A Snowy Easter in Amsterdam

OK, this one is going to be a long one. We like to write trip reports and Scott usually brings along his notebook, but we forgot this time, so I wrote this instead so we remember as well!

Friday 21 March

Alarm went off at 5am and we dragged ourselves out of bed for our Easter adventure in Amsterdam. We had been watching the weather with dread for the week before and it was still forecasting snow. Oh well, what can you do?

We caught the 6:30am Gatwick Express and heading off to Gatwick for our flight. Everything was going according to plan, we boarded on time…and then sat. And sat. And sat on the tarmac waiting for Amsterdam to give us the ok as they were having snow storms. Perfect. After an hour delay we were off!! I would like to add at this point that I very patiently read my book and didn’t get frustrated at all by the delay…a big step forward for me ;)

We landed at Schipol (pronounced Skip-Ol) about 30 minutes late. Wow, Schipol is a crazy airport. Beautiful, modern and huge. They actually have security at every gate as opposed to one big security check point so you can wander and shop without worrying about going through security.

We wound our way through to passport control, and of course got into the shortest line…which also happened to be the longest wait, as we had two people ahead of us get taken by passport officers…that can never be good. Finally got our luggage, hoped on the train and headed to Amsterdam Centraal station.

We had arranged to head straight to our bed and breakfast (the highly recommended Boogaard’s B&B http://www.boogaardsbnb.com/) and headed straight there. It is an easy 5 min walk from Centraal station in Centrum. The B&B is in a traditional Amsterdam house, which means its about 5 stories high with some crazy stairs up to our room. Peter, the owner, was great and very welcoming and everything was as expected. Would definitely recommend staying here and we will do so again if/when we are back in Amsterdam.

After dropping our stuff we walked outside to explore the Old Side (Oude Zijde) but before we had walked a block the rain began. We ran for cover and decided to start with a canal cruise. Before we even started the cruise the rain had turned to big fluffy snow flakes. Our cruise was lovely in the snow, although the windows were a bit foggy so the views were hard to see.

We ended the cruise back at Centraal and headed to the Old Side. We didn’t get very far when we were side tracked by a traditional brown café on the old street of Zeedijk. Dating from around 1550, In’t Aephen (In the Monkeys) providing a place to sleep for destitute sailors if they promised they would return from their next voyage with a monkey! Apparently it worked as soon it was filled with monkeys (and their lice!). Anyways, it was charming and perfect to get out of the snow. We called this the monkey bar from now on!

After a beer, we headed down Zeedijk to Niewmarkt where there is a lovely bar. This place would be great in the summer as you can sit outside, enjoy a bevvie and watch people. As it was still crappy outside we headed towards the Old Church (Oude Kerk). This is Amsterdam’s oldest church…and funny enough is surrounded by the oldest profession! Overlooking the church on 2/3 of its sides are prostitutes in their red light finery!!! How weird is that!! Scott got a sneaky shot but you really aren’t supposed to do it. There was a kindergarten right beside the prostitutes as well!!

We soon realized we were close to the heart of the red light district. I had been to Amsterdam in 2001, but this was Scott’s first time…and you can’t visit Amsterdam without visiting the red light district. So we wandered around, smelling the air of the coffee shops and experiencing the ambience. It really is crazy…we didn’t know where to look. Are you allowed to just look at these women or should you avert your eyes. We did know we weren’t allowed pics and I can see why. Anyways, after we had our fill of that we wandered back to our hotel to find a place to eat dinner and relax for a while.

Note: Amsterdam is going smoke free April 15, 2008 which will be great for the pubs! Right now they are very smoky and as non-smokers from Canada/England we are not used to that anymore!

Scott found a recommendation for a Thai restaurant nearby so we headed out around 6:30ish. It was called Krua Thai, http://www.kruathai.nl/?D=1 and it was excellent. We ordered the set menu and settled in for 2 hours of delicious thai food. The manager was very attentive and his nephew was going to school in Vancouver at Simon Fraser University so he was quite excited when we said we were from there originally.

Another wander through the red light district after dark was in order so we wandered back around there. I didn’t realize that prostitutes could work outside the red light district, but we found red windows all over the place, even right around the corner from our B&B. Peter told us that most of these women are married with children and can make around 60,000 Euro a year!!!

It had been a great first day and we fell into bed and slept through the night…

Saturday 22 March

We woke up to the yummy smell of breakfast on Saturday. The plan today was to hit Bloemenmarkt and New Side (Niewe Zijde). Peter had made lovely dutch pancakes that reminded me of my dad’s as they were huge! We tucked into breakfast, ran upstairs to grab our umbrellas and cameras and were off!

