Our good friend Jess moved to The Netherlands back in December. It had been a while since we’d seen her so we bought a cheap flight and booked a Friday off. Before we knew it we were landing in Amsterdam Schipol ready to explore.

We were out of the airport and on a train to the centre within 20 minutes of landing, which is always a great way to start a trip. I’d visited The Netherlands before, back in 2012, but this was Simon’s first trip so we had a lot of exploring to do. We decided to take a slow stroll through the canals to our lunch meet up spot with Jess. The sun was shining, but don’t let that fool you, it was very cold in February. Amsterdam was as beautiful as I remembered. Colourful and quirky houses lined the canals and bikes were tied to everything stationary.

Because we were in Amsterdam, and Simon had never been, we took a stroll through the Red Light District. At 11am on a Friday there wasn’t much to see, but we did stumble across a shop that I’d found 6 years before, the condomerie. I’ll let your own imagination run wild here.

The last time I visited Amsterdam I was pretty surprised by how little I saw of the ‘weed’ culture, but within 20 minutes of landing at central station we were smelling it and seeing signs to purchase it everywhere. It’s not around you in a pushy or disruptive way it’s just different. Different is fine. We ended up at Dam Square, met Lady Gaga and kept exploring.

The sun was shining, we were exploring ‘somewhere different’ and I have to say we were both feeling pretty happy by this point. We were getting super excited to see Jess and all was right in the world. We ended up walking along some more canals (hard not to in Amsterdam) and picked up some cookies at a place that had been recommended to us, Van Stapele. This bakery only sells one type of cookie and it is the most delicious cookie we’ve ever eaten. It’s got the most unbelievable white chocolate gooey centre and chunky chocolate chips. I’m literally drooling thinking about it. If you’re ever in Amsterdam you have to go and buy a cookie here. And before you ask, no, they weren’t space cakes.

We had half an hour before meeting Jess so we ate some/a lot of cheese in the shops by the flower market. It’s one of those ‘must be dones’. As is taking a photo in some giant clogs.

We made it to our lunch destination, which was an amazing restaurant called Blue Amsterdam. The view of the city was incredible. Jess did well finding this one. We had a leisurely lunch and caught up with Jess learning all about her Dutch adventures since coming to the country before Christmas. I ate some Bitterballen, which are deliciously tasty fried meatballs. I think you’re probably figuring out by now that this trip was quite food orientated. Something I definitely will not be apologising for.

When we spend time with Jess we always make sure that she is happy to ‘go for a walk’. We love that she always seems to forget that a walk with us is more like a trek. Straight after lunch we started our trek of the city which started with a visit to Hard Rock (has to be done) and then onto VondelPark. Simon somehow ended up behind the till at Hard Rock this time…

After VondelPark we did the typical touristy thing of going to the Amsterdam sign. Sorry, but it has to be done.

We then drank Heineken and ate crepes at the amazing Pancake House. We decided not to visit the Anne Frank house this time as I’d been before and with such little time in the city we decided it would be best to just explore.

We walked past some pretty ‘quirky’ artwork…

and saw more beautiful canals before ending up at Body Worlds.

Body Worlds is without a doubt one of the most fascinating and interesting museums I’ve ever visited. The museum is a travelling exposition of dissected bodies that have been preserved through a process, developed by Gunther von Hagens, called plastination. The bodies are all received through a body donation scheme and then prepared with the aim of educating the layman about body structure. The whole plastination process is fascinating and if you’d like to read more about it have a look at this link from their website. https://bodyworlds.com/plastination/plastination-technique/

We were unable to take photos in the museum, but if you google Body Worlds you will see plenty of images come up on Google. In no way did we find the museum gorey or disrespectful. Every exhibit was carefully put together, considerate and very educational. If you’ve got the time in Amsterdam, definitely go!

Pretty much as soon as we finished at Body Worlds, Sibren joined us for dinner. We’d met Sibren before and got along really well, so were looking forward to getting to know him more. We took a stroll back through the red light district and out of respect I only took one photo of the area from a distance. The atmosphere and ‘look’ of the area changes a lot later in the day, but it never feels unsafe or ‘seedy’.

Despite having eaten ALL the food throughout the course of the day, we headed to dinner at a restaurant called Stoop and Stoop. I’d eaten here before back in 2012 and loved their chicken satay, so guess what I ate again! The whole meal was really delicious and we had a lot of fun laughing and chatting with Jess and Sibren.

After the meal Simon and I fell asleep in the car and when we woke we had arrived in Nijverdal, the town where Jess and Sibren live.

We woke up relatively early on the Saturday which was surprising after the early start and busy day the day before. We had a leisurely breakfast, chatting away about anything and everything before heading out for a walk. We drove through the town and headed up to the Nationaal Park De Sallandse Heuvelrug. The sun was shining and we have a lovely walk around.

After our walk we had a stroll through the town centre and lunch. It was really great to see where Jess was living and to see what her new normal was. All in all, The Netherlands is very similar to the UK. After lunch we went to a bar, played a lot of competitive pool, drank Heinekens and just had a lot of fun. So much fun, that I took no photos!

The rest of the evening was spent back at Jess and Sibren’s house making pizza’s in their pizza oven, drinking more beer and just having a laugh. All in all, a wonderful day! Thank you both!

 

The next day it was time to say goodbye. Simon and I jumped on a train and headed back to Amsterdam to do one last ‘must do’, a canal boat ride. It was sad to leave as it’s hard to say when Jess and I will get to see each other again, but knowing that she’s enjoying her new live and is loved up (to the max) made us very very happy for them both. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer until we all get to catch up again. Here’s some windmills we saw from the train.

Back in Amsterdam, we jumped on a small canal boat by a company called ‘Those Damn Boat Guys’. To be honest, the name sold it for me, but the fact that they travel through some of the smaller canals, it’s a smaller group on board and you get to bring food and drink for a picnic helped as well. The tour guide was really informative and funny though out the trip, and we saw so much of the city in a small amount of time. I really can’t recommend it enough.

After the boat ride we had a few hours to kill before we needed to head back to airport. Amsterdam is absolutely full of things to do, especially museums, but as the sun was shining we decided to just wander around some more and explore.

There are so many other places we’d like to visit in The Netherlands, including The Hague and Rotterdam, and with Jess and Sibren there, I have no doubt that we’ll be back again soon.