![[Travel] Europe Trip Part 2 – 2 Days and 2 Nights at Amsterdam, Netherland](http://www.yuniqueyuni.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_8040.jpg "[Travel] Europe Trip Part 2 – 2 Days and 2 Nights at Amsterdam, Netherland")
Finally i have a mood to blog after lazy around every weekends. Yeah, my weekdays are pretty occupied nowadays, sometimes with works, appointment with friends, media invite and enjoying my old hobby: cooking and baking! Sorry for delaying my travel post so long, it’s been a few months tho, hope you are not boring waiting all my travel post. Actually this is the 2nd country in Europe we visited after we landed at London on our 1st day during our Europe trip 2016. So here we go, my 2 days and 2 nights trip at Amsterdam, Netherland.
Upon arrival you should buy I am sterdam card at tourist center, Schipol airport or you can also buy online before your arrival at I am sterdam City Card website. It was pretty worth because the card cover major tourist attractions, museums and unlimited public transport within 24, 48 or 72 hours, depends on how many hours do you need. During our visit we decided to buy 48 hours card. The card it’s valid from the first time you tap the card.
FYI, the unlimited transport with the card only cover Centrum area and Metro, bus and tram (GVB public transport), so if you need to go to area outside Centrum you have to take normal bus which is slighly costly, EUR5 per person per trip/ one way, no matter on how close or how far the area from Centrum. Which means, for example, your destination in between two bus stop, one bus stop is at the Centrum and another one is outside the Centrum, if you just want to pay half cost for your trip to your destination, then you should alighting at the bus stop at the Centrum area then you walk to your destination point.
We stayed a bit far from Centrum area (about 30mins tram), at Amstelveen area – North Holland. It is a suburban part of the metropolitan area of Amsterdam.
And this is our hotel: Amsterdam Forest Hotel. We love the surrounding neighbourhood, very peaceful, very clean, with lovely housing.
The hotel dining area just beside the reception. The hotel interior and the room is pretty sleek and clean detail.
Ok now we start with my initial itinerary.
Day 1: Saturday, 19 March 2016
Planned Itinerary:
– Albert Cuyp Market, 1072 CN, Amsterdam, The Netherlands – open from 9:30 am to about 5 pm, Monday to Saturday
– Royal Palace of Netherlands
– Prinsengracht
– National Monument, New Church (Nieuw Kerk) around Dam Square
– Red Light District
– Sex Museum, Damrak 18, 1015 LH, Amsterdam The Netherlands
– Lookaround for: Flower Market
– Foods: Manneken Pis, Damrak 41, 1012 LK Amsterdam, The Netherlands or Burger Bar, Kolksteeg 2, 1012 PT Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The thing that i regretted from this trip, before i confirmed my overall itinerary, i forgot to check around about Tulip Festival at Keukenhof which is only open on 24-03-2016 till mid June 2016. It was just a few days after we left Amsterdam.. Sad T.T…
Perhaps it won’t be my last time to Amsterdam because i still left my curiousity to visit more places which i didn’t manage to visit during this visit.
Perhaps it won’t be my last time to Amsterdam because i still left my curiousity to visit more places which i didn’t manage to visit during this visit.
Well as it always happen, actual itinerary sometimes far from the planned one, lesson learnt, no need to plan too detail.
After checked in at hotel, we planned to visit Albert Cuyp market, but failed! Because we reached hotel pretty late due to plane delay from London. And at 6pm the sky is started to get dark.
We walked around neighbourhood nearby our hotel, on our way to Metro station.
And found this nice landscape.. Omg, it was like the painting come into real life. And it was only the end of winter season, can’t imagine if it was spring already or even summer, must be even more colourful.
Not forgetting, OOTD on our way towards Metro station. The nearest metro station from our hotel is Kronenburg, it’s nearly 30 mins to Centrum area. Then we decided to alight at the last stop Amsterdam Centraal Station for canal tour since it was one of free tourist attraction that I am sterdam card offer. It was supposed to be sunset timing, but gloomy weather covered everything up there.
So this is Amsterdam Centraal, where our canal tour started.
It comes with audio guided speaker on the boat.
That building is The Amsterdam Centraal Station.
The boat for canal tour.
The modern architecture apparently is a hotel.
There are 3 major canal area there: Herengracht (Lords’ Canal), Prinsengracht (Prince’s Canal) and Keizersgracht (Emperor’s Canal).
Prinsengracht area.
Spotted Waldorf Astoria at Herengracht.
The famous seven bridges canal.
And this is Keizersgracht view.
There are a lot of boat houses, some of them with very lovely interior.
The boat passed thru several historical building while the audio guide told stories.
And we ended our tour about 7pm. Tour estimated about 45mins.
And after our canal tour, we were looking for dinner. Found this Asian wok stall prepared by non-chinese chef, LOL. We gave it a try because i simply can’t live without Asian food. We ordered fried rice vermicelli, not so bad tho. And the portion were huge, it was more than enough to fed both of our tummy.
