So, Amsterdam what a beautiful city! Me and my friends, Cathal and Thomas would be spending a week in this glorious place.  I could not get used to how many bikes there were, it was crazy…actually more bikes than cars and every single railing had a bike attached to it.  I liked it a lot as it’s such a nice way to get around a really flat city.  I must admit though, I was a bit afraid to actually try and cycle here on account of the large number of cyclists and not being particularly confident on the rules.  I mean, I nearly got run over by bikes on more than one occasion just walking around!  The other thing I couldn’t get used to was the number of canals but again I loved it as it gave the city centre such a unique feeling

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There are so many great things to do in Amsterdam.  We all got a 4 day Iamsterdam card for 96 Euros which gave us free travel on buses and trams in the city and free or discounted entry into loads of different attractions so I would highly recommend getting one of these if you visit.  We also got at 24 hour ‘Amsterdam and Region’ ticket which gave us free travel on busses outside of Amsterdam.  To make use of this we visited Bubble Beach which was really nice but pretty busy as it was a roasting hot day.

Bubble Beach

On the way back we visited the very small and cute town of Harlem.

The next day we visited the windmills at Zaandam and it was really interesting to learn about the different industries that they used to serve.

I loved just wandering around Amsterdam as there were so many colourful narrow buildings with their hoisting beams at the top, canals weaving through the city crossed with tiny bridges whose railings had a permanent supply of bikes attached to them.  Walking through the red light district was pretty odd to just see woman in the windows.  The ‘coffee’ shop experience was pretty good.  I never smoke at home but it was really nice to experience such a relaxed culture around it.

Amsterdam City Centre

 

Amsterdam City Centre

Some of my favourite attractions included taking a canal boat cruise as it was nice to see the city from a different perspective.  The Amsterdam Museum was great to learn about the history of the city. Vondel Park was great to visit on a nice sunny day.  It was actually a series of different parks  and it’s great to have such a nice green space in the middle of the city.  The De Oude Kirk was really beautiful but it felt strange to be walking on the graves on the floor.  Last but not least, the Ann Frank House was really worth a visit.  It was obviously really sad but really interesting to learn more about the event that took place in the house and to try and picture what it must have been like.  I ended up buying the book as I was going to have lots of time to read on my inter-rail trip.  On the whole I loved Amsterdam and would quite happily visit again.  I had a really good time with Thomas and Cathal as it was the most time we had spent together since we were flatmates during university 9 years ago! But now it was on-wards, on the train to Berlin!

The De Oude Kirk