So I just finished my first lovely day in Rome, Italy and I'm chilling in my bed watching National Treasure (because what else would I be doing while being a college kid traveling Europe?). I thought now would be a good time to say a little something about my first trip after I finished my semester in London. The actual last days in the UK really flew by in a blur. Next thing I know, it's the night before I was to leave for Amsterdam to see my lovely sister Katie and step-grandmother Maxine. I was supposed to get on a super early flight at Gatwick Airport that departed at like 6:40 in the morning. This meant I had to get there at about 4. This early in the morning, the easiest route for me was to grab the first Gatwick Express that left at 3:30. Taking more time still I had to take a night bus to Victoria Station. Which means that I had to leave my flat fully packed and ready to go by 2:45 in the morning. Knowing me, I was packing down to the last minute. We also had this hellish meeting we had to go to to finish the program and that didn't end until 10:30 the night before. I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Oh right because I still had a bunch of laundry to do. I've never been so stressed. I might have murdered Amanda, but she took the safe route and got out of the room so I could finish. But voila! I got everything done and was out the door and onto the bus with all of the crazies to get on my train.
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| Calm fields during the stress |
In case you missed it, that means that I got absolutely no sleep. I was traveling with all three of my large and fully stuffed bags since I was going to give them to Max and Katie to take home. I had paid for the bags before online, but after waiting in line to check-in at Easy Jet (booooo) I was informed that I apparently only paid for a total weight of 20 kilos. Each of my bags was about 23-25 kilos. I was then told that I had to pay almost 300 pounds extra for my bags! Luckily I had the money on me and was able to get through past security. I then proceeded to sob hysterically in the middle of the airport. It was just too much for my sleep-deprived brain to handle and I just wanted to go home and be with my family and not alone in an airport in London. Luckily, I was able to rally and got onto the plane and slept the entire way to Amsterdam. I then quickly found Max and Kate and we were on our way to the hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Pulitzer which was so lovely. Katie's and my room was all sorts of quaint. It was just so nice getting to spend some time with her again. Ever since I went away to college, we've grown really close and I think she's one of the coolest people I know.
Since it was still morning, we went out to grab some breakfast and headed over to a walking tour of the city. Max found this free tour company called:
Sandeman's New Europe. They have other paid tours, but we decided on the free one since it would be 4 hours just walking around the city. The guides work strictly on tips, but it was a lot of fun. Full of knowledge and little quirks of Amsterdam. Sometimes the jokes were a little too off color for me to feel comfortable with my family, but they were still funny. We started through the Red Light District, and I'm going to say, not as shocking as I thought. The girls really just startled me when they all of a sudden appeared in the windows. But hey, prostitution is going to happen, so at least the city and police are there to control it. Over the tour it became more and more evident to me that Amsterdam is indeed the Honey Badger of Europe. There aren't really any rules. As long as you take responsibility for your actions and nobody sees what you're doing it's fine. No one cares. This relaxed attitude makes the entire city just fun and life-loving. It was hard not to have a great time there (and no, we did not go into any coffeeshops since I was with my Maxine and 16 year-old sister, besides we had enough good times to go around without).
The next day we drove out of the city and went to the beautiful Keukenhof Gardens. We were still pretty early in the season so it was still a little nippy, but the flowers that were already out were so wonderful. Luckily, we got there early enough to beat a majority of the large crowds. It was such a lovely walk and afforded the opportunity for a bunch of pictures with my lovely ladies as well as pretty flower. It just felt so Dutch having the tulips blooming everywhere. Definitely recommend it if you every see yourself in Amsterdam. I'm not a huge flower freak, but it was so nice being that close to the essence of spring.
After the gardens we went back into the city to do some walking around. We visited the horse stables in the city which was really fun for both Katie and I. We really bonded with this one horse named Marco who would have probably let us pet him for hours. It was a lot of fun. Then we went back home, having ice cream on the way of course, for a little lie-down before heading out to dinner. By the way, the food in Amsterdam was amazing. We had all sorts of different cuisines, and all of it was really good. I think my favorite was probably our excursion to the restaurant that translates to Wild Boar. We actually had the boar and it was absolutely fantastic.
The following day we started a bit more of a somber note with a trip to the Anne Frank House. I'm going to be completely honest. I didn't think I would be able to emotionally handle it, since I know how I personally deal with anything Holocaust related. It's just a subject that's very hard for me to deal with, and I usually feel too upset to enter any sort of Holocaust exhibit or museum because I'm pretty sure I would just break down and cry/vomit all over the place. That was not the case with the Anne Frank house. It still had that spooky, historical feel to it, but what surprised me the most was how well the museum was put together. Every room flowed into the next and held the story of these families. Sure it was crowded, but since there was a distinct route, it didn't really matter. We also bought tickets ahead of time, and I would strongly advice you do this as well since the line seemed like a mile long by the time we left. I learned a lot about the Franks that I didn't know. I read the play, not the book, in 7th grade, but you don't really get a sense of the space until you're actually there. It was definitely what I would call a deeply historical experience.
