Amsterdam Photo Diary

Just before Christmas David and I took ourselves off for a wee city break to Amsterdam, I honestly think that its the best city break I've been on. I didn't over plan the whole holiday, just had a vague idea of what I wanted us to see, rather than knowing where we would be at what time and what day like in previous holidays. We also ate so much amazing food - a post featuring all the foody bits will come soon too! 
Amsterdam is an amazing city, its so laid back and chilled you could easily spend two days here and see it all or spread it out over a week and just wander about. I want to go back, and hopefully 2018 will see me back there. 

We stayed in Amsterdam for 4 nights/ 5 days, we arrived on the Monday morning around 10am - and naturally we got straight to exploring. Wandering the streets of Amsterdam is something you really just need to do while in the city. While we were wandering we found ourselves in Dam Square and faced with the massive (and so very pretty) building that is the Royal Palace. I'd seen this online but hadn't really planned to visit it, but since we were there we decided to go in, just as well we did as it turned out to be one of my favourite sights and Davids number one favourite. Get an audio-guide as I don't really think you can appreciate the Palace fully without it! 

The Rijksmuseum is probably one of the more popular attractions in Amsterdam - its a Dutch National Museum dedicated to arts & history. There is loads to see here, and while your here why not next visit the Van Gogh Museum, they're basically right next to each other anyway! 

 The Rijksmuseum has the most stunning little library inside it! I mean look at that spiral staircase!!!! 

Is any trip to Amsterdam really complete without a picture of the I am Amsterdam sign? We decided not to climb all over the sign but if it had been quieter I'm sure we would have tried our best to get a good photo on it! 

The Heineken experience isn't something I'd have thought I'd have enjoyed as much as I did - I don't like beer so wasn't sure if it would interest me, but I actually found it really fun and it was really interesting to find out about how the brand has developed over the years! After the Heineken experience we wandered off for yummy treats in the Albert Cuyp Market before going for lunch (post on all these yummy goodies coming soon!)

We decided to also go to Madame Toussands - this is obviously very commercialised and not something I'd say is a must do thing, but we had loads of time on our hands and we should have probably used it to go on a day trip out of the city but we decided to come here instead. It was great fun and neither of us have been to the one in London, some of the wax models were creepily real looking, and the view of the square while your up there is pretty special too. 
We also went to the Amsterdam Dungeons - David had never been to one before, I've been to the one in York though. They're a good - and different - way of finding out about the history of the city your in - I'm a big baby though so I of course was crapping myself the whole time! 

 Amsterdam seems to have a constant mist/fog over it, made a change from the constant rain that Glasgow has. 

 If you're lucky enough to visit in the Winter time, I'd recommend taking a boat trip to see the Light Festival, we walked a little bit of it but it would have been 1000x better to see it by boat - some boats even give you heated pillows and blankets to keep you warm! 

The red light district was a strange place, during the day you wouldn't even know you were there. At night though all the windows start to light up and the girls start to fill them. We visited fairly early in the night so hardly any of the windows had girls in them - and loads of windows had "room available" signs in them too - its somewhere I'd say is very much a must see, no ones saying you need to participate in anything, David and I didn't, but we did see a massive queue of people (girls, guys & couples) waiting to get in to see a sex show... If I went back I'd maybe go to one but its definitely not at the top of my to do list.  

Just a little note on Coffee Shops. Before going to Amsterdam I had never smoked in my life, hadn't ever wanted to either. David has tried it before and since we were in Amsterdam where theres a safe environment to do it I decided to try it. I know that its not for everyone and some people go without trying any, but if you do decide to go I've a couple of places I'd recommend trying. For a small quiet Coffee shop I'd recommend The Rookies, it was nearby our hotel and the staff there were so friendly and helpful with helping me since it was my first time - I also thing it was the cheapest of the places we went to. I'd say for a more central Coffee Shop, Dramking is really nice too, they have a store cat which legit just sleeps constantly and wakes up every so often for back scratches. One thing I'd say about here though is it seems to be pretty much packed from opening till closing. 
For a quirkier place, I'd say Dolphin is really good. When we went it was really quiet, and they also had a cat! This was the most expensive of the 3 places we tried though, but we at least got a seat and the decor was super cool! 

Amsterdam is such a pretty little city, the photos I took don't even do it justice - I didn't take my DSLR with us as I was hand luggage only and didn't want to carry around my massive camera so my Iphone just had to do. I definitely need a more travel friendly camera. 

Have you ever been to Amsterdam? What did you think of it?