Amsterdam is such a lovely place. I know it well from spending the best part of 2 years working there. However I didn’t know it as a tourist. So this was my first ever trip as a tourist.
We were spoilt, the weather was glorious, in fact, slightly too warm, but I was not going to complain. It made the city so picturesque.
We were there for a family wedding. Due to a bit of planning by my daughter-in-law and myself, we had all managed to get bookings in the same hotel. It was a bit of a way out of the centre of town, but it had the advantage of being on a bus route, it was close to a large station (Sloterdijk), which was on a direct route from Schipol airport. The main drawback was that there were no nice coffee shops in the vicinity, which was a pity because that was where I intended having breakfast each day….
Firstly we we met up with my younger son and his wife, who live in New Zealand. Now we haven’t seen them in 18 months, so you can imagine the delight that gave us! It was lovely to see them both, and they are so happy. Then my other son arrived with his wife, albeit late on. So the first time we all got together was the next morning. What we hadn’t originally realised was that it was Gay Pride week in Amsterdam (hotels were very busy which was why we had ended up as far out). The city was really busy. By joint agreement, we all headed to the Rijksmuseum. By the use of Google maps, we bus and tram hopped to get there… (I can recommend getting a daily pass for the Trams and buses, it is a lot cheaper than the Tourist tickets, and so useful). Needless to say we spent a lovely couple of hours there, and as we came out, we spotted a restaurant literally round the corner, which made an ideal stop for lunch.
Given the Canal Pride Parade had started on the Prinzengracht, every bridge and street was packed, so we decided to split up and meet later at our hotel. My husband and I wandered along in the sunshine. We wandered past my old apartment and I had a lovely walk down memory lane. The upper balcony was mine, it overlooked a canal, but it could be surprisingly noisy from passing boats. There is evidently no drinking and driving limit for boats!
Needless to say we found a quiet pub where we had a lovely beer, in the sun. However even though we were quite a bit away from the canal, the noise was amazing.
We had a lovely family meal planned, in an old Pump house, where there was still one of the opriginal engines. Given there were 3 engineers in our group – this was very appropriate. We were celebrating a 60th birthday, a 70th birthday, several ordinary birthdays, all within a few weeks of each other, not to mention a forthcoming wedding with the bride and groom! Given the group was made up of 4 people from New Zealand, 2 who lived in the Netherlands, 2 from London and 2 from Scotland, there was a lot of chat and happy banter.
The next day, we spent time just wandering the city in the relative peace and quiet after the day before. We found a lovely place to have brunch and then our 2 boys, their wives and ourselves meandered along. I showed my younger son where I had lived. (My older son and his wife had stayed with me, so they knew where it was). then we wandered through the calm of the university quarter on a Sunday, leaned on bridges and literally just took in the sights.
I just loved this photo, with the reflection of the rainbow banners on the path
At this road junction there were bikes on each corner, bedecked in different colours of flowers
I could include loads more photographs, but here are one or two – a family enjoying a day in the sunshine on the canal, with a lovely houseboat in the background.
and this one showing the big canal boat, a small boat about to go under a bridge where so many bikes are parked!
Monday morning found us up bright and early, going to Haarlem by train, in just 20 minutes, which was where the wedding was taking place. I just love the trains in the Netherlands, they are so efficient! We did get a few looks as my son was decked out in full kilt outfit, not a particularly common sight on a Monday morning. It was a civil wedding in Haarlem Town Hall, a lovely old building.
Then we walked along to a brewery, where we had a lovely lunch. My husband was totally fascinated by the 20+ beer taps!
The next day, we took things slowly, after our late night, but we did expend a bit of energy later in the day, climbing to the top of the WesterKerk built around 1630, next to Anne Frank’s house. It has a full 360 degree view of the city, the one I have included shows the Anne Frank Visitor centre (large glass building at the front on the right). In the red circle is the attic where Anne Frank lived.
All too soon, it was time to say goodbye to everyone. I know we will see our older son and wife when we are on our next Slow Travel trip (Rome – more later), but we don’t know yet when we will meet up with our younger son and his wife. Sadly it won’t be anytime soon!
However, the good news is that we all enjoyed being tourists in Amsterdam. Maybe I wont wait so long before going back!
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