Suitcases packed.
Visas received.
Hair coloured red!
This holiday was precious! We had planned and prepared way beforehand, and we were excited beyond measure. So, we Aerofloated our way to Amsterdam via Moscow, and our adventure began right away!
Touchdown Moscow 
A city of 1500 bridges, 50 kilometres of canals and more bikes than people, Amsterdam is one of Europe’s most popular cities with visitors from around the world. The first thing you notice are the gorgeous brick buildings, open skyline, rich history, and the relaxed, easy going attitude towards life of the Dutch.
Along with its beautiful gabled houses and flower-decked watersides, there’s an enormous amount to see and do, whether your interests are more Golden Age art or graffiti, high culture or getting high in a coffee shop; and we did all that!
We stayed pretty close to the city centre, at The Flying Pigs hostel. Why hostel? Well, what’s Europe without a couple of hostel stays!?
Day 1 was all about typical sight-seeing stuff, as we hopped on and off trams and buses to get from one place to another. If you plan on visiting museums in Amsterdam, I recommend investing in the iAmsterdam card, which will allow you access to Amsterdam’s best museums, public transportation as well as discounts to many attractions and a free canal cruise.
Humble request #1 by the husband:
Wherever you’re traveling next, try staying at a hostel for one night. The experience is interestingly awesome, you make friends, you save space; communal breakfasts and lunches and other meals, with some ‘joint’ conversations over a coffee pot. And guess what it’s considerably cheap, because let’s face it, you’re only there to spend the night.
Where all did we Gogh!
Is it possible to write about museums in the Netherlands without mentioning the world-famous Rijksmuseum? The Rijksmuseum focuses on the culture and history of the Netherlands although their collection of Dutch masters is particularly notable. If you’re not into the Dutch masters (like my significant other), you’ll still find plenty to see in the Rijksmuseum, but to save time, we did a quick tour around and went to the next museum on the list, not before the mandatory “IAMSTERDAM” picture, of course!
Vincent Van Gogh is arguably the most popular artist in the history of mankind. Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum holds the largest collection of his works. This makes the Van Gogh Museum one of the 25 most-visited museums in the world. The collection at the museum includes his paintings, drawings, and letters, along with the notable works of his contemporaries. Surprisingly, though, one of his world-famous paintings, The Starry Night, is not in this museum, but in the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
It is quite simple to navigate through Van Gogh’s works at the museum because of the chronological arrangement. There are 2 audio tours you can try, one is the long, extended version and another short concise version, both of which take you through the entire life of Vincent Van Gogh, including the artist’s struggles and painting techniques, his correspondence with his brother, Theo, all the museum highlights, an in-depth insight into Van Gogh’s major works and a live light and sound narrative installation that allows you to enter the mind and heart of Vincent van Gogh. You can experience Van Gogh’s emotional journey when he moved from Paris to Arles, in the South of France. His journey was alive with inspiration and beauty, but also tarnished with doubt and confusion.
After walking around for a little more time, we decided to head to Amsterdam Centrale to meet a friend. On our way we stopped by one of the most famous Belgian Fries chain in this side of the world – Manneken Pis.
Humble request #2 by the husband:
If you’re ever in this part of the world, please, pretty please try these delicious, scrumptious and gorgeous Belgian fries. They beat the ghee roast I spoke about in our Sri Lanka blog. You will thank me later.
Because I need my space.
The evening was trippy to say the least, without giving away too much. We rolled over to all the important evening destinations – The Blue Lagoon Coffee Shop, The Bulldog, (the jail/holding cell that was converted into a café), and even Wagamama. My memories of the night are Amstel radler, the chatty and affable Amsterdamians who just waltzed in and out of conversations with us. Maybe it is the Dutch culture of exploration of new cultures which eventually led to them being a colonial powerhouse or just the heady air of Amsterdam that mellows you down with every breath, there’s something about the people that makes you want to visit the place again and again.
The Dutch countryside
Acres of green, powder puff clouds, Lakenvelder or the Dutch belted cows, charming canals and boathouses, and a red scooter! We rode the scooter aimlessly around the Dutch countryside and I don’t think I have seen anything so gorgeous in my life. All we had was a physical map, 2 bottles of water, names of our pit stops, a weakish internet connection, a scooter that wouldn’t go beyond 30 kmph and hidden red arrows along the way. We were one with nature and we loved it!
