Netherlands
Nieuwe Heerengracht

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    • Day 3

      Say cheese

      June 17, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

      Today is our only full day in Amsterdam and Sharon has booked a tour which will take us out to the countryside.

      We woke early and had a decent sleep all things considered. Our studio is noisy with a bar next door and the owners in the next level. We were zonked so it didn’t really matter.

      Our goal first thing was to master the underground system which we will do again Sunday. No problem. We are 200 metres from a station, and it is super-efficient. You don’t even need to buy a ticket. Just tap on and off with your credit card.

      It was so quiet at Central station that we became worried about finding somewhere for breakfast. Sharon went into a cannabis cafe thinking they had food! They didn’t but they did direct us to a cute small cafe that served us a meal. Sharon’s mint tea was hilarious. Hot water in a glass crammed with mint on the stalk. She liked it with honey.

      The meeting place for our tour was easy to find and by 9:30 we were on the road.

      The first stop was a genuine Gouda and Clog making factory. The owner is fourth generation and he put on a great show on how the cheese is made and also a demonstration on clog making.

      Next, we stopped at Edam known for its famous cheese too. We were there to walk through one of the oldest parts of Holland. It was such a beautiful place. Some of the canal homes are just stunning. The real flash ones have tearooms on the canal where the owners take tea in the afternoon.

      Lunch was at Volendam. This is a lakeside village where you start to appreciate how much of this area is protected by dams because almost all of this region is below sea level. I had to use google translate to buy a sandwich.

      Last part of the day was a visit to the last remaining working windmills. They are so much bigger than we imagined. Fascinating how they work and pump water back to sea.

      Back to Amsterdam and stuffed up the train trip home. We had an unscheduled train to the suburbs and back. Misread the station name.

      Back at the studio we decided to eat local. Right next to our front door is a bar with snacks right on the canal. We sat and enjoyed everyone buzzing by on bikes.

      I’ve decided Heineken taste better here just like Guinness did in Ireland.

      Time to pack. Tomorrow, we head to Rotterdam to board our cruise ship.
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    • Day 2

      Amsterdam culture & snarls

      June 16, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

      The flight across went above Iraq and Turkey. It went quickly and on arrival into Amsterdam we were greeted with out-of-order escalators and only four customs officers to process over 500 passengers. Our patience was tested.

      The pre purchased train tickets worked really well and in no time, we had moved from Schiphol Airport to Amsterdam Central station. At this point we had a choice of the underground or a taxi to get to our Airbnb, so I recommended a taxi as we were lumping around 50kg of luggage.

      Being a taxi driver in Amsterdam has recently become a nightmare. Our taxi on the rank asked us if he could take another elderly lady with us and share the fare also so it was worth his while. I knew it should have been about a 10 minute trip but I was politely told no it was an hour and 45 euros. The mayor of Amsterdam is implementing significant changes to the CBD. The latest is all the downtown is car free, so we had to drive all around the lock out zone in the worst traffic imaginable. We weren’t conned, it is just a logistical disaster.

      There has also been controversy over closing coffee shops in the red-light district. The mayor wants to clean up the image here.

      Trains for us now!

      We found our Airbnb and we are right downtown in a basement studio below street level. It was precarious getting in, but we are here now, and it will do for a few nights.

      We have to stay awake now and set our body clocks. Sharon booked tickets at the Moco Museum which has a permanent Banksy exhibition and many other “out there” artists on display. It was a decent 30 minute walk there and back so now we are tired. We grabbed a nice Italian feed on the boardwalk cafe. It was lovely watching the pushbike traffic. Everyone seems to own a bike. So many here but no helmets.
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    • Day 2

      A Taste of Friendship

      September 26, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

      Walking 🚶‍♂️🚶‍♀️back towards the hotel from Vondel Park, we stopped off at an intriguing bar called Café Slijterij Oosterling, which breathes an atmosphere as if time has stood still there for more than a century. The café is also a liquor store. The property is from around 1735, when the Dutch East India Company sold coffee, tea, and spices from the Far East. The café has been owned by the Oosterling family since 1877. The brothers Marcel and Oscar, sons of Mari Oosterling, are the fourth generation Oosterling behind the bar. We had an enjoyable couple of hours eating toasties drinking beers 🍻 and just watching the world go past. Continuing our walk back, we passed houseboats on Keizersgracht and had our photo taken by an Australian brother & sister in return for taking their photograph 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨📸
      Nearing the hotel on the Amstel River, we walked past the Magere Brug or, more commonly and famously known as Skinny Bridge. The bridge spans across the river Amstel and is an Old Dutch design wooden bridge known as a double-swipe (balanced) bridge. Tradition relates that the bridge was named after the sisters Mager, who were supposed to live on opposite sides of the river. They are said to have had the wooden bridge built to make it easier to visit one another. However, it appears more likely that the original bridge acquired the name from being so narrow (mager means skinny in Dutch), that it was hard for two pedestrians to pass one along another. As traffic along the river Amstel increased, a wider bridge replaced the narrow one in 1871. Whilst Skinny Bridge is no longer skinny, it is by far still one of the most beautiful and most photographed bridges in Amsterdam.
      As I have lived in Amsterdam; albeit some 40 years ago, I was deemed the perfect person to go in search 👣👣👣 of a nice restaurant for our intrepid group of travellers to eat in 🍽. So after meeting in the hotel bar, we: Steve & Suzanne, myself & Jayne, Greg & Patti, Jared & Cheryl (Steve's daughter) made our way across the Amstel to the Cafe Restaurant De Ysbreeker for a really enjoyable evening 🍺🍻🍾🥂🍷🍹.
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    • Day 4

