Canals, Bikes, Beer and Cheese! I love Amsterdam!

Ahh Amsterdam.

I would be ignoring the obvious if I didn’t immediately acknowledge that the stereotypical draw of this city for Americans is the Red Light District and the fact that pot is legal to smoke here. I can honestly say I sort of forgot about both of those initially though when Dan suggested we go there for his ‘last week hurrah’ before leaving the UK though. I’ve heard so many people rave about how beautiful the city is. How charming. How authentically European it feels. So the combination of all of the above made agreeing on a city a no brainer. And it didn't disappoint.

We actually did Air B&B for the first time there, and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the process was. We basically rented someone’s apartment for our week in the city. While there is definitely a benefit at times to having a hotel concierge to ask opinions of…this worked out quite well for us and allowed us to stay in a really cool area of the city – the Jordaan. DEFINITELY recommend staying in that quarter if you ever go to Amsterdam. It was pretty cool.

So we flew into Amsterdam, caught the train the city and immediately after leaving the Central Station looked at a 3 level garage full of bikes! Walk across the street? Bikes everywhere!

Try to cross traffic? There are dedicated bike lanes everywhere!

Bikers in skirts, work clothes, all clothes! Dan is a huge cyclist so he thought this was awesome. And after biking around London with their for-hire bikes, I’ve gotten much more comfortable riding in unfamiliar territory. In Amsterdam, it was even better though. Cyclists get the right-of-way over cars AND people! EVERYONE bikes! It was pretty awesome I have to say.

I know, I look like such a natural...

The other part I hadn’t quite prepared myself for was the number of canals that existed in the city. I knew there were canals. I didn’t realize that there were canals EVERYWHERE! Like, every 2 streets was a canal!

Double whammy: canal AND a bike!

Dan thoughtfully enjoying the scenery ;)

Given my obsession with water, I loved this! It was sooo pretty. Picture brick or cobblestone streets, old-fashioned looking bridges and canal waterways everywhere. The city was so charming it seemed to jump right out of a picture book. After being there just one day, I was almost bummed that I hadn’t just moved to Amsterdam instead of London. I was prepared to feel like this since one of my friends forewarned me how beautiful it was….and she was right. The city had a smaller feel to it also. And as much as I’ve enjoyed London, I’m not sure I’ve fallen in love with the city. Amsterdam on the other hand had it all (in my opinion): great restaurants and food, beautiful city, nice people, more of an outdoorsy lifestyle (or at least a bit of it with all of the biking), and it was small enough to get from one side to the other with minimal hassle.

One thing that skewed our opinion though was the amazing weather we had. It was like a heat wave there apparently. I guess it’s usually gray and rainy (like London only worse?!). Not while we were there. It was sunny and warm. The sun shimmered off the water, and the buildings looked especially unique in the sunlight.

One of the days we took a countryside bike tour on Mikes Bikes (which I actually did last time I was in Europe 8 years ago in Munich). We rode out into the Dutch countryside....

were entertained by funny tour guides, saw a working windmill...

went to a local Dutch farm where Dan made friends with lots of animals...

Dude is obsessed with dogs.

And apparently had never seen a cow up close.

 and they made homemade Gouda cheese (delicious!!!!!)

By the way, they had cheese tastings. This cheese was incredible!

and traditional wooden shoes...

Seriously, they intentionally have different colors of shoes for different occasions. 

These are the unpainted shoes (clearly).

and then biked back along the river through Vondelpark - their version of Central Park.   

I clearly was not the only one who had the idea to get a photo taken in front of this iconic text.

Dan biking through Vondelpark

Water thief! I swear for every bottle of water we bought, I think I got like 3 drinks...

The second day we rented bikes and did our own city tour. I do have to say, drinking and biking is NOT the best idea when you’re not used to the one-speed, reverse-to-break Dutch bikes. Why do I say this? Well…. Let’s just say I STILL have an indent and mark on my shin as a result of me running into a pole. How did this happen you ask? Well… it went something like this: We went to a windmill/brewery where we had some pretty-high-alcohol-content craft beers (one of which was called “Columbus”!!!)

They were delicious! I've realized I really like craft beers. 

What a great place! Columbus! ;) 

Then we biked around and went to what I can honestly say is one of the best meals I have ever had in my life. It was a small place that our friend Dave had recommended from his trip there. It was a bit of a splurge (for Dan, haha) and was a 4-course meal with wine-pairings.

Sadly, this photo of our wine was the only one we thought of snapping at dinner.

The restaurant was super small, and the chef and owner came out to serve every course to us!!!! We had no idea what the menu was….and one of the courses was…. Wait for it…. PIGEON!!!!! I know. I know. I hesitated at first too. Apparently it was “farm-raised” pigeon (which probably means that they live a boringly miserable life), but I have to admit that it was actually really really good. Anyway, 2.5 hours and 4 glasses of wine later, we emerged from dinner to go check out the Red Light District. I get on my bike, turn to look at Dan, see two people coming at me really quickly, try to swerve out of the way and BAM! Smack my shin right into a pole. I almost cried. Seriously. It hurt. Lesson learned I guess.

Gotta say, the Red Light District is certainly an experience. Of course we checked it out! You can’t go there and not. I’m going to save the details of it for your trip should you ever go though. You decide for yourself what you think.

Anyway, there wasn’t a TON of sight-seeing we did. We just wanted to relax, enjoy the city and soak up the European culture. The last day we just ate the cheese we bought at the Dutch farm, drank wine and hung out in Vondelpark.

We got a bit of taste for the gray weather our last day there. I do have to say the temperature and sunshine probably made the trip for us. But honestly it’s probably one of my very favorite cities I’ve been to.

Oh yeah, and let’s just say “coffee shops” don’t really serve coffee. Heehe. ;)