We stopped by little cafes that served fresh bread and coffee, we saw residents out on a stroll with their ponies and of course saw the adorable vintage windmills. What was awesome about the whole experience was the dedicated bike lane across highways and even inside little streets.
Windows Wallpaper 
The story of the world’s most famous beer!
A small Amsterdam brewery went on to become the world’s favourite beer, that’s the story of the Heineken beer!
The brewery was established in Amsterdam in 1864 and today Heineken is one of the three largest beer producers in the world. Heineken’s rich and successful history has been presented in their old defunct brewery in Amsterdam, with several amusement park attractions added to the exhibit and renamed as Amsterdam Heineken Experience.
The architecture of the 19th century Heineken brewery buildings, authentic interiors, old photographs and state decorations Heineken family received, famous gold medal from The Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1889, which you may see reproduced on each can of Heineken, impressive brass beer tanks and a quiet horse stable, they took us around everything and even made us our very own bottle of Heineken beer with our name on it.
The experience also included a canal tour that went down the same route that the Heineken barrels took back in the day. We cruised along Amsterdam’s lovely UNESCO-listed canals, listening to engaging commentary on board that gave us background into the city and historical landmarks, including the Skinny Bridge, Anne Frank House, the National Monument, the Royal Palace, St Nicolaaskerk (St Nicholas Church) and the final stop was at A’Dam Lookout; where we got off and made our way to the observation deck.
An unrivaled panoramic view of Amsterdam and a thrilling ‘Over the Edge’ swing, A’DAM Lookout is a spot in the city that has views of the city’s historical centre, its pulsating port, the unique Dutch polder landscape and also the famous canals. We obviously wanted to get on that swing, but unfortunately almost everything in Amsterdam requires pre-booking, that sometimes go back to weeks if not months, so we couldn’t.
Humble request #3 by the husband:
Once you have your entire itinerary planned, MAKE YOUR BOOKINGS. Be it the museums, the shows, A’DAM Lookout or anything else, you don’t want to miss them. We unfortunately had to skip a few because of unavailable tickets.
Also, everywhere you go, stock up on Stroopwaffels. I think God took some time to encourage the human mind to invent these, it’s got that heavenly taste, I swear.
Break ke baad!
After a gorgeous getaway to Germany over the next few days, we were back in Amsterdam for just one more day. (details of the German Holiday in the next blog!)
Tired and jaded, we reached Amsterdam Central. That night was weird. Remember when I spoke about being open to hostel stays, well, you must not over do it, especially in a place like Amsterdam.
We stayed at the Train Lodge, which as a place to stay is adorable, but the company we got was not one we sought. Let’s cut to the chase, I was spooked by the screams and hallucinations of a fellow roomie and nothing about that night was funny.
Humble request #4 by the husband:
Don’t judge a book by its cover and don’t judge a place by its ambience. Company matters! Especially when you’re travelling with your partner, no matter how accommodating you both are, you want to be sure that the people you’re sharing a room with are not eccentric to say the least. Nothing against the guy who was enjoying his holiday and doing what he was there to do.
I don’t want to go back home!
The next morning we bolted out of there even before the sun rose fully. Booking.com helped us find a really cool place to stay the day and night, it was called Hotel Teleport, and it was awesome!
Day was spent doing the typical touristy stuff in Amsterdam, cheese museum, tulip museum, duck store, a very uncomfortable visit to the sex museum, a coffee shop named Grey Area, picture outside the Anne Frank House and of course the mandatory visit to Manneken Pis for those delicious fries!
Humble request #5 by the husband:
Half the day was spent inside our hotel room watching Comedy Central, munching on some ready to eat food and stepping out in the rain for a quick puff or two. My request here is, if you’re traveling to this place, try everything we’ve listed and more, eat everything you wish to eat, waffles, pancakes, pizzas, Indian food and especially the fries at Manneken Pis. They beat the pizza at Auto Grill, (refer to Rachna’s blog on our trip to Italy). Divine is the word.
Before we knew it, it was time to go back, but there was so much more to experience. Here’s us ending this blog with a promise to make the Netherlands a recurrent travel destination.
Rachna's blog 