      Ducks in Amsterdam

      November 13, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ 🌧 50 °F

      Not really. It was just me. I walked to Anne Frank's house from the hotel, and it was all cold and rainy. 6.2 miles. But was worth the walk. And Frank's house is amazing. And then I stopped and had Dutch pancakes. When I got back my room wasn't ready yet. So they gave me a free drink to sit and worry about it. 😆 Now, off to my coffin. (Pod)Read more

    • Day 2

      Utrechtsestraat

      October 16, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

      Die Utrechtsestraat ist eine belebte Einkaufsstraße in Amsterdam. Die Straße ist zwischen Rembrandtplein und Frederiksplein gelegen und überquert drei Kanäle:
      Herengracht, Keizersgracht und Prinsengracht.Read more

    • Day 23

      Nationaal holocaust namemonument

      September 10, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

      Nationaal holocaust namemonument, for de 102.000 hollandske jøder, der mistede livet af nazisternes forfærdelige handling.
      Har en ubehagelig fornemmelse ved at sidde her, det må aldrig ske igen. Her er sten på børn helt ned til 5 måneder gammel😢Read more

    • Day 2

      Soiree

      April 26, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ 🌙 7 °C

      Retour tranquille au loft, il fait encore bien froid !
      Début des festivités pour la fête du roi avec des concerts un peu partout ! Une dernière bières au son d'un concert electro avec saxo au top !

    • Day 2

      Stadtspaziergang und Holocaust Memorial

      May 18, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

      Abend spazieren wir durch die Gassen und sind immer wieder beeindruckt vom Flair dieser Stadt. Man fühlt sich hier einfach wohl. Unser Ziel versetzt uns dann aber in eine ganz andere Stimmung. Das Nationaal Holocaust Namenmonument in Amsterdam ist das nationale Holocaust-Denkmal der Niederlande, das auch dem Porajmos gewidmet ist. Es erinnert an die rund 102.000 jüdischen Opfer aus den Niederlanden, die vom NS-Regime während der deutschen Besetzung des Landes (1940–1945) verhaftet, deportiert und überwiegend in den Vernichtungslagern Auschwitz und Sobibor ermordet wurden, sowie an die 220 Opfer aus der Bevölkerungsgruppe der Roma und Sinti.Read more

    • Day 3

      Ein entspannter Sonntag morgen

      November 13, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

      Noch zwei bis dreimal umgedreht, aber ich stehe dann doch auf.
      Im Zimmer packen alle Koffer.
      Ich finde einen kleinen Bäcker an der Ecke und werde sehr positiv überrascht. Hier wird richtig gebacken, wenig Auswahl dafür Bombenqualität und Geschmack.

      Ich brauche Hilfe beim Einsteigen in die Straßenbahn.
      Beim Aussteigen muss ich eine Station weiterfahren.
      Ich habe meinen QR Code im falschen Winkel gehalten :D

      Angekommen beim Sport darf man sich zwischen 8 Workouts entscheiden.
      Ich nehme die Urlaubsvariante :D

      Danach geht es mit dem Zug nach Den Haag, wo erstmal futtern auf dem Plan steht.
      Der Weg vom Zug zum Restaurant ist toll.
      Viel bunte Herbstromantik und kleine Einkaufsgassen.
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    • Day 2

      Start in den Tag

      November 12, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

      Mein Wecker klingelt, ich hab wie immer im Hostel stumpf alles um mich herum ignoriert und deswegen doch ganz gut geschlafen.
      Noch müde dackel ich zum Yoga im Kinosaal.
      Perfekt für meinen Muskelkater.

      Eigentlich plane ich im Urlaub alles vor, diesen Urlaub wollte ich spontan sein.
      Ein grober Fehler in Amsterdam. Hier muss man Museen defintiv vorbuchen. Leider sind meine Favouriten alle ausgebucht.

      Ich dackel los zum Frühstück, ob ich extra ein Kaffee mit 2 Katzen ausgewählt habe wer weiß :D ....

      Drinnen ist es heimelig, improvisiert und verwinkelt ich liebe es.
      Außerdem gefallen mir die tollen Fahrradwege und das Wasser und der Livestil in Amsterdam ♡
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