Europe Travelogue - Amsterdam

Made use of the public holiday on 3 Oct to make a trip up to Amsterdam.

Originally, the plan was to drive up to Paris but it was too far by car for a day trip so we decided to head to Amsterdam.

Left Leverkusen at 6.30am and the drive took us approximately 2.5 hours before we crossed the Dutch border and saw...

....Cows and more cows! LOL

Thought of how this would make my bf's day... He'd totally stick his head out of the car and 'MOOOOOOO' at those cows hahahahah xD

Got lost all the way to Amsterdam Centraal Station but we managed to find a carpark in front of the main train station.

My first impression of Amsterdam was... so vibrant and colourful and so many bicycles! HAHAHAHAHA. 

And then there was the 'seedy' part of the Dutch capital... how liberal they are about their sexuality LOL.

Coming from an Asian country where such talk is frowned upon, having the words 'sex', 'condom' and 'porn' headlining several stores was really an eye-opener.

But the Dutch don't care. Really.

So we were really famished by then, despite having stuffed ourselves with chocolates (my stash from my fridge lol) along the 4.5 hour drive up to Amsterdam and we went searching for food.

You see what I mean..? /raises an eyebrow/

Next to this museum, probably a few doors down, we found a cafe serving brunch and it was enough for us 3 hungry women and throw in free wifi available in the cafe, I was already mentally making my orders for breakfast then at the doorstep hahah! (Pssssst. Free wifi in the Netherlands usually requires you to link up with your Facebook or Twitter account. So.... yeah don't be alarmed :x)

FYI the museum and cafe can be found along a street directly opposite the main train station.

Caffeine perk me up for 3 of us who were sleep deprived lol

Italian breakfast with extra sausages for me (yes, I was that hungry!)

Salmon sandwich with sausages on the side for my colleague

We ventured down the road further, passing by several souvenir stores (to con tourists like us hahaha!).

 

Ta-dah! Yup, sold openly. Joked to my colleague that I don't dare to breathe in too hard because you never know if the person is smoking weed or a cigarette in Amsterdam haha! Wait get too high lol.

 

Royal Palace of Netherlands

Amsterdam Palace

And... diagonally beside it is Madame Tussaud

I was surprised to see this one here. I'm sorry but I didn't do any travel homework prior to going to Amsterdam, I just said 'Ok, let's go' and believed that my German colleague knows where she's going lol.

So yeah, prices are about 22 euros I believe for the entrance to the museum and... the queue was long D:

Hideously long. But something I would still queue for if I had time to spare i.e. staying in Amsterdam for a few more days or something like this.

But I think I was the only one upset we weren't going in.. The two of them simply just walked past the hordes of tourists queuing up to buy tickets. 

Honestly, just book tickets ahead. If it's something I learnt about being in Europe, always book your tickets ahead lol.

And then we meandered down the road further and past by this food store.

 

Miffy originated from Holland FYI

Clogs and more clogs haha

Further down was the Amsterdam Dungeon which.... I would clearly not waste my ticket money on because I'm a huge scaredy cat lol.

 

 

The canal behind the flower market

Walked towards the flower market, expecting to see tons of tulips in bloom for sale but nope, tulip bulbs have, tulip flowers don't have.

 

Windmills.. Another iconic thing to associate with the Netherlands

 

And yeah, cannabis starter kit for 6 euros anyone? LOL

I was sorely tempted to buy a few for the guys back home just for laughs but I wasn't daring enough hahahaha to bring it into Singapore. I am a very law-abiding citizen ok!

After walking through the flower market, time was really precious so we decided to go hunt for the elusive famous red-light district area of Amsterdam.

Seriously, don't judge ok! It has morphed into a tourist must-see already for those of legal age hahahaha!

I love their canals

Heading in the direction of the red light district was a hazard! Everyone was on bikes and they never stop for you. I'm serious! So do watch out for the bikers when you're there lest you get knocked down or cursed at in Dutch hahaha.

I swear this is Europe's favourite chocolate

Swan from the canal hahah just near the red light district

Sorry to disappoint but no pictures from the red light district because... you can't take any of the uh.. women. Really and they are quite scary looking, some of them.

It was basically like a buffet, women in cubicles with a glass door parading around, trying to attract someone to 'take' them.

We even heard a man ask 'How long?' and the girl said '20 minutes.'

It was just.... sad :(

But I don't judge people. 

Yeah then we decided to just leave and head to the supermarket to buy stroop waffles before heading back to Leverkusen.

Stroop Waffles noms!

Mini xiao bai chye anyone? This tastes really horrible according to my friend who was on exchange to Amsterdam.

Famished by then because our brunch had already digested by then so I suggested buying fries at this store that had a super duper long queue.

  

Guy asked me what size I wanted and in the back of my mind I was thinking 'Hmmmmm 3 of us... buy a bigger one to share better la' so I said 'Large'.

OH MY TIAN WHEN THE FRIES CAME OTL

And the rest didn't want to eat much FML D:

But anyway the fries tasted normal to me.. Nothing to shout about though haha.

After that we went to a store that sold 'fast food'.

Just throw in the money for the food you want and with a push of a button, the door with open and you get your food.

Brilliant eh? Saves hiring costs lol.

 

I bought the frikadellen, or dutch sausages to try.

And that's all folks for the random day to Amsterdam haha!

We headed back to Germany after that and only reached home at close to 8pm.

Utterly starved by then lol but yeah, it was a working day the next day.

So till my next travel adventure, bye! :D