So I got back from Amsterdam yesterday, despite a couple of last minute sources of stress. I stuck fairly close to the itinerary in the end 🙂

My hotel room was tiny, and on the fourth floor, but very neat and compact. They were actually doing building work on the floor below, which no one mentioned and made taking the stairs (rather than the very old fashioned lift!) a bit strange: normal flor, normal floor, horror movie set, normal floor…

My first day, Tuesday, I did the Amsterdam Historisch Museum, The Royal Palace, and the Anne Frank Huis, then got lost* in the nightlife district and ended up buying more chips than any one person could eat to keep me going until I found the hotel again.

Wednesday I did the Rijksmuseum and the Diamond Museum, went out for dinner and then ended up chatting with some Oxford Brookes students in the hotel bar and went out drinking with them. We got separated around 2AM, and I got lost** on the way back to the hotel.

Hungover on Thursday, I went to the Van Gogh museum, and went for a walk in Vondelpaark, where I spent a lot of the walk wondering if I was lost or not. I bought a cheese and tomato croissant and an apple pie to eat in my room (along with an apple and an orange I’d smuggled out of the Van Gogh cafe!), which didn’t even have tea&coffee facilities, and definitely wasn’t designed for spending an evening in. I found I had BBC1 and 2, MTV, National Geographic and Comedy Central hidden amongst the Dutch channels, so I kept myself fairly well entertained anyway.

Friday I went on a canal cruise and ended up surrounded by Indian men, who were very nic (and very interested in my marital status) but did prevent me from hearing all of the commentary. Had a quick nose around Coster Diamonds and went to the House of Bols, which was brilliant. They had some little experiements to show you how importnat your eyes and nose are to your sense of taste, the history of the company, and a free cocktail and two shots included in the ticket price. That’s my kind of museum! Went out for dinner again; I was aiming for the Albert Cuyp market, since there’s apparently a lot of good cafes around there, but guess what? I got lost. Ended up having tapas somewhere I haven’t found on a map yet.

I got pretty much no writing done whatsoever, but I did read three books, and I saw some brilliant paintings. As usual, by the last day i was just getting into it properly, and could think of at least two more days’ worth of things to do, but I admit, it was getting a bit wearing being unable to read Dutch (speaking was less of an issue, since absolutely everyone spoke English, though it was faintly embarrassing) and not knowing any of the ‘rules’. Dutch pedestrian crossings are terrifying, cyclists are maniacs, and even after four days I still couldn’t remember which way to look before I crossed!

*This will be something of a theme…

**See? It only gets worse.