Half Term Break To Amsterdam with @tomatom February 2020 🇾🇪

Floating on cloud 9 is how I felt during this trip !!!
( this was @tomatom’s photo on the flight over there !!) 45 minutes is all it takes !!!

We had all our bags packed ready to head out .. Tom said I better check my emails quick to be 100 % sure on the times etc !!

Email - your flights been cancelled ... Sugar!!!
But don’t worry we’ve put you on a alternative !! Panic over !! Just a different airport which was all good because we could get the tube into London City easy enough so we headed off on our first adventure :)!!!

Airport went without any hiccups and we were in Amsterdam before we knew it !!! Heading to our hotel which was literally a train journey to the main central station and a 10 minute walk straight down into the city was our hotel :)

We headed in after our first wow words! And got greeted by a guy called Tom! Will never forget that ;)!! He checked us in and we asked a few questions about Anne Frank !! He told us we need to get down to reception 9AM everyday til we get a slot!!! You have to get your tickets like 2/4 months in advanced but they leave like 20% for that day but you have to be quick because the website opens at 9am for everyone all the hotels and the tourist information desks and tour companies !! Sell out in minutes he said ! ( it made us get up so we didn’t waste a minute !!)

We headed up to our room and we were very impressed !! We both scrambled to star fish the bed for a little rest !!! Texting the family to say we got there ok !! We starting searching for places to eat that evening :)! We were hungry after the travelling day we’d had !! Car train plane train and walk !!!

I went to the window looking out to see if I could see anything but all I saw opposite was a waffle corner shop !!! Definitely having one of those one day Tom ;)!!!

Tom found us a Thai restaurant so we headed out in search for it ... just behind our hotel it was supposed to be!!! We never found it !! Or it must of shut down !!! But I’d seen a seafood restaurant opposite our hotel on the way from the station and I knew Tom loved his seafood so I thought why not !!!

We got seated and got browsing through the menu!! Abit posh!! And we were still in our travelling clothes just washed our faces and came out basically !!! But we were welcomed anyway!!!! All along one side were tables and chairs where we were sitting but the other side had a deli fish counter which looked amazing !!!

Tom decided on the pasta of the day and I had abit of a mixture !!! Squid, fishcakes and fries ! Pictures coming in a minute !!! We ordered and sat chatting to a mum and daughter next to us !! It was chucking it down outside and bless them they had rain the whole weekend they were here but it was beginning to ease ( we hoped ;)) they told us a few places we needed to go and we told them what we had planned already!!

Before long our food was here ... yum yum

We dived straight in and demolished every last bit it was delicious 😋 we loved everything about it and we vowed we’d go back for our last meal ...

We grabbed an early night ready for our first day of exploring ...

After a lovely sleep we headed down to the restaurant that was attached to the hotel which was lovely you got free coffee and croissant 🥐 every morning with your room number so we had that whilst waiting for 9am and for the Anne Frank queue to open!! No luck the first day ... but we thought we’d try something off the menu too ..

Our view ...

After breakfast we headed out to see where we needed to go for our Unlimited Pancake cruise ;) ... more on that later !!!
We just needed to go through the train station and to the ferry ports !! Grab the right ferry and head across the water to our departure area !! Having figured that out we headed back into the town but before that we came across our first cheese shop 😍 we fell in love straight away and no matter where we went, we went in every cheese shop they was haha!!! Even if it was the same one!!!

We wanted to just get a feel of Amsterdam so we started walking the canals in search for capturing the moment ...

More silly photos later ;)!

But here’s one to make you smile 😃 if your not already from the beautiful canals and food of Amsterdam

Before mid morning coffee we did come across Anne Franks House

Obviously more photos and description to come on that ;)! We did get to go!! But you gotta go when you visit ... it’s a tick it off touristy thing to do !!!

So let me tell you about our coffee stop!!