Planned to walk around Red District area since we were walking nearby but upon entering the area, my hubby feeling not so good and he decided not to go any further. First we saw lots of shop selling marijuana, then there were few guys approach us and some of them offer us marijuana. So scary! Then we just turned back not pass thru the area. Anyway it’s very cold that time, windy and raining, so we just call it a day. Went back hotel and sleep, zzz zzz zzz…
Day 2: Sunday, 20 March 2016
Planned Itinerary:
– Jac P Thijssepark – natural park nearby hotel
– Rijksmuseum, Museumstraat 1, 1071 XX Amsterdam
– Van Gogh Museum, Museumplein 6, 1071 DJ Amsterdam
– Vondelpark
– Botanical Garden, Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam, Plantage Middenlaan 2a 1018DD
– Anne Frank House (Anne Frankhuis), Prinsengracht 263-267, 1016 GV Amsterdam, Nederland
– The Jordaan
– Foods: Café Loetje, Johannes Vermeerstraat 52, 1071 DT Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Café Loetje, Johannes Vermeerstraat 52, 1071 DT Amsterdam, The Netherlands; De Kas, Kamerlingh Onneslaan 3, 1097 DE Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Second day was a museum visit day. Woke up pretty early in the morning, make up for my OOTD as usual and was hoping that when we go out early in the morning not much people on the road and will be able to take better photograph.
It was so easy to wake up early in the morning when you were on holiday, instead of waking up early for work, i can’t agree more about this, LOL!
OOTD around hotel neighbourhood.
I was wearing at least 3 layers and still feel cold. Can you tell from my face? So stiff, LOL!
Love this landscape.
The water so clean omg, like mirror.. Love the reflection.
So this was early morning at Amsterdam. Cold, windy, but i still survive! And no one on the road, yipiii!!!
Tried to avoid crowds, so we always step out very early during our holiday.
First stop, Rijksmuseum.
With the famous I am sterdam lettering.
Ah this was how it looks like early in the morning, about 8am in the morning.
And the museum only open at 10am.
So we had to wait for museum to open. The central way apparently is the bicycle path. Lots of people in Amsterdam riding bicycle.
This central alley
And me, blending with brickwall..
Finally the museum opened.
Didn’t take many photos inside museum, just enjoyed viewing the collection from famous Rembrandt paintings and some Van Gogh paintings. Hmm couldn’t understand with those people who busy taking photo on every collection at museum, isn’t it ART only can be enjoyed by direct viewing? I prefer spending my time to enjoy and understand the ART.
This doll house catched my attention, look on how detail it is. Windsor Castle at England also had similar stuff on their museum.
And the library.
This artwork looks disgusting, but very unique and catched people’s attention. This artwork done by Anish Kapoor, with the title “Internal Objects in Three Parts”. The three painted reliefs created from layers of red and white resin and silicone evoke images of bloody, sinewy lumps of meat.
The geomterical garden outside the museum.
The museum with the garden.
I wish to see tulips but couldn’t find any. Maybe it wasn’t the right time yet to bloom.
This one at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Very different than Rijkmuseum, this Stedelijk display more on the contemporary ART. We managed to visit Van Gogh Museum too, but didn’t take photos. Most of the famous museum are in a compound and within walking distance to each other, which is very convenient.
And that time, outside the museum area there was a bazaar. We were looking for foods..
Tried this pork knuckle and sausage with homemade mustard sauce and crispy bread. Each was EUR 6.
After finished with the museum visit we went to Zaanse Schans. It was unexpected and unplanned place to visit. Kinda regretted it because the journey itself with bus waiting time was pretty long. In the end, we didn’t manage to explore more on Centrum area at Amsterdam city.
How to go to Zaanse Schans? You have to take suburb bus or train from Centraal Station. Expected journey time is 45mins one way.
This is the primary view, near to tourist information center.
Actually this place is very touristy area. There are souvenir shops, some museum, like chocolate, biscuit and local products.
The view was not bad, but it was very windy. Perhaps came here during summer will be much better.
Windmills everywhere.
Those houses are souvenir shops and museums.
After came back from Zaanse Schans, we didn’t manage to visit Anne Frank Huis museum, they just closed the queue right after we arrived. First it because we waited bus pretty long from Zaanse Schans, second, we got lost on our jouney to museum even tho we tried to run very fast to reach museum. Too bad.. T.T
We finally managed to try Manneken Pis at Damrak 41, 1012 LK Amsterdam, the stall is just walking distance from Dam Square. The portion was so huge and the potato cutting so big. Tried this fries with Joppiesaus, it’s sweet, a bit sour and savoury.
There you go our second day at Amsterdam. And early morning we had to catch our flight to Barcelona.
This is the breakfast before our flight. Didn’t expect it will be such a long delay flight, waiting for 8 hours for air traffic controller clearance from Paris airport due to stike. Sigh!
And finally we took off to Barcelona! With this beautiful lavender sky view during sunset time.
To be continued on another Europe 2016 adventure: see you in Barcelona and London.
XOXO,
YuniQueYuni