The travels of Tim and Megan: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Fans,

Saturday

We left London early Saturday morning (via London City Airport, which we now love and will try to fly to and from whenever possible) for sunny Amsterdam. We checked in to the Sofitel Hotel, which was amazing (definitely recommended) and we set off to explore the city.

First stop was Dam Square, which was buzzing with hundreds of people (mainly tourists) being entertained by various street performers and characters from Madame Tussaud's (Darth Vader, Batman and two Grim Reapers were all there)! Dam Square is a huge open courtyard with the imposing Koninklijk Paleis (originally built as the city's Town Hall, but occasionally used by the Dutch Royal Family for official functions) at one end, Madame Tussaud's and some shops down one side, cafes and bars down the other side and a war monument at the far end. It was pretty hot all weekend in Amsterdam, so we found some shade in a nearby cafe and had some lunch and a beer.

We enjoyed the leisurely stroll from Dam Square across the canals down to the Museum Quarter, where we visited the Van Gogh museum. When Van Gogh died in 1890, his brother Theo, an art dealer, amassed a collection of over 200 paintings and 500 drawings. These, along with over 800 letters written by Van Gogh to Theo, make up the majority of the museum's fantastic collection. The Van Gogh museum was opened in 1973.

Despite the masses of people in the museum, we both thoroughly enjoyed our visit. We are not exactly art experts, but we are both fans of Van Gogh's work. We were particularly amazed to discover that Van Gogh never really studied art but rather taught himself how to paint and draw, and at how rapid his works were produced. His entire collection of over 800 paintings and 1,000 drawings were produced in just 10 years.

The afternoon heat was countered with ice creams and a rest in the shade in Vondelpark, Amsterdam's largest public park. The park was very pretty and was full of people enjoying games, music, picnics and drinks in the shade! By this time it was definitely Beer o'clock, so we wandered back to our hotel for a beer and then hit the bars. We visited a few bars between our hotel and Dam Square, one of which was home to the worst poker machine in the world. We put some money in and pushed a few buttons and nothing happened, so we pushed some more buttons and it told us we had lost...the reels didn't even spin around!!! The crafty old Dutch saw us coming.

We then decided on St Paul's Cafe for dinner, which was very nice and the food was pretty good (except the lack of french fries that the menu had promised us). But after sitting down, we suddenly realised that we were the only heterosexual people in there...and there were a LOT of disco balls hanging from the ceiling. Interesting...

The Red Light District was another eye opener! There is a long straight street (with dozens of alleyways coming off either side) full of sex shops, strip shows and literally hundreds of parlours where working girls stand in the shop windows in their underwear attempting to entice guys inside. It is unbelievable. And the streets outside these places were packed with tourists, most of whom were not shopping, but just being nosy.

Sunday

After a later than expected start on Sunday morning, we eventually got going thanks to a brilliant breakfast from the bakery next to our hotel. We then set off for the Keukenhof Gardens, which are situated on the outskirts of Lisse, around 35km south-west of Amsterdam.

Keukenhof is an historic park covering an area of 32 hectares and is full of tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and any other spring bulbs you can think of. Aside from the floral displays in the park, there are several flower shows in various pavillions and many sculptures and works of art scattered throughout the park. Keukenhof is the largest sculpture park in the Netherlands, with 15km of footpaths, 7 million flower bulbs all planted by hand (including 4.5 million tulips in 100 different varieties) and more than 2,500 trees (including 87 different varieties). It is also the home of the largest tulip in the world, has won awards as Europe's most valued attraction, is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Netherlands and is the most photographed place in the world!!!

We spent hours wandering around the park and sitting on the grass in front of one of the ponds watching the world go by. It really is an amazing, peaceful place. We were blown away by how beautiful it was. We took about a billion photos, some of which are posted below, but not even the photos do it justice. We were kept amused several times during our trip by American tourists saying odd/stupid things in our presence, but one of the favourites was at the gardens, when we were walking down a path towards the pond and we passed an American man who said to his wife, "I think that's a building", pointing towards a building. We had to agree with him, as it was indeed a building, but why he thought to share this we will never know...

Back in Amsterdam, we were thirsty again so we checked out a few more bars. Sunday (the day before Liberation Day) was the Dutch national day of remembrance for soldiers killed in the wars. The Dutch Queen was arriving in Dam Square to lay a wreath on the war memorial, which meant that Dam Square and a number of surrounding streets were closed. This made it rather tricky trying to navigate the central city to get to our Argentine steak house for dinner, but we eventually made it!

Dinner was great - it was a while since we had had good steak! Although we were well aware of the fact that we were in Amsterdam, it was still quite bizarre (after we had finished our meals) to hear the waiter ask us if we would like "tea, coffee, marijuana?" The walk back across town to our hotel was fantastic too. It was such a warm, still evening and the sun reflecting off the canals made Amsterdam seem even more pretty than usual!

Monday

Monday was Liberation Day, a national holiday in the Netherlands to commemorate the ousting of the Nazis. We rose early and headed off to Anne Frank's House. We had been informed to get there early to avoid long queues. We got there just before it opened for the day and there was a bit of a queue but it didn't take us long to get in.

Seeing the Secret Annex where Anne and seven others hid for over two years was an amazing experience. Because of the proportions and layout of the building, visitors tend to snake through the rooms in single file, starting with the offices and warehouse which fronted the building and now contain photos, videos and momentos of the time, then finally stepping through the bookcase-hidden door and ascending up a very steep staircase to the famous hiding place. As soon as we got to the first room where Otto, Edith and Margot Frank all slept, silence fell and with the blacked out windows (as they were then) and unfurnished space, it all felt a bit ghostly. It is impressive that the administrators of the Anne Frank House have resisted the urge to overdo the message and let the place speak of the horrors of the Nazi persecution by itself.

After another great breakfast / brunch at the little bakery next to the Sofitel, we checked out and made our way to the central station, where we hopped on a canal boat cruise. The cruise took us on a relaxing one hour ride out to the harbour and then through the canals of the city.

We were shown various monuments, bridges and famous buildings along the way, but we were also lucky enough to see a seagull pecking at a dead fish floating in the canal - special times. Unfortunately Amsterdam is a bit of a toilet and with all the rubbish in the canal, we wouldn't be surprised if the fish just gave up. It was pretty hot in Amsterdam by now, so we found a cafe in Rembrandtplein (a vibrant square named after another famous Dutch artist) with some sun umbrellas out the front and we sat and watched the world go by, sipping on cold Heinekens...and we ran into Hamish Hurley (Otago uni and Russell McVeagh days) and his fiancee, who were also having a great weekend in the 'Dam.

After checking out the Magere Brug (Skinny Bridge) on the Amstel River, we slowly wandered back through the city and stopped for another drink (it was hard work alright) before grabbing our bags and heading for the airport. We had a very fast flight back to London and we were treated with a very low fly-by over London city. We could easily pick out the O2 Arena, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium (and our house...almost!), Wembley and as we went further west, we flew right over the top of Windsor Castle, almost low enough to see HM Liz sipping tea through the windows.

For more Keukenhof Gardens photos, see bonus blog entry following this one.