rowing. Just being able to do this with Laura gave me such joy. I always see these “travel with my best friend” photos on Facebook, and could not be happier that I actually have done it, 3 times now!

 

Our little hut

I have already written a post about how much I have come to love biking as a method of transport here in Europe, so when I got to Amsterdam I couldn’t wait to hire our bikes and start using them again. The accommodation we had booked was a hostel/camping ground on the edge of the Amsterdam Wood, about 3km from the Bosbaan (where the rowing was being held) and 9km from central Amsterdam. We hired bikes and that became our one and only form of transport, and oh how we loved our bikes! Every morning and every evening we would make that 9km ride through the Amsterdam Wood, the outskirts of the city and the famous Vondlepark.

Dutch Street



Laura biking in Amsterdam Wood

The forest section was absolutely beautiful, dense enough that you really had the feeling you were in a large forest, but not so dense that it was creepy. Parts of the path were wide avenues where the sun tickled the ground with its rays through the leaves, while other parts had thinner more bumpy roads with thick forest of either side blocking all direct sunlight. We would pass over bridges, by football fields and children’s play grounds before finally coming out right by the Bosbaan. Unless we were stopping for the rowing, we carried on through here along the outskirts of the city where the first tall, funky roofed, iconic Dutch houses began to appear next to cafes, small independent shops and kindergartens before taking a sharp left into the Vondlepark. As beautiful as the forest part of our ride was, the Vondlepark was my favourite. Anybody can read about it in guidebooks which will tell you (correctly) that this is where you see numerous people on sunny days, couples, families, sports people etc. However, until you are actually there, riding through this huge park do you really understand what they mean. Because even on rainy days, everyone is there! Business men in suits biking with a briefcase strapped behind them, musicians with violin or flute cases slung over their backs, homeless huddled together under bridges, kids practicing roller skating or climbing trees. No matter what time of day we passed through it was always busy, with life! Not in the crowded way, but somehow in a way that just made you get a positive buzz. The best way to explain it is how I described it to Laura one day as we passed through. “I love this” I said, “It’s just so full of life, it makes you want to be full of life too! It’s energising!” But I guess that statement kind of fits Amsterdam city as a whole. From the moment I was there I fell in love with it and that only grew with each passing day.

Bridge in the Amsterdam Wood

The Bosbaan

 Before I get into this next point I just want to clarify something. Now I may be completely wrong and I am not in any way saying this is fact and I might just be really ignorant to this city but here goes. One of the things I loved most about the city was that there were not lots of sights I felt I had to see. I mean of course there is lots of museums, the Van Gogh and Anne Frank Huis were the two we were able to visit, but in Florence or Paris for example there are all these sights (Il Duomo, Eiffel Tower etc etc) that I felt I HAD to see, which of course were worth seeing, but took time and replaced simple, raw exploring. However, in Amsterdam Laura and I felt that we could just walk through the streets as we liked, really discovering the city for ourselves. And for us, this was the best thing about the Amsterdam. It was through this that I found that Amsterdam, though it is not huge, is so diverse it seems impossible that it could all fit in the same place. It is truly a city that caters for everyone. There are health food shops and raw food cafes, Starbucks, MacDonalds and Burger King, and of course the coffee shops. There are cheap brand stores next to high end label designers. Bookshops with books in multiple languages, small knickknack shops, op shops and expensive home interior stores. Tattoo and piercing my fancy looking salons. Art and history museums, sport centres and impressive libraries. I mean I could list forever but I think I am getting my point across. It truly is the city of freedom. And once you have had enough of exploring for a while there is always a side of canal you can sit on and people watch and munch on fruit, cafés offering amazing stroop waffles (Lanskroon – just saying) and multiple street venders offering potato fries, poffertjes and hot dogs. How could it possibly get any better?

 

Amsterdam Canal
 

Canals and Bikes



Lanskroon Stroopwaffel

Now it is a very well-known fact that Dutch people are tall (and have big feet!) As a tall and large footed person myself, being in Amsterdam was an absolute dream. Walking down the street I felt normal sized and sometimes I would even bump into someone, and it would be their shoulder I bumped into and I would have to look up at them to apologise! I had to stand on steps in crowded areas to see over all the heads and found that almost every clothing item I tried on was not too short in the arms. However, over and above all this was the fact that I got to see tall, older women. Now I realise how strange that sounds so let me explain. Though it is not a commonly known fact about me, I do not dread old age or being a Grandma. In fact I look forward to being the Grandma who is all cuddles and always has cookies and cakes freshly baked. But whenever I thought about myself as a Grandma I kind of got stuck. What would I look like? When I think of older ladies I think of small, sweet women. I am not short and didn’t think tall could really come across as sweet. But being in Amsterdam I got to see Grandmas who were even taller than me and I was relieved to see that despite the height they still looked like lovely, sweet Grandmas. Just supersized! So I can now rest assured that I can still one day be that cuddly Grandma I want to be.

Now before I finish off I feel I must mention shoes. Because when I went shoe shopping? Well that was pure heaven. In New Zealand it was hard to find a size 42, in Italy? Impossible! So when I walked into the shoe shop and the first thing I saw was a size 44 I couldn’t have been more excited. I ended up spending a ridiculous amount of time in various shoe shops, most of which were out of my price range but looking is always free! On the first day I bought a pair of boots and wore them almost every day after that. I absolutely LOVE them with their warm sheepskin inner and their buckled sides. I also ended up buying a simple black dress shoe for a wedding I will be attending later this month (flats of course, I don’t want to tower over Italians more than I already do!) which I also absolutely love.

My new shoes and the Anne Frank Huis

 So all in all, a pretty amazing week! I am not sure how this style post will be received but I hope it’s followable and an enjoyable read!