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Europe 2016: Amsterdam tales
posted : Monday, August 22, 2016
[Photo heavy post coz I crammed 4 days worth of photos into this. Wont happen again.]
Generally left RAI Amsterdam everyday at about 2-3pm after completing my targets of the day. Rest of the day is dedicated to exploring Amsterdam.
MO everyday is to head back to the hotel to leave all the heavy stuff behind (e.g brochures and magazines I took from the expo), sit down to plan a bit on where to go, then head out to town by tram. Luckily it's spring and there's plenty of daylight so I still have about 4-5 hours to spend in town each day.
Tuesday was spent on revisiting the Jordaan area. Stopped by briefly during the cycling tour and this is one of the more popular locations in Amsterdam. Took tram 4 to Amsterdam Centraal as usual - for some reason, very much prefer traveling by tram to metro even though metro is faster. Can see more things from tram heh. From Amsterdam Centraal, walked over to the beginning of the Prinsengracht Canal and you have entered the Jordaan area.
Centraal look way more picturesque today!
No canal in sight?
Yea it actually is a bit cloudy.
Can't tell you how relaxing it is to stroll along the canals. There are a few things you can do here - the Anne Frank House for instance, but I wasn't about to join the 2 hour long queue. So by the internet's recommendation, I decided to pop by The Pancake Bakery first for an early dinner. 
Had ham, bacon and mushrooms. It's hugeee. Forgotten about angmoh portions but what to do.
Interesting condiments. Tasted like maple syrup.
The 2 hour long queue for Anne Frank House, wasnt going to queue. To quote my London AirBnB host, "Yeah, you queue for hours, you go in, they tell you she lived here, slept here, blah blah, and you will go, that's it?"
Needed to walk off the full feeling so decided to walk all the way to Rijksmuseum - a half an hour walk along the canal. Also revisiting somewhere I briefly passed by the previous day.
Westerkerk revisited. More time to take nice pictures bah.
Clouds went away for a bit so a nicer photo. <3 p="">
Obsession with trams continue.
Rijksmuseum revisited. It is not possible to wait for the crowd to move away (unless its super early in the morning or something) so that will have to do.
Mandatory selfie.
Heineken Brewery! There's a tour which I didnt go on hahaha.
Wednesday - it's raining but it wasn't exactly heavy so after some deliberation, I decided to head out anyway. The alternative involved hiding in my room and do a bit of planning for Paris lol. Braved the wind and rain on my way to the tram station which wasn't far from hotel but kind of regretted by the time I reached the tram stop. But am glad that I persevered on because what do I know, by the time I reached Dam Square, the rain had stopped and the sun actually came out. 
Skies cleared up!
National Monument
Dam Square.
Spent some time hanging around Dam Square and strolling along the backlanes snacking on finger food, then decided to try to head towards Foodhallen which is an indoor food court (think of something like Timbre+....European notion of a food court is very much different from say, a Singaporean one hahah). Ended up not eating though coz it was too crowded and I ended up having.....KFC for dinner HAHAHA. 
Got curious so I tried. It's an interesting concept. Had to ask for translation because I cant take beef so staff told me to look out for "Kip" which means chicken. Heh. Pretty good actually.
One of the back alleys heading towards Centraal.
Foodhallen.
Thursday saw sunny weather and I set about retracing my steps again. This time, stopped at Rembrandtplein which is a vibrant nightlife zone (just that I was there at about 4pm, timing couldn't be more wrong lol). Walked over to Bloemenmarkt (Flower Market), wanted to visit Albert Cuyp Markt but it's closed by this time so settled for Waterloopleinmarkt instead, which was another long walk from Bloemenmarkt. Waterloopleinmarkt is more like a flea market and again, by the time I reached there many stalls were closed so it was a bit of a waste. Decided to head over to Chinatown and the Red Light District instead which was nearby, given that the general advise is to avoid the RLD at night if you are traveling alone and don't want to get into trouble. 
This was breakfast at the hotel, decided to have it even though it would count towards personal expenses. Point is the individual booth with a mini TV screen. We should have more of this everywhere for the sake of solo diners.
To and from hotel to tram station/RAI everyday.
Rembrandtplein
Bloemenmarkt.
Flowers on sale! And pretty cheap too.
Netherlands is the first country to legalise same sex marriage. So it follows that there are plenty of LGBT friendly places.
Cycling culture well established.
Waterloopleinmarkt
Cannabis for sale
Red Light District. You wouldnt know until I told you hahaha coz its broad daylight still.
On internet's recommendation, tried Burger Bar. Add my recommendation too!
Friday - had reserved this afternoon for a trip to Zaanse Schans. On the way to Centraal though, passed by Albert Cuyp Markt (which I had decided to leave it for the final day after London before catching flight back home), occurred to me to check the opening days and true enough, the market is closed on Sundays. So decided to make some time and hurriedly alighted from the tram. Best split second decision ever. Didn't care much about the clothing items or souvenirs, but the street food experience was the best. Poffertjes, stroopwaffels, etc. Pity I hadn't discovered it earlier. 
Entrance
Bustling
Piping hot poffertjes! Yummy love the icing sugar on top and melted butter.
Stroopwafels! Very sweet though.
This was amazing LOL. I know it's only chicken satay but the marinade was amazing.
Continued on journey to Zaanse Schans after the detour - had to take a train from Centraal to a small town at the outskirts of Amsterdam called Koog Zaandijk, and walked over to the quiant little village from there. Used to be part of an important industrial area, few of the many windmills powering various industries remain and it's now a conservation area. Not too hard to explore on your own so there really isn't a need to join a tour. 
On the way to Koog Zaandijk.
First sighting of windmills.
Overlooking the area.
Quaint little village. Breathtaking.
Gotta pay to enter each windmill, but figured they probably look similar (though they each had a different function when they were working). Went into De Kat which made paint.
Closer look at the windmills.
Mandatory selfie again.
Also visited a clog factory.
Rushed back to Centraal because I had a dinner reservation. Happened to be Restaurant Week in Amsterdam so why not...reserved late and not many choices, but found one pretty decent one even though it wasn't exactly very accessible and hence I was about half an hour late for my reservation heh. Food was not bad though! 
Interior of the restaurant. Does feels odd dining alone lor, but eff it.
Bread.
Amuse bouche which was an emulsion of cucumber, apple jelly and crumble of nuts.
Appetizer - Terrine of poultry and Serrano ham with poultry liver and beetroots
Pumpkin soup.
My main course. Which was actually a supplement in the Restaurant Week menu but the two main courses available both featured beef, so I asked if I could have the supplement as a main instead. Pork belly with piccalilli, Zeeuwse oyster, white beans and black garlic.
Palate cleaser...which is a Magnum ice cream. Whaaat...?
Dessert - Poached pear with Duivenkater (sweet white bread), ice cream of Haagsche Hopjes (coffee and caramel sweet) and salted caramel. Pretty good.
Petite fours.
Overall bill. Silly me asked for tea I don't know why.
Exterior of the restaurant. It was a windmill!
And that's almost all for the Amsterdam leg of the trip! Covered most of what I intended to do, and knowing that I still have one last day in Amsterdam after London, left some specific places like Keukenhof for it (also coz I wanted to give the flowers two more weeks to bloom before I visit hahaha).
On to Paris!
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