Disclaimer: We went on this trip in Feb 2020, but for obvious reasons that developed in March 2020, I never bothered posting about it/my tips on where to go because the travel ban came into effect pretty soon afterwards. Now, hopefully that travel has gone back to (relatively) normal, it might come in useful if you're looking to plan a city break!
In February 2020, before everything kicked off with the C word, at an un-godly hour of a Saturday morning, Ed and I hopped on a plane and a swift hour and 10 minutes later arrived in Amsterdam. It's somewhere we've both always wanted to go and I decided to get him flights there as his Christmas present that year, which happened to fall on his birthday, - double whammy or what (I also got him a birthday present, don't worry I'm not a cheap skate).
We arrived at the Leonardo Hotel Amsterdam Rembrandtpark which is in such a great location - it's outside the city which brings down the cost hugely and you can hop on the tram right outside the hotel and be in the city centre in less than 20 minutes. After a quick nap and a refresh, we set off to explore Amsterdam (me, armed with a lengthy list of things to do/see/eat/drink).
Our first stop was brunch in a gorgeous place called Little Collins (de Pijp, there is also another location in the city) which came on great recommendation and definitely lived up to our expectations. There is always a queue but we only had to wait 15 minutes, so we just popped in next door to Bar Fisk for a Rosé (another very cool and quirky bar, playing really chilled music and kind of made me feel like I was in an old movie).
The food in Little Collins was amazing - I had the potato & tarragon waffle with poached eggs, lemon hollandaise and greens, and Ed had something called Cilbir - poached eggs, aleppo chilli butter, labne, dill, flatbread and sucuk sausage. I also had the most divine pear and vanilla bellini - it was delish, I could have had seven more (I didn't).
Next we wandered around for a while taking in the sights and the many (many) gorgeous canals. Storm Ciara was starting to brew at that point so it was a little chilly and windy but nothing too crazy. We made our way down to the floating flower market - Bloemenmarkt - which literally has the most amount of tulips I have ever seen. We picked up some bulbs as parent presents (parents love a good gardening pressie) as we wandered along.
It got dark quite quickly then all of a sudden, but we had one last essential stop of the day - Winkel 43 (instagram linked here for much clearer pics) - for the "world's best apple pie" and let me tell you, this is the truth. They serve you a giant slice of apple pie - about half a foot tall and wide - still warm from the oven, with a generous serving of whipped cream on top. I would safely say that this apple pie could cure you of just about anything and if I could eat it everyday I would (currently looking into moving to Amsterdam for this precise reason, no lie).
In quite the food coma, we slowly but surely made our way back to our hotel, collapsing into bed with some vino and a talent show entirely in Dutch on tv, and within an hour we were snoozing our brains out.
Sunday started off in the way all great Sundays should - in a food market. The Foodhallen to be exact. Ever since I experienced the TimeOut Food Market in Lisbon, if I hear of anything that sounds similar at all then it goes straight on my list. And Foodhallen did not disappoint.
Like TimeOut in Lisbon, it had stalls upon stalls of different types of foods from so many different countries in one giant hall - savoury and sweet - with a gorgeous bar smack back in the middle. I went for some Vietnamese street food which was absolutely delish, Ed opted for a burger and we perched at the bar (finding an actual table was like trying to find a favourite grain of sand you lost in a desert) and inhaled our food, drinking in the amazing atmosphere and smells from all the different foods being cooked all around us.
Next up was the Anne Frank Huis - notoriously difficult to get tickets for unless you have jedi-esque stealth when it comes to buying things online within 20 seconds of them being released to the public. Luckily for us, Storm Ciara resulted in many people not showing up for their time slots so they miraculously had tickets available to purchase when we got there (would not recommend this - book online AT LEAST 4 days before you want to go).
The house is so eerie in a way and it's such a strange feeling to be in the rooms where you know the family hid and felt such fear and were eventually found and taken away. The house has been preserved so well it's as though the Frank family only just left. It was quite heartbreaking listening to what happened them (you need the audio guide as it explains each room) but so interesting to hear about their life and what they had to do to stay hidden, and watch the videos of Anne's father, Otto, the only one in the family who survived the concentration camps, speak about his family and about Anne's diaries.
Feeling a little zapped of energy, we popped to a gorgeous little coffee shop called Lot 61 coffee roasters for a quick pick-me-up and some much-needed shelter from Storm Ciara who insisted on pursuing us the entire day.
Our last stop of the evening was the Banksy exhibition at the Moco Museum which did not disappoint. The entire museum is so cool with so much eccentric modern art from people like Andy Warhol.The Banksy exhibition was amazing, definitely worth heading to the Moco Museum for a look at all the exhibits - it's quite small so not hard to see them all in one trip.
Check out on our last day was 11am and we had to be at the airport by 12:30pm, but we were dying to squeeze in a visit to the Van Gogh Museum (another one to book in advance, FYI) so we managed to bag some tickets for 9am Monday morning before our flight home.
The museum was amazing and it was so cool to see some of his most famous pieces up close, and to learn about his inspiration behind so many of them. We had seen a few of his paintings in Paris but seeing so many in one spot in Amsterdam was really cool and a great experience.
Making it to the airport bang on 12:30pm, we found out our flight was delayed by 6 HOURS due to Ms. Ciara herself. Cue 6 hours of Ed wandering the airport and/or napping and me tearing through one and then a second book that I had luckily brought with me (the second one in case of some crazy delay that of course led me to finish the first one much quicker).
We eventually made it home at 9pm and collapsed into bed, exhausted but content after an amazing and fun weekend. Definitely put Amsterdam on your list if you haven't already, it's a beaut. Check out my insta for more pics/highlights, also on Ed's!
Thanks for reading,
S ✗
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