Amsterdam

A windy day in Amsterdam

For my first day in Amsterdam there was a sever weather warning for wind and rain, but that didn't stop me from exploring the city! One of the buildings of my hostel is the old schoolhouse, which I am lucky to be staying in. I started the morning on a walking tour (luckily I have a good rain jacket), which was great to learn more about the city, including the sculptures on the front of buildings to indicate to medieval illiterate residents what kind of shop was inside and the sinking/leaning houses cause by the movement of the swamp . After being a bit outdone by the weather, I went to the Van Gogh museum, in which I spent 3 hours! My favourites were definitely the sunflowers (I even got a sunflowers inspired cookie from the cafe), though I did think the pokemon recreations of Van Gogh paintings (inspired by Van Gogh's love for Japanese art) was really fun too.

Fun fact of the day: the phrase 'filthy rich' comes from Amsterdam, where because it is below sea level there are no graveyards, so the residents historically got buried on mass outside the city. The extreemely rich however could pay for their bodies to be kept under the tiles of the churches, where when they began to decay, churchgoers could begin to smell them.Read more