A Day in Amsterdam

What’s better than a trip abroad for a cheap price without having to break into the holiday entitlement? Nothing!

If you’re ‘lucky’ enough to live near Hull, then you’re lucky enough to live next to the gateway to two amazing European cities; Amsterdam and Bruges. You get to spend the whole day there plus two nights on the ferry, so let's see what we got up to in Amsterdam!

We arrived in Amsterdam in the late morning and started exploring immediately. The first place we visited was the famous Sex Museum. It was full of quirky and interesting exhibitions, to say the least! It is so unique that it is one of the most visited museums in the whole country. With cheap admission and a unique subject, it is worth a visit!

Our second ‘attraction’ was Amsterdam’s smallest house with the narrowest façade – at only 2.02m wide. Many of the buildings in Amsterdam are noticeably narrow, so it took us a while to find the narrowest one! After taking plenty of photos of the beautiful canals and unique architecture, we found somewhere to have lunch. Me being the ‘healthy’ one, I got Nutella & Banana crepes – it tasted as good as it sounds!

The next stop of the day was at the Poezenboot – a cat sanctuary on a canal boat (seriously, how much better can it get!) The Poezenboot is the only animal sanctuary that floats! It is a refuge for the stray and abandoned cats of Amsterdam and is now a world-famous attraction. The cats have free roam of the boat, including a path on the outside where they can watch out over the somewhat aggressive geese in the canal.

Amsterdam has been the setting for hundreds of films, but my favourite film to find its characters explore Amsterdam is The Fault in Our Stars. It is a sad film but their dream of visiting Amsterdam proves how incredible this city is! One of the famous scenes is set on the bench at Leidsegracht 2, so of course, we visited it!

Our next museum visit was the Torture Museum (definitely the polar opposite to the sex museum), it was eye-opening and somewhat gruesome! It was a small exhibition which only took about 40 minutes to complete but it was packed full of information about various methods of torture used throughout the ages. It makes me feel fortunate to live in a society where this no longer happens.

The final stop of the day was at the Iamsterdam sign next to the Rjiksmuseum – which was absolutely packed with tourists! The sign is certainly a great photo opportunity but definitely not at mid-afternoon… We probably should have gone first thing before the surge of tourists arrived but hey, that’s a lesson for next time right? And a lesson for anyone reading this too, don’t make the same mistake we did!

We walked back towards the station, dropping into the occasional gift shop to collect some souvenirs. It had been a very busy day and both of us were looking forward to the coach drive back to Rotterdam (aka the excuse to have a well-deserved nap!)

My 2018 New Years Resolution was to travel more, so here we are, less than two weeks into January and I’ve already set the bar high! Amsterdam, you’ve been great, see you next time!