Amsterdam - 2023

21/07/23 - citytripping with the best!

Today is the National holiday of Belgium and when you are a good Belgian, you automatically go to the capital of Belgium, Brussels to be more precise, and like many others (read thousands) you celebrate our nations day together with the king. There are other festivities going on in the rest of the country as well, but most people want to celebrate this main event in the capital. Something I can relate to, but since me and my best friend Tania aren't good Belgians I suppose, we rather prefer to be out of the country instead of in it.

It being a bank holiday, it is perfect for a short trip and since we got a notice from some friends a while back, we booked ourselves a night in our favourite next door country and off we went in the wee hours to Amsterdam.

The road was surprisingly empty and in no time we arrived at the scene. We quickly checked ourselves in, got a tour of the hotel since Tania mixed a little bit of business with pleasure and before we knew it, we were sipping coffee alongside the river Amstel and enjoying the views. May it be that it wasn't in the best of weather, but we were away from home, so we took what we could get.

Since our hotel wasn't that far situated from the centre of Amsterdam, we decided to walk the 3K and ended up at the Rijksmuseum a little bit after 1 PM. All of a sudden the sun popped out and needless to say, we found ourselves a place on the square and just enjoyed the sun and did a bit of people watching as well. So many were up and about and it was definitely clear that we weren't the only tourists here at this hot spot.

We arranged to meet up with Callie at 2 PM in the afternoon and seeing eachother back after almost 9 years, needless to say we had a blast the entire afternoon.

Callie, who is currently on a Europe trip and tries to see as much as she can, has a 3 months holiday break from work. She works as a pediatric and because of Covid worked almost 3 years consecutive with as good as no breaks at all. It took a lot of her, getting the diseas as well because of the many hours working on the covid ward and now she decided to have one last long travel before getting to that next big step of home, husband, kids, ...

For an Aussie girl who has never been that long away from home, it is quite an achievement if you ask me, backpacking all over the continent and in a way I am so proud to guide her in one of the many steps of seeing her dream destination becoming true.

After quite a long time of hugging and ooohhs and aaahhs, the three of us, tackled the flower market and of course the centre of town for a bit of windowshopping, some cheese tasting, a late lunch with nothing but typical Dutch food and a ferry crossing to the other side of the river.

It was almost 7PM when we arrived back at the Rijksmuseum to meet up with Anna, our fourth partner in crime so to speak. Since she still had to work today, she could only arrive in the late afternoon.

Coming from Denmark, luckily for her it was but a short flight, but like the rest of us, she has a healthy appetite so while we were walking in De Pijp, a local working-class neighbourhood, which became very popular lately, we found ourselves a nice place to have drinks and a little bit of food as well.

Needless to say it was pretty late when we said our goodbyes, but tomorrow we still had an entire day, so me and Tania walked all the way back to our hotel and had one last nightcup before we called it quits.

22/07/23 - a day of history

At 7AM our alarm clock went off and boy, I was so lucky I still could sleep a little bit more instead of Tania who went on her 10K daily run. She arrived back almost an hour later feeling quite energetic. I personally was glad I was able to get up in the first place and feeling proud as hell, we went for a delicious breakfast before we met up with Callie and Anna.

We booked ourselves a free guided walking tour today at 11AM. We initially wanted to visit the Anna Frank house but this was already sold out for months. Yep, covid sure didn't make things easier when it comes to visit things at the spur of the moment. Luckily we could book the next best thing which was an Anna Frank tour learning more about her life and the lives of her relatives as well as the Jewish community during the second World War.

Our guide of the day was Wendelin or Wendy if you wanted things shorter. Born and raised in Vught, he moved to Amsterdam because he was still a history student and hoped to become a history professor one day.

Needless to say, he did a great job and our little group of 11 with all nationalities such as Belgian, Irish, Australians, Canadians, Danish and Germans, were a bit wiser when we ended the tour a few hours later.

After saying our goodbyes to Wendy and the rest of the group, the four of us went on the search for a bite to eat, strolling alongside the many channels, when all of a sudden we came across a manifestation of the gay community and of course, we can only support the one thing they were asking for, which was equality for everyone!

They were so colorful with their banners and happy faces, feeling so proud of themselves, that everyone they came across just smiled and I must say they left a happy feeling in my heart, that's for sure!

We had booked ourselves a 3PM visit into the Rijksmuseum, to see all the Dutch painters of impartance. Like the Anna Frank house we initially wanted to visit the Van Gogh museum, but yep, this was fully booked as well, so when another opportunity appears, you go for that one. I must admit that I am not a real museum buff and usually I would opt for more fun ones like the upside down one (unfortunately it was sold out as well), but hey, when you are with many, you go with the flow and in a way it didn't disappoint at all because we not only saw paintings, but sculptures and other things as well.

It was already 5PM when we were told that the museum was going to close and with hundreds of other people we were forced to leave the building. It was either that of spending the night in the museum, but that sounded a little bit creepy to me, to be honest!

Back on the streets again, we had one last drink before we said our goodbyes to Anna and Callie and about an hour later, Tania and I walked back to the hotel, had one more stop for a bite to eat and by the time it was 8PM, we were on the highway again and on our way home, where I dropped Tania off about two hours later. I was glad to notice that traffic went surprisingly well, anabling me to arrive home less than an hour later as well.

It was but a short visit and a short meet up, but I can honestly say it was a good one! It was nice meeting both girls after what must have been almost 9 years, since our communal tourgroup in New Zealand and I just cannot wait to catch up with them one day or another. Only time will tell!