We came across it walking along one of the canals - black and blue it was called! We walked up to it thinking it’s closed! It’s all dark .. !! Looked at the menu thinking oh it must be a dinner place ... ! But I really needed the loo ! So we tried the door !!
Opened! But had a curtain round it like in the old days ;) to keep the draft out ... I opened it and was like oh! They are open for lunch/coffee so we settled ordered our coffees! And I went off to the loo!! Got stuck in there for 10 minutes couldn’t open the door !!!! But in the end we enjoyed our lovely coffees and macaroons- warmed our selves up abit and headed back out to explore !

We thought we better have a little something savoury to eat before our afternoon of pancakes !!!! And this little place that sold coquettes took our fancy!! And within 10 minutes of ordering it was like a locals lunch time eatery !! Was packed out and there was a queue out the door !!!
Oh and Tom got the giggles not sure why! But here have some more food!!

Guess what ...

It’s Pancake Cruise time !

So we found this little trip on Get your guide online before we left the UK 🇬🇧! We searched and searched all the things you can do in Amsterdam and there certainly is alotttttt to do !

We headed over on the ferry

Pretty cool !!

Headed in the direction of our instructions and found our boat ...

Like big kids! We headed to the queue and followed the instructions to our table ! We were so excited !!! The boat started up we ordered drinks and the view was lovely not that we saw much of it as we were eating lol

Highly recommended it was so cute !!!!
Well we loved it anyway :)

Heading back for a nap and to get ready for a late ish tea as we had 3 pancakes each lol

So you might not know this well you wont your all strangers !!! Apart from Tom! But I collect shot glasses !!! Il grab a picture for you !!

And also collect Hard Rock Cafe ones Tehe so we had to go there and that’s where we decided to go for dinner that night :) before that I wanted to go to the AMSTERDAM sign near the museum’s!! But I knew it would be a wait on tables so we got the tram down ! And headed for the sign ... wellllll where I thought the sign was ! Even the map said it was there !!! But a lady over heard us talking and said it’s only at the airport now!!!! We were like damn it !!! So we said we’d get to the airport abit before check in on the way home and go get a few snaps!

We headed into the restaurant and was told it was going to be an hour or so , so next best thing in Hard Rock apart from the shot glasses ;) the cocktails !!! So we headed for the bar grabbed some seats and ordered ;)!!!

We were taking selfies and having a giggle with each other :) the cocktails were heading towards are heads !!! The barman took cute pictures of us and the buzzer went to say our table was ready :)

We had a lovely meal - we both choose different burgers and had half each - cute ! Most men would be like what’s mine is mine - not Tom ! He’s a cutie !!

We had a lovely evening , heading back on the tram!! But it was cold so we kinda just thought we’d get on the tram and sit on it til we were at our hotel but it had to go to the end of the line first and it was taking ages so we hopped off went to the other side of the road and got one in the right direction back to our hotel ! We were knackered so passed out as soon as our heads hit the pillow :)

Our 2nd full day - I was so excited !!!!! We were heading to Old Town Holland to see the windmills :) we had such a perfect day .. chilly but lovely - oh we got Anne Frank tickets that morning for like half 8! So we were buzzing for that too and made a plan! Heading to the train station to go to

( our map for the day )

Zaandam

Only 20 minutes from the main station and a little walk to the windmills we were giddy with excitement!!! The little town was super cute - please go !!!!

Let me show you around ...

So many cute little shops and things to do ...

We headed into a small little pub/restaurant/hotel place to warm us up with a hot chocolate and ...

And decided to head over to Edam and Volendam on the bus but you have to go back to the central station but that was ok :)

Edam was small and cute and really quiet ! We weren’t sure if we actually had the right place! But Apperantly we did !!! We walked along the little streets - went into a cheese shop ! Of course!! And then saw a pub that looked busy and we could grab some lunch :)!
Oh it was delicious ! We definitely didn’t need everything we ordered but hey we were on holiday ! Who cares !!!