We wandered down Singel canal which was on one side of our B&B. The Bloemenmarkt is at the far end of this canal (at the top of the horseshoe shape of Centrum). We got there, but due to the cold spring there weren’t many flowers in bloom. Most of the vendors were selling bulbs.

We then headed to the nearby Spui Square for a coffee. We took a seat in a restaurant/café on the square and Scott had a coffee and I had a hot chocolate. We spent a good 30 mins relaxing and watching some crazy guy ride his bike around the square. Great entertainment!

This is a good time to mention that Amsterdam is COVERED in bikes!!!! They have so many modes of transportation…bikes, cars, a tram, and even though they are 4 metres below sea level they are expanding their metro!!! Its hard to walk in some places as you have to be aware of so many things. Peter told us that bikes have the right of way, then pedestrians and then cars. If a car hits a person the drivers loses their license, no questions asked! There are 800,000 people in Amsterdam, 1,5 million bikes and only 300,000 cars!!

Anyways, after our coffee we headed to Begihnof, which is a tree-filled courtyard of a residential area, built in the 14th century. It is so quiet compared to the trams and bikes around Spui. It’s very serene here…but of course it started raining again (have I mentioned how quickly the weather changes? You can have rain, sun, rain, snow, wind, rain and sun all within a 3 hour time period!) so we headed into English Church (Engelse Kerk), which is apparently a Scottish Presbyterian church. The rain stopped enough for me to snap a few shots of the beautiful wall decorations that were saved and are on the wall around the corner from the church.

Since we were in the neighbourhood we decided to have lunch at Café Hoppe, a brown café on the Spui Square. I had a couple delicious beef croquettes, a Dutch specialty, and Scott had a BLT. Both were excellent and cheap! We then headed to the nearby Amsterdam Historical Museum to learn the history of Amsterdam.

This museum is HUGE and very well done. The only downside was the screaming child being dragged around by the oblivious parents. I hate that! We spent probably 2 hours wandering in this museum and still didn’t see most of it. But by that time we were a bit wandered out, so it was time to have another beer!

We wandered around looking at canals and as it started raining we ran into a nearby square and found a place called the Unique Bar…and of course had a drink. We discovered by looking at our map that we had stumbled into Rembrandt Plein. This square reminded us of Piccadilly Square in that there were large neon signs everywhere. The bar we were in was perfect for people watching and we happily sipped our beer entertained ourselves by watching people walking by.

Once the rain had subsided and the sun had come out again we headed towards Dam Square. This is literally where they dammed the Amstel River that used to flow through town. It is also where wanderers in the 12th century thought to stop and build a dam, and this is where the settlement of Amsterdam began. Today it is large square full of people, trams and the New Church (Nieuwe Kerk), the Koninlijk Paleis, and the National Monument. We snapped some pics and found our way to a small bar behind the huge palace. Again we sat and watched people from the window and relaxed.

We had dinner reservations at De Kas http://www.restaurantdekas.nl/ in Frankendael Park. It’s a lovely restaurant that looks like a greenhouse. Very beautiful. There is a set menu of 5 courses, and the food is either grown on site, or comes from organic suppliers. It was a bit odd in that they brought out 3 appetiser courses all at once, which meant our wine was warm by the time we finished the last one. I prefer each course to come out separately. The food was good, but the service was not. No one checked back in, there were huge long waits in between courses. All in all, I don’t think we would go back. But oh well, the dinner was nice and we were in Amsterdam. We took the tram back and wandered to our B&B. Another great day!

Sunday 23 March

We woke up early this morning as we had 9:30 reservations at the Anne Frank Huis. I HIGHLY recommend making reservations online if any of you make it to Amsterdam. It is so easy. You can do it here: http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?pid=1&lid=2 You print your tickets and go to the door to the left of the HUGE line and ring the doorbell…and you are in!!! I can’t believe how many people don’t do this, as the line wrapped right around the whole block by the time we got out.

This is my favourite museum in Amsterdam. We aren’t art museum people, but love history museums and this one is so well done and touching. You leave with a heavy heart but a good reminder of what happened. So very sad.

So after that we decided to chance going to Keukenhof Gardens http://www.keukenhof.nl/nm/english.html as the weather was nice and sunny and everything was closed for Easter Sunday…but it didn’t stay sunny for long!

We went to Centraal to buy our train tickets, and although they say on the website you could get combi tickets from Amsterdam you still have to go to Leiden and then buy your combi tickets there. So we headed out on the train to Leiden…and right into a big black cloud. Sigh…at Leiden we walked out of the train station and easily found where to buy the tickets and hopped on the bus. It’s about a 30 min ride from Leiden. Of course, by the time we got to the gardens it was snowing!! And snowing A LOT!

