25th-26th & 28th of May 2017
Small introduction:
A week before leaving I saw Benoit, my closest friend, who told me he was planning to go to Amsterdam with his girlfriend.... what a surprise! That meant a meeting in this city!
From the several friends I have contacted only Dennis (my flat mate from Chandigarh) was finally available. Well, an "artalis brother" never let down an "Artalis brother" I guess :)
The plan: a day before the trip we prepared some details: museum tickets & train tickets.
Clémence has taken the train in Paris on the 24th so we had to meet at Van Gogh museum in the morning of 25th. We also had a chat with Benoit who decided to meet us also there.
Fact: as a foreigner I had already an image about Amsterdam (drugs, red light district), so I went without any expectations there... maybe that's way I loved it so much because the city has so much more to offer!
So here we go:
25th of May
My plane was quite early in the morning, but as usually going to the airport is always an exciting thing. The flight was short around 40-50min and the airport is 15-20min away from the downtown.
At 10-10h30 am I managed to drop my luggage in the hostel (Clink Noord) which was located on the other side of the river in front of the central station. Well, when I saw it I thought that this might be an university or something... the building was huge! Maybe an old factory transformed into a hostel. Really nice place to stay by the way full of indoor activities (ping pong, poolroom, a bar, etc.).
At 11h30, the team (Benoit, Clémence, Bintou and me) was reunited in front of the Van Gogh museum. Here again like in a lot of cities the purchase of online tickets was avoiding queue. We got in at 12... pictures were not allowed ... quite sad! The museum, however, was just awesome! We got an audio guide which was really well done as it was directly giving you the context and the general information about the painting. Van Gogh was such a great art master. Really beautiful paintings were out there.
Right after we spent our time walking around the city:
We got beers and spent some time sitting and eating in the nearby park.
We came back quite late to the hostel, but as we had only a night stay over, it was impossible not to go to the red district. So we did. It is indeed something quite unique but I am definitely not the biggest fan of the concept: women were offering themselves to each person who was passing by... not the best image of women, I think. I also understand the main point of it: women are free to do it and being legal allows them to get a social security, being treated and helped. It is also interesting to see that those shops are around churches which I guess it can disturb several people. I have always heard and learnt at school that Holland has always been an place of freedom in Europe. Well, this was another confirmation!
I think after this first day I fell in love with this city. I loved the architecture, the small streets, the calm (few cars compared to other cities) and last but not least the people: they were very lovely, helpful and able to speak English.
The dangerous part of Amsterdam:
you need to be careful with the bicycles.... they don't stop and nothing can't stop them :)
A week before leaving I saw Benoit, my closest friend, who told me he was planning to go to Amsterdam with his girlfriend.... what a surprise! That meant a meeting in this city!
From the several friends I have contacted only Dennis (my flat mate from Chandigarh) was finally available. Well, an "artalis brother" never let down an "Artalis brother" I guess :)
The plan: a day before the trip we prepared some details: museum tickets & train tickets.
Clémence has taken the train in Paris on the 24th so we had to meet at Van Gogh museum in the morning of 25th. We also had a chat with Benoit who decided to meet us also there.
Fact: as a foreigner I had already an image about Amsterdam (drugs, red light district), so I went without any expectations there... maybe that's way I loved it so much because the city has so much more to offer!
So here we go:
25th of May
My plane was quite early in the morning, but as usually going to the airport is always an exciting thing. The flight was short around 40-50min and the airport is 15-20min away from the downtown.
At 10-10h30 am I managed to drop my luggage in the hostel (Clink Noord) which was located on the other side of the river in front of the central station. Well, when I saw it I thought that this might be an university or something... the building was huge! Maybe an old factory transformed into a hostel. Really nice place to stay by the way full of indoor activities (ping pong, poolroom, a bar, etc.).
At 11h30, the team (Benoit, Clémence, Bintou and me) was reunited in front of the Van Gogh museum. Here again like in a lot of cities the purchase of online tickets was avoiding queue. We got in at 12... pictures were not allowed ... quite sad! The museum, however, was just awesome! We got an audio guide which was really well done as it was directly giving you the context and the general information about the painting. Van Gogh was such a great art master. Really beautiful paintings were out there.
Right after we spent our time walking around the city:
- The bridges and the canals make this city looking great under the sun.
- We stopped to visit Begijnhof - which is like a small monastery with a nice small park and surrounded by typical Dutch houses.
We got beers and spent some time sitting and eating in the nearby park.
We came back quite late to the hostel, but as we had only a night stay over, it was impossible not to go to the red district. So we did. It is indeed something quite unique but I am definitely not the biggest fan of the concept: women were offering themselves to each person who was passing by... not the best image of women, I think. I also understand the main point of it: women are free to do it and being legal allows them to get a social security, being treated and helped. It is also interesting to see that those shops are around churches which I guess it can disturb several people. I have always heard and learnt at school that Holland has always been an place of freedom in Europe. Well, this was another confirmation!
