Amsterdam

Last Autumn, Mr Poachie and I squeezed in one last mini break to a city I have wanted to visit for SO long, Amsterdam!

If you read my previous blog post on our trip to France, I mentioned that we were delayed by Easyjet and after a lot of hassle, we received some compensation for our flights. So us being us, thought we should book flights somewhere with it and as Amsterdam is such a quick easy journey, we found some reasonable flights and booked ourselves an Airbnb for two nights.

As it was just such a short trip, we knew we couldn't fit too much in so our Amsterdam agenda consisted of eating, people watching, experiencing the Red light district and a boat tour.

We lucked out with our Airbnb, we stayed in a traditional townhouse near the pretty neighborhood of Jordaan. This was great as it felt safe, we could walk everywhere and we felt like we were locals, with great cafes and restaurants on our doorstop.

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that we didn't frequent any of the museums or Anne Franks house (the queues were miles long and you needed tickets in advance). We spent most of the first day walking around and stopping for snacks.

It really is a pretty city with a chilled vibe, obviously it was a great place take to take a lot of photos.

I had researched lots of places to eat and whilst we couldn't do it all, we settled on Pluk cafe (think cute brunches), Ree7 which must be the same owners as it was pretty much identical but not as good as Pluk, Cecconis as I had never been and was dying to try their cacio e pepe and one more restaurant that I have now forgotten the name of.

We also couldn't resist a portion of chips, the que was huge but moved quickly and despite not being hungry we bought some anyway. It seems to be famous here and there were so many toppings to choose from, I went for truffle mayo which was banging.

Now in the evenings, we did explore the Red Light district which I didn't photograph, these are working ladies and to be honest, the place was RAMMED so I didn't want my camera with me.

Despite not visiting over a weekend (when we thought it might be filled with stag do's) it was still heaving. I think we did see one stag party but it was mostly guys wandering around.

We watched a few shows at the Pink Elephant and also visited the Moulin Rouge which is not like the Paris show, lol. I wasnt sure what to expect really, we had started the evening in a lovely bar and then ended the night with these shows. It was seedy but fun, glad I went but I wouldn't bother revisiting if we go to Amsterdam again.

Amsterdam all in all, was so much fun, I loved the architecture, the people were really friendly (just don't walk in the cycle path!) and the food was fantastic. I know the city has so much more to offer than the tiny part we saw, but I really enjoyed walking aimlessly around and stopping for drinks in places we liked the look of.

We decided against eating any space cakes or visiting any coffee shops (which is where you can smoke). Its not really our thing and I didn't want to waste what little time we had there being 'high' or being a silly British mess!

The other highlight of the trip was our boat tour, we booked with 'Those dam boat guys' and our guide was funny and informative and was good at getting the group to interact, not in a sing a long type of way, just making sure we weren't sitting in silence! 

You can see so much of the city by water, with their numerous canals and we saw so many bicycles being pulled out of the water, apparently a lot of bikes go missing each year due to theft and loss in the canals!

love love loved it, and would go back for sure, maybe in the Spring when the tulips are out.