Amsterdamin'

Hubs and I have been trying to get to Amsterdam for a long time and every time, flights just simply wouldn't work. And finally, the stars aligned. You see, we'd be planning a two week Eurotrip with my family (for nearly a year) and Amsterdam happened to be the best way for us to get to Rome (where we would later catch a seven day cruise).

Our view from Boston's sky club where we were anxiously awaiting take-off!

The great thing about Amsterdam, besides it's beautiful canals and tulips, is the ease of navigation for foot/bike traffic. Even though we were barely in the Netherlands for a full day, we managed to see a great bit of the city and even knock a few things off our "To-Do" list. I think I ended the day with 13 miles on the Fitbit!

Since we took the late afternoon flight out of the states, we actually landed just before 6 am local time. It was early and neither of us slept well on the plane, so we decided to catch an Uber and nap for a bit before hitting the sights. Hubs, being the amazing traveler he is, has a ton of IHG points, which he cashed to allow us to stay at the Intercontinental Amstel Hotel, which was fabulous. We had a great view of the canal and the hotel was just incredible. We usually travel on the cheap since we're gone so much, so I'll admit we felt like royalty staying in such a ritzy place.

View from our room, sunrise 

I was getting artsy in the evening rainstorm

Our bed with some coffee candies (yum!) and info about the hotel

We managed to get a few hours of sleep in and headed out to soak up as much as we could before heading on to Rome the next day.  It was nearing lunch so we found a cute cafe and etched out our plan. Originally, I had wanted to do the Heineken brewery, Rijks museum and the Van Gogh museum, but time was short so we opted to see as much as we could of the city rather than spend a few hours in the museums/brewery. One of the things I really wanted to see was Vondelpark. Since this would take us by a few of the major sites and would allow us to experience some of Amsterdam's culture, we decided to go for it.

Ain't she a beaut?

View from the park

Finally on our way

After an hour or so, we left the park in search of our next stop - enjoying a Heineken (but not at the Experience). We found an awesome cafe- Cafe Gruter - and enjoyed some of the local fare. Pro-tip: want to fit in like a local- don't do as we did and order large beers. After we ordered the bartenders informed us that locals always order the smaller size. One of my good friends is originally from an area close to Utrecht (about an hour from Amsterdam); so I took advantage of the wifi and filled her in our time thus far. One day, I hope to see the Netherlands with her.

Rijks Museum on our way to Vondelpark

Rijks Museum on our way to Vondelpark

Park Views

Beautiful views as we walked through Vondelpark

Still a bit tired... 

Yum

We were lucky enough to see tulips in bloom

These were my fave!

Iamsterdam sign (not sure you can read it)

Park next to the Rijks museum

Another park view

More canal views

Despite how much fun Gruter's was, we still had a lot we wanted to see. We walked back towards Heineken Experience and bought tickets (& wine!) for the Blue Boat canal cruise. I highly recommend this! It was a great experience and allowed us to see much more of the city.  We even passed right by our hotel!

Cruisin'

I love the architecture

This might be my favorite photo

I got brave and dared to put my phone out the window for this one

Birds swimming

The building on the right is our hotel

There she is! Our room was on the first level next to the glass enclosure

The cruise lasted for a little over an hour and afterwards, we began walking towards the red light district. Even though we knew we'd be too early to see any of the shenanigans going on, we wanted to see the area. Annnnnd there's a bar there -Wynand Fockink - which has been around since 1679. It started as a liquer distillery but opened a tasting room later. We decided to give it a try. Hubs liked it much more than I did (very gingery) but it was a cool experience. By this time, it was early evening so we decided to walk back towards our hotel and see a bit more of the city.

We found this in a pub where we stopped for dinner. As a Kentucky girl at heart, this made me happy.

Isn't he cute?!?

Dutch clog!

Our bartender 

Wynand Focknick

I was bummed we had so little time there, but I am glad I finally got to see it. I'm excited for us to spend some more time there on a later trip. In the meantime, the plan is to write a post a week (one for each city on the cruise and two for Rome) until I've covered our EuroTrip 2018!

Ta ta for now...

I can't imagine living here and having these views daily

It was an amazing sunset