And the adventure begins…

I and my hubby went on our first European tour in 2016. It started with a ferry ride from London to the Netherlands. You can imagine the excitement we were feeling as we started our 23 day tour with Cosmos.

After the ferry ride we went on a coach to our first hotel in the Netherlands

Then first stop was Amsterdam, where we went on this river cruise. They said that the best way to see Amsterdam is through its canals and view it from the water level.

Here are some of Amsterdam’s boathouses. These house boats are permanently anchored to a specific address. A special permit entitles houseboat owners to moor their house in a certain spot. These permits are in high demand and of course the better the location the price goes higher with it too.

Trying to catch the view and take a photo of the “Alignment of seven arch bridges”. Which I think was a fail because all of the passengers were taking the same photo at the same time hehe

The very first thing that you will notice in Amsterdam is its architecture. The houses are very narrow and they are also at times skewed and they are crowding beside each other. History says (or history according to our cruise guide) that the reason why the houses are so narrow is because back in the days, the taxes for houses were based on how wide the facade of the houses were. So the wider the house the bigger the tax. And the guide also mentioned that the houses and staircases were so narrow that they sometimes had to lift furnitures in a pulley to get to the top area of the house.

Amsterdam is the perfect city to go around in bikes. Bikes are so much a part of the Amsterdam culture that they say that there are more bikes there than residents which is very obvious once you go for a walk in the city centre.

The Westerkerk is the biggest and most important Protestant church in Amsterdam. Its tower is the pride of Amsterdam and is regarded as the symbol of the city.

This is the Royal Palace of Amsterdam

Found this beautiful purple flowers on the front door of a building in Dam Square.

The New Church is a 15th century church. It was previously a Dutch Reformed Church but is now a protestant church.

This is the National Monument on Dam Square erected in 1956. Every year a national Remembrance of the Dead is held here every 4th of May.

Walking around the streets of Amsterdam you will see:

Trams

Clog shaped rent-a-bike

Colourful buildings on narrow streets.

Singel is a canal in Amsterdam lined with richly decorated houses.

Street art

These can be seen randomly in the streets and this is known as the Dutch Circus Gypsy Cart.

Coffeeshops (koffieshop) or Coffee House (Koffie Huis)? Don’t be mistaken 😉 if you are looking for coffee, tea, cakes, juices and sandwiches plus buy soft drugs like marijuana then the Coffeeshop is for you. But if you want the same thing minus the soft drugs then go to the Koffie Huis, Koffiebar, Koffiesalon but without the green and white sign.

Have you been to Amsterdam? Maybe you can share your story!

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