We grabbed a table and had lunch, hoping for the snow to pass, which of course it did. We laughed about it and headed out into the gardens. Again, having been a cold spring there weren’t too many blooms yet, but it was only opening weekend. I can just imagine it would be beautiful in full bloom! We took our time, taking photos until we came to the greenhouses. And WOW! The tulips in there were amazing. Even though it snowed on and off all day it was a great afternoon. We got some amazing shots.

We headed back to our B&B as Peter had invited us to join his buffet that afternoon. Little did we know, it was his family and friends Easter buffet! Good thing we thought to bring wine! We settled in and had a lovely evening with Peter, his friends and family, including his lovely grandparents who invited us to celebrate their birthdays in Sept with them!

The time is just flying by, and it was our last night already…we sadly fell into bed, looking forward to our last day….

Monday 23 March

We woke to a beautiful sunny sky on Monday morning, and headed downstairs for a yummy breakfast of freshly made quiche. We didn’t really have too many plans for the day…just wanted to wander around, take a few more pics and have a few last beers.

We headed out wandering around the canals and ended up back in Old Side. As the sun was out we took advantage of this and took a bunch of pics…good thing, because it soon clouded over and started snowing again. By this time it was lunch time and Peter had recommended an Indonesian place called Sampurna right behind Bloemenmarkt so we headed in that direction. I had some crispy chicken spicy dish and Scott had a mixed rice dish. The food was good, but I think I preferred the Thai place from Friday night.

After that we only had a couple of hours before we had to check out and head to the airport. We headed back to the Jordaan area by our B&B and settled in at the bar of a brown café. We had a couple last drinks and then headed for the airport. The weekend went by way too fast!

We loved Amsterdam; Scott even said he thought it was his 2nd favourite city in Europe after Paris! It is very walkable, people all speak English and were very welcoming, and it is very beautiful as well. A great place for a long weekend.

The next big adventure is Berlin for the first weekend in May (it is a long weekend here). I'm working in Dublin this week and next so Scott is coming up for the weekend. We also may fit in a trip to Cambridge with London Walks in April...depends on the weather. Yeah...it's a rough life... :)

Jamie's Pics:



And Scott's Pics:

Mid-March Update

Hello everyone,

Just thought I would check in and do a mid-month update!

Mar 3 was my birthday, and we had a great time on Brick Lane having a curry with Ken and John. I headed back to Guernsey for a few days on Mar 4 and I swear my hotel room was haunted. First night the TV came on by itself, second night the hotel lost power for 4 hours (thank goodness they provided a free bottle of wine and a flash light) and then on the third night the waiter in the restaurant told me a woman ghost haunted my floor!! Needless to say, I didnt sleep well at all!

Saturday Scott took me to The Sound of Music in West End http://www.soundofmusiclondon.com/ It was great! Not exactly Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, but it was good. We then hit a champagne bar before going for dinner.

On Sunday Allan Tang came for a visit and we all headed out to the Lamb and Flag in Covent Garden for several beers. Monday we went to see Avenue Q with Ken, as one of his friends is in the show. I wasnt expecting to like it but it was HILARIOUS...very very funny and much more than 'dirty muppets' that I'd heard it was. Highly recommend it. http://www.avenueqthemusical.co.uk/homepage.php

We head to Amsterdam next weekend for Easter. I've been but only stayed 1 day. Cant wait to go back, some of the tulips should be in bloom and I remember it being a beautiful city. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesnt rain all weekend!!

Flat Update Mar 1, 2008

Hello everyone,

When we first bought our place in Burnaby, we went to visit it every Sunday for the 1.5 months before we moved in (it was a new build as well, but already built when we bought it). Well, going every Sunday for 1.5 YEARS seems a bit odd, kind of stalker like, so we are trying to only go every month. We thought it would be fun to take pics every month to track its development. Man, we are so geeky!

Anyways, we went out yesterday to visit and was surprized to see how much had been done! The 2nd building is up to the 6th floor now so you can see how it will look. Again, ours is the corner unit on the top (6th) floor of the right hand building, looking NW towards Canary Wharf and the Thames. They even have some of the balconies on, although still covered in cardboard, but we were happily surprized by how big they are!

We also went for lunch in Woolwich and again were happy to see that it is bustling little high street and market. Mind you, they arent the yuppies walking around Clapham, but at least people are up and out. It was a nice sunny afternoon by this time and the high street was quite pleasant. I guess seeing it at its worst during a rainy Sunday in Jan makes it look pretty darn good now :) Its not Clapham, but its not as bad as it seemed before, so thats great!