So Amsterdam has been and gone, and two weeks later I still have the post holiday blues ha! I can safely say it was everything I expected and a whole lot more. It's taken me this long to go through my hundreds (I get snap happy) of photos, and I've finally narrowed them down & divided them up into a few posts.
So anyway, Amsterdam, we were looking around online for city break offers and stumbled across the gem that was our holiday on Expedia. We'd priced up flights and hotels separately, weighed up the price differences from flying from Exeter or Bristol, along with how frequently they went and at what times, and then hit the package holiday websites. Our only criteria was to stay somewhere nice and central, and during the week to avoid the weekend madness (and planes full young men en route to the red light district and brown cafes, ha). To both my delight and disgust we stumbled across a deal for 3 nights at the Mercure Arthur Frommer hotel, and flights leaving at 6.45am on the Monday and returning at 9.30pm on the Thursday from Bristol, which meant 4 full days too, for £204 each - lovely jubbly! To save a few more pennies we booked a spot at Goblin Combe car park, an independent car park on the edge of the air port, which saved us £16 than if we'd parked at Bristol air port, and essentially paid for the petrol to get there and back.
The hotel was really great. Because we arrived early we couldn't check in but were able to drop our suitcase off and collect it later, which we could also do when we checked out. The location was perfect, a 2 minute walk from the tram stop which comes directly from Central station, and a 5 minute walk to the bars and restaurants. Our room had a comfy double bed, TV, wardrobe, mini bar, safe, shower room (isn't the sink amazing!!) and separate toilet, it was cosy but perfect for what we needed. We then set off exploring and gathering our bearings. One thing I loved was that the city is totally flat so you can walk for miles without getting too worn out, just wear comfy shoes and be weary of blisters!
I love the architecture SO much!
The Amsterdam Museum
I love this photo of Rich getting told off for taking a photo of the Scream guy without paying, ha!
Every time we came past this street chess set there were different people playing, countless people watching, and some epic facial expressions by the players!
We spent most of the day walking around, drooling over houses and popping into the cheese shops for free sample or ten, well we actually did that everyday but hey! Rich had never been to a Hard Rock Cafe before so we took that as an opportunity to have a drink and rest our feet, we'd been up since 3am after all and I am no morning person. Despite going all the way to Amsterdam we ended up being served by a Scottish guy who was really chatty and gave us some helpful info and free drinks, winner! That evening I got a long awaited Wok to Walk, the best noodles ever!!! before being dragged to a sports bar for the Man Utd game, yep a football widow even on holiday, Rich watched the game and I read the guide book and made lists, many lists of things to see and do all ready for day two...
Sarah
xx
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