travel diary: amsterdam

After we had to cancel our plans made for an extended weekend unexpectedly, my friend and I quickly had to think of something else to do instead.
We found the perfect solution when a friend offered us the keys to her student housing apartment in Amsterdam, where she had been doing an internship for 6 months which was now finished.
Amsterdam is less than 3 hours away and we left very early on friday morning. We dropped our stuff off at the apartment and took the tram into the city center.
Our plan was simple: see much as much as possible and spend as little as possible. We did have to get typically dutch friet speziaal (fries with mayonnaise, ketchup and onions) for lunch though and some yummy dutch cheese.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city, green and full of flowers and beautiful canals. Despite the many people and an unusual number of cats about, it is one of the cleanest cities I have ever seen.

There are of course bikes in every variation and color and dozens of ‘coffee shops’ where people can legally buy small amounts of drugs.

We strolled around the main sights like the flowers market but also tried to find little treasures off the tourist routes.


When we got to Prinsengracht (a beautiful large canal), we found the prettiest house boats and I kept clicking away, with my friend having to shove me off the streets when I was threatened to be run over by cars and bikes.


All in all, our electronical counting thingy showed we’d walked a good 20km that day. No wonder our feet were killing us!
After a long day we had enough of the crowded city and went back to ‘our’ apartment and sat down at the canal in the warm evening light and had a perfect dinner with our delicious dutch cheese, some fresh baguette and grapes and a bottle of white wine.

I’ll have day 2 (at the beach) and day 3 (Amsterdam on a quiet sunday morning) up as soon as possible 🙂

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ameland – part 1

Hi everyone! Just a short hello from Ameland, a beautiful little island in the Netherlands, which separates the Wadden Sea from the North Sea.
We (my friend Dana and I) left on Monday at 5am and arrived at the harbour in time to catch the 9.30am ferry. The ferry takes about 30-45mins to Ameland and then another 15min bus ride to the little village where we are staying.
We’ve had lots of sunshine, great food and lots to see so far and are enjoying every minute of our stay!
Here are some impressions of our first day:

The lighthouse, the islands most impressive landmark. We will be trying to get a good night shot of this (Dana brought a tripod, yay).

The beach at low tide (this is the North Sea side. We haven’t yet been to the Wadden Sea on foot but it’s on the agenda today). I have until now resisted the temptation of buying a pair of brighty chequered wellis, though I did splurge on some souvenirs.

I just like the colors in this one. See the amazing blue sky we had the first day!

Say cheese! We visited a cheesemaker and asked if we could see their workrooms. We are here out of season, so there is literally no one on the island except the inhabitants and so they allowed it!

I can’t even begin to describe how delicious these homemade cheeses are! We bought different types and are feasting like kings!

We left the car on the mainland and are getting around on bikes here (everyone in Holland owns a bike). Lots of fun, but we rode around so much that first day that we were really sore and had to take a break from the bikes yesterday. ‘Fietspad’ means bike path and in the background you can see the grass dunes which lie before the sand dunes on the beach.

Enjoying the evening light at the beach.

Sunset at the beach. We had originally planned to photograph until the sun really went down, but with the wind picking up and the sun losing its strength it was just freezing and we had to head home earlier. We’re hoping for another beautiful clear sunset tonight.
Hope you enjoyed these and stay tuned for pictures of quaint dutch houses, fishing boats and seals coming soon!