Amsterdam

 
 Basically wearing a blanket. Not sure how chic that was, but I hate being cold!

Amsterdam train station- google images.

Loved this guy and their little dog!

Cute couples seemed to be everywhere.

Most people had these generic black bikes and a milk crate wired to it. There are no fancy bikes anywhere and no helmets ever! People are amazing bikers here. They are fast and so used to it that couples even hold hands and bike side by side.

Don’t you love both the men’s bright pants here? People dressed beautifully in Amsterdam. It’s a very stylish city.

 Families share bikes like this mother and her daughters going into the tunnels that run under the Rijksmuseum.

This was a grandmother with her daughter and granddaughter .

Amsterdam has 800,000 people and 880,000 bikes. It is estimated that 70% of all trips or errands are done on bicycle. It wasn’t always this way. In the 1970s the country began to invest in biking. There was a really interesting article about how biking became so popular in the Netherlands here on BBC news magazine. The Dutch also believe there is safety in numbers, which I am sure is true.

 If they aren’t on wheels than they are pushing them. I loved this stylish little gal and her dolly.

On every gate or fence or space a bike is chained to it. I’m not kidding about that.

As a bike rider myself, I would be quite intimidated to ride here as a tourist! Dutch biker speed is fast! You should see the corners they take, with kids as well! I saw quite a few near misses and you have to be careful not to walk on the bike paths.

Flowers are grown where you least expect it.

Flower boxes are on most of the bridges!

So much to do here, but we only had two full days. We wandered the city and checked out the flower market, shops and restaurants.

The front of the Rijkmuseum.  This and the Van Gogh Museum are about a block apart.

The Amsterdam flower market was interesting and was huge.  Fun shopping here.  Grif was intrigued by the solar butterflies. They have Delftware for sale in the stands and nearby on the main shopping street, Kalverstraat, which is for pedestrians only.

They sell tiny pygmy orange trees in canisters here. Orange is the official color of the Netherlands and it makes a good little souvenir. You can bring it home and plant it. (Okay, mine’s still in the can.)

This hammock store was pretty cool.

The cheese shops also line the flower market. Don’t skip stopping here and sampling! We brought home a wonderful wheel of gouda.

One of the best meals we had on this trip was here at Cafe Loetje. It’s near the museum district and is a favorite of the locals.  Salads were huge and food was very good. Wonderful outdoor dining and fun bar. People were so nice!

Behold the best grocery store I have ever entered, La Place. Just some of the samplings in the prepared food area. . .

 The foods you could bring home or eat there were amazing. They had soup stations, bread stations, an Asian wok station, and I could go on and on!

Focaccia by the foot!

Grab and go juices made in house.

We all picked something delicious and sat upstairs where it feels like you are in someone’s home.
The lunch area has beautiful marble tables and furniture.

Visiting the Anne Frank House was one of the highlights of this trip. Words can’t describe the impression it leaves on you. I think it’s something everyone should do.  For my boys, ages 15 and 11, this was the right age to do this. I was hoping they would get some perspective and better understanding about what happened during the war from this. My oldest said that he felt this made it (in his words),  really, real- seeing her experience from her room. 

You do climb into the real rooms Anne and the others hid in and they are in their original shape, untouched after all this time. Anne’s wall is still decorated with movie stars photos and other things that a young 15 year old girl would be obsessed with at the time. That really got to me as did seeing her diaries. The museum does a good job of keeping the dialogue going as you move through and eventually end up in a place where you can ask yourself if people in the world today are suffering the same way.

The one thing I did buy was a postcard of Anne at 15, her last photo. I keep this on my bulletin board so I will not forget.

Another must do is a canal ride. It’s a great way to see more of Amsterdam. If you go on a Saturday or Friday afternoon and it’s sunny, it’s even more fun. When the sun shines here, everyone comes outdoors. I mean everyone. If they aren’t on the canals in some floating form, then they are on every doorstep or canal edge with their own chairs and bottles of wine and food. It’s a city-wide party when the sun is out and crazier still on the water!

Some interesting sightings….

Bridal shower boat?

Loved their wicker chairs! Looked like an after work float.

This cute couple rigged up their hammock near the canal edge.

You can see above the block party atmosphere starting. I wish I took a photo when we were trapped in boat gridlock so you could see all the watercraft and rafts! It was fun though. Everyone had music playing and it was like a huge party. I have to say, people here know how to enjoy life. It’s also a great city to be young in. The water is like one big cruising area.

Many of the boats are houseboats and have their own gardens! Love the boxwood and black paint here.

Boxwood is popular all over the city.

I  also adored the lacquered doors that are everywhere.

Another boxwood adorned and more modern canal home below.

 Unique to Amsterdam is the very narrow canal houses. A long time ago, homeowners were taxed according to the width of their homes, so home were built as narrow and tall as possible.

The narrowness of these homes is the reason you will see that all houses have a hook on the top to pull furniture through the windows! Many of the canal houses were built in the 17th century and the canal house area is now a Unesco World Heritage site.

I hated leaving Amsterdam. There was so much to still see. I feel like we barely scratched the surface. I also adored the Dutch people who were so kind and friendly. 

Getting this far across the world, I like to take a few things home with me to remember my trip. One thing I bought that I really love was this Delftware tile. The blue and white pottery that is original to the Delft region of Holland is everywhere. So beautiful.

 

 It sits in my kitchen window now and it makes me think of our trip.

The shop where I bought it tied these tiny Dutch shoes on my package and I love these!

I popped into H&M while I was there and I couldn’t help being attracted to this tunic. It so reminded me of all the beautiful Delft all over the city. I had to buy it.

Of course we also brought home stroopwaffles and Dutch cookies. A wonderful place to get these is right at their own grocery, Albert Heijn. They are less expensive plus I just love browsing foreign grocery stores. Always interesting to see what they have.

Next door to our hotel was a fancy designer end shopping district, PC Hooftstraat. My husband and I went one afternoon to check it out. It was disappointing to see Cartier, Gucci, Tiffany, LV and the like.   The last thing I want to buy on my travels is something from the mall at home.

 It’s so much more fun to scope out things original to the area you are visiting. We were just about to leave the street when I spied a cute store called Lifestyles. It was like a Pottery Barn with a Dutch flair. I loved it! They had wonderful candles, woven accessories, table linens and even tunics and scarves and totes. I bought a pretty candle and another tunic at the summer sale. I was thrilled to get items that were totally unique for me.  Do you not agree about that when shopping abroad?

Thanks for patiently sticking with this blog during my slow month!  I’m back up to speed and my final trip installment with Germany is still to come! Thanks for reading!

Kim