After Anne Frank, we walked had breakfast at the Pancake Bakery. Mind-blowingly good pancakes right there. They're actually more like crepes but still very delicious. Katie had a sugar and lemon pancake which tasted like eating lemonade, and Maxine and I had a cheese, tomato, and mushroom pancake. For dessert we shared a serving of Poffertjes which are these delicious, dutch, mini-pancakes that are supper puffy and super yummy. They're usually served with powdered sugar and chocolate sauce. These things were well worth the wait in line to get into the restaurant. After breakfast we walked to Rembrandt's house, and the art historical geek leaked out a bit. It's just so neat to be in the house where such a great artists lived and worked. Rembrandt is such an interesting guy. If you want to know more about the artist as both a man and genius, I highly recommend watching the movie
Nightwatching starring Martin Freeman. It's one of my favorite films about art
ists. That night we went to see a concert at the Concertgebouw. It was a Persian pianist by the name of Pejman Akbarzadeh. He sounded like nothing I'd ever heard on the piano. There was also a Persian dancer who came out periodically to dance along with the music. It added a whole new dynamic that really just added to the performance.
Now while the entire trip was AMAZING, I think the definite highlight was the bike tour we took on the fourth day. Amsterdam is well known for being a biking city. Seriously, most people have at least three bikes each (one for work, one for play, and one to trash on the weekends). They just zoom by like total pros cruising the canals while talking on their phone, holding hands, or (my personal favorite) walking their dogs. I was super excited, but a little nervous to be joining such a group of experienced riders. It has been years since I'd been on a bike. I wasn't afraid that I would forget, but I am definitely not what you would call a "strong" biker. Maxine found this wonderful tour group called
Joy Ride Tours (how cute is that?). It took us about four hours of biking, and only really started and ended in the city so it was a lot less stress. Let me tell you though, those first few pedals into the streets in first gear were nightmarish. We shortly went through Vondelpark and followed the guide until we were in the actual Dutch countryside. The stops were regular, but not forced, and I really learned a lot about the history of both Amsterdam as well as the countryside. The biking itself went fairly well. No one got into any real accident and all of the roads are relatively flat so it wasn't that much strain. If I'm ever back in Amsterdam, I will definitely take another bike tour. It was just so much more fun and quicker than walking around. We saw a four hundred year-old windmill as well as a cheese/clog-making farm. The farm had baby cows as well and they were just so adorable. The actual bikes we had were touring bikes so that it was comfortable to sit upright and just survey the surroundings. If you're in the area, seriously look them up. You will not regret it. So knowledgeable and very nice. They were also in the process of training a new Dutch guide who happened to be very attractive. Hi Ralph! Ha.
After the bike tour, we even had a little steam left so we headed over to the Van Gogh museum and stayed there until it was closed. Again, I learned a lot about the artists that I didn't really know. Like how a lot of his early, early work that he did in Holland was done in a variety of grays and browns. It wasn't until he arrived in France that he started really experimenting with the colors and texture that we're familiar with today. I think my favorite piece was a yellow painting. It was a series of fruits and flowers that were all done in various shades of yellow. Now I usually don't like yellow, but the most interesting part for me was that the original frame was still attached and Van Gogh actually painted onto the frame itself to add another dimension to the painting. It was so refreshing. We had to scramble out of there since the museum was closing all around there, but I'm really glad we got to go.
Our last day was pretty low key. We went to the Rijksmuseum to see some of the old Dutch masters. That's what I really loved about Amsterdam; the amount of art and culture it had was truly astounding. There we saw Vermeers (including a painting of his of something outdoors which I didn't know existed) as well as Rembrandt's truly awe-inspiring masterpiece,
The Night's Watch. I don't think I imagined it being so big, but it was really massive. I loved all of the details and how every section of the canvas told its own story about the sitters. I think Kate was pretty impressed too. She has recently been getting more "into" art. Well I'm happy to fill that void for her!
We then went back to the hotel to pack for our respective flights the next morning. I shipped off to Barcelona to stay a few days with Amanda and her dad while Maxine and Katie went back home to the states. It was really a wonderful vacation, and it was just superb spending one-on-one time with both of them. While I really love traveling right now, it's hard to be away from my family. I especially miss Kate. She's just become a really funny and interesting person over the years. But I'll talk about that later. I love you and miss you both! Amsterdam definitely has a place in my heart as one of the most wondrous cities out there.
P.S.-Sorry for the super long post. I promise that my one for Spain will be shorter since I was only there for 2 days. I just want to make sure I get everything down as a way of documenting my travels along Europe.
