Hello beautiful people! It’s been a few months since my last post and if you are still following/keeping up with our adventures abroad via our social media channels, I send my biggest THANK YOU! I’ve been super busy with my 9-5 job and a bit sleep deprived (does anyone have any tips for how to get a better night’s sleep??) and haven’t really made time to write this long overdue post. But here it is finally!
A few months ago Andy and I went to Amsterdam. The verdict is that we both really loved it and cannot wait to get back. It’s a beautiful, clean city and the locals are friendly. Before going, I mentioned my trip to several people and everyone had nothing but nice things to say about Amsterdam – I think it’s one of those places that everyone loves. And while most people gave my tips on where to go and what to see, there were a few things no one told me…
You end up walking a lot. “Amsterdam is walkable city” they said. “You can walk everywhere” they also said. But what they didn’t mention is that because it’s so walkable you legit end up walking everywhere, all the time. Now, I don’t mind walking – I actually prefer a good walk over a car/bus ride, however I wasn’t mentally prepared for all the walking I did over that weekend. Andy and I walked so much that my back ached for a good week post arriving back in London. My recommendation, bring comfy shoes and be prepared to walk!
Plan your visits to some of the more famous attractions. I’d definitely recommend pre-booking tickets for some of the more popular attractions. The only one we pre-purchased tickets for was The Heineken Experience which was great as we avoided the long queue to buy tickets on the spot. We also took advantage of a ticket booth right outside the Rijksmuseum which allowed us to join a shorter queue to buy tickets and walk right into the museum. This was not the case with the Van Gogh museum, your two options are: buy a ticket from the same ticket booth mentioned above and be given a dedicated time slot when you could enter the museum or queue for an undetermined amount of time to buy a ticket and enter without a dedicated time slot for entrance. I really wish I had known this ahead of time. And if you’re planning on visiting the Anne Frank Haus while you’re in Amsterdam, buy your pre-booked tickets as soon as you buy your flight. You can then skip the queue which tends to be about three-hours long.
Service sucks! Hey, hey it’s totally ok for me to say this because my Dutch colleague agreed 🙂 Unless you come from a country where service already sucks, you’ll be surprised at how shitty the service in Amsterdam is. You wait for everything, the menu, drinks, food, bill. Don’t get me wrong, most service staff were very pleasant when delivering service, it’s just the waiting and waiting to get service that makes it sucky.
You’ll want to go back again and again. I really, really liked Amsterdam. I loved the vibe and feel of the city. I loved the food. I loved how much there is to see and do. Everyone told me I’d like it there…but no one told me I’d like it so much that I’d want to go back again and again. I’m sure you will too.
We took loads of pics while on this weekend getaway, below I leave you with some.
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