We both choose a sandwich/panini and a bowl of soup and shared the sandwich again so we could try different flavours ... I’m so lucky to have found him!!!

We sat there chatting and thought we better head back soon but we went on the bus like back towards the centre and hopped off at Volendam for 5 mins - it’s kind of like a beach town - but it was gone 5 and basically all shut up :/! But we decided it would of been really nice on a summers day !!!

We waited for the bus and headed back to get ready for Anne Frank !!! We thought we’d have a little waffle before heading over to the house !!

It was so naughty !!! But nice :)!

So we got to Anne Frank and took a few more pictures from outside as you can’t have your phone inside

We got in line and headed in ... it’s incredible really and you’ve gotta go!! You get an audio guide and it took us about 45 minutes to read all the info and walk around it even at that time of night it was packed !!! Was amazing tho and reminded me of the film ‘ fault in they stars’ - guess what I made Tom watch when we got home ;)!!!!

We walked back to our hotel but we thought we should go see the Red Light District really just to say we’ve been! It was an eye opener ... weird ... but buzzing with people - even families ! The weird part! And yea we ticked it off! And then Tom said ... shall we go back !? Holding hands we headed back and headed to bed ! Another long but successful and adorable day :)!!!

Next morning we headed down for breakfast and decided we’d just have a look round the town for our last day , go back to the museums in the day time and just take in our lovely holiday before heading back the next morning ...

we also did head to the Heineken Tasting factory ... didn’t go in but we thought we’d have a beer in the next door pub ... because we could !!!

We felt a little tipsy after that haha strong beer Tom said so we headed for a supermarket to grab some lunch ( great backpacker tip ;) - we weren’t always so posh ;) ) we’ve done our fair share of travelling backpacking style !!!

But we did stop in a little coffee shop on the way back to the hotel for our afternoon nap !

The coffee shop was so lovely we ended up having 2 coffees but it was chucking it down outside too!!! First rain all week so we counted our selves lucky !!! We just sat there chatting :) we had only been together 3 months so we were still learning stuff about each other :) don’t worry we are in our 6th month now :) not that we can see each other right now but we are all good !! ( not that you care but you know everyone loves a cute story !!!)

When the rained had lightened a little we paid our bill and headed back to the hotel - oh before I forget when your there go... like on the Main Street and find a shop called SesaMe it’s lush! The tea is amazing :)! And you can order online too

Anyway ...

Like I said at the beginning we vowed to go back to Mr Crab 🦀 and that’s what we did!! Got all dressed up for our last evening 😭

We asked what the pasta of the day was and as it was the same as Monday we both decided on that as it was soooo delicious 😋!!!

We longed our dinner out with dessert and drinks so we didn’t have to head back and pack :( but eventually we paid the bill and went back ! It was only over the road but !!!

We packed and snuggled in bed until morning

We headed down to have our last croissant 🥐 coffee ☕️ and salmon and Avocado 🥑 egg 🍳 bagel 🥯 grabbed our cases checked out and headed to the airport :(

We got to the sign ...

Tom got such a good photo of me with no one in it but he’s so much better than me so he got my best shot ... plus selfish people were trying to get they right shot for instragram but we just wanted one for our memories

We headed through the airport with no hiccups again and headed to our gate with a pizza and apple crumble slice which was lush !!!

This were our sad faces heading home :( but we got on the flight and headed back to London where Toms dad picked us up and we headed back home ... and watched Fault in they Stars

We had such a lovely time and we recommend it anyone :) we felt really safe and yea you could smell the weed but it wasn’t in your face at all and people weren’t like drunken idiots around us or what we saw so you can go without having to do that - we had a wonderful time and can’t wait for our next adventure when this is all over

For now it’s see you later from me and @tomatom and I’m back on my own 3 years ago in Cornwall for my next blog

Thank you for reading

Stay at home stay safe and save lives

Much love Kate ( and Tom) xx