I think after this first day I fell in love with this city. I loved the architecture, the small streets, the calm (few cars compared to other cities) and last but not least the people: they were very lovely, helpful and able to speak English.
The dangerous part of Amsterdam:
you need to be careful with the bicycles.... they don't stop and nothing can't stop them :)
26th of May
We had a full day in front of us and decided to go for a walk without pressure. After a heavy breakfast at the hostel we left.
We were lucky again with the weather which was making Amsterdam looking even prettier and easier to discover.
Our first stop was the Rembrandt's house, which seemed like a nice choice to visit. The house was huge and tells a lot about the way the painter lived. He was a painter, a painting teacher, a salesperson and a collector and the house was actually separated in 3 different levels: the guest part where they can see Rembrandt's painting all over the walls, his office and personal collection and a student studio on the last floor. Quite interesting museum but definitely not as good as Van Gogh's one.
Our last mission of the day was trying the cheese. Clémence had an address in head (Reypenaer cheese shop) so we walked to the place. In the meantime Brian, the mate from the previous night, asked us if we wanted to meet for a drink and we of course said yes. We found Reypenaer where the cheese was delicious. The 10 months old goat cheese: Gosh !!! It was the best on my opinion ! Really good one !
As expected, around 5pm we met Brian and Akshath for a beer. Such a nice meeting & really nice mates! The beauty of being abroad and meeting people.
Around 19h30 we went to get our luggage from the hostel and went to Rotterdam.
We had a full day in front of us and decided to go for a walk without pressure. After a heavy breakfast at the hostel we left.
We were lucky again with the weather which was making Amsterdam looking even prettier and easier to discover.
Our first stop was the Rembrandt's house, which seemed like a nice choice to visit. The house was huge and tells a lot about the way the painter lived. He was a painter, a painting teacher, a salesperson and a collector and the house was actually separated in 3 different levels: the guest part where they can see Rembrandt's painting all over the walls, his office and personal collection and a student studio on the last floor. Quite interesting museum but definitely not as good as Van Gogh's one.
Our last mission of the day was trying the cheese. Clémence had an address in head (Reypenaer cheese shop) so we walked to the place. In the meantime Brian, the mate from the previous night, asked us if we wanted to meet for a drink and we of course said yes. We found Reypenaer where the cheese was delicious. The 10 months old goat cheese: Gosh !!! It was the best on my opinion ! Really good one !
As expected, around 5pm we met Brian and Akshath for a beer. Such a nice meeting & really nice mates! The beauty of being abroad and meeting people.
Around 19h30 we went to get our luggage from the hostel and went to Rotterdam.
28th of May
I reached the Central station around 14h, I went to drop my luggage at the locker room, and 20min later I was waiting for Anne Franck's museum.
Well, that was the saddest museum I have ever visited in my life... The story of Anne and her family, imaging how her family was hiding there, what a father is ready to do to save his family and especially seeing it was disturbing my mind. The emotion when getting out from there is very strong... the only thing you can pray and hope is: never again ! ...
I went walking around and decided to go buy some souvenirs from the flower market where i also enjoyed a late afternoon lunch. My last stop was the cheese shop we visited with Clémence: Reypenaer. Indeed, i tried the cheese in some other shops but I have fell in love in the one offered in that shop. So I went to it and bought some. It might not be the cheapest one but it definitely worth its price. I managed to buy also some waffles and went back to the central station to go and get my luggage (which got totally full because the cheese and the souvenirs... hopefully it was only 4 days trip) and I hit to the airport.
I reached the Central station around 14h, I went to drop my luggage at the locker room, and 20min later I was waiting for Anne Franck's museum.
Well, that was the saddest museum I have ever visited in my life... The story of Anne and her family, imaging how her family was hiding there, what a father is ready to do to save his family and especially seeing it was disturbing my mind. The emotion when getting out from there is very strong... the only thing you can pray and hope is: never again ! ...
I went walking around and decided to go buy some souvenirs from the flower market where i also enjoyed a late afternoon lunch. My last stop was the cheese shop we visited with Clémence: Reypenaer. Indeed, i tried the cheese in some other shops but I have fell in love in the one offered in that shop. So I went to it and bought some. It might not be the cheapest one but it definitely worth its price. I managed to buy also some waffles and went back to the central station to go and get my luggage (which got totally full because the cheese and the souvenirs... hopefully it was only 4 days trip) and I hit to the airport.
In conclusion, I loved Amsterdam and Rotterdam, I loved the peace of those cities, I loved the people ... i guess i loved everything ! Really lovely country that i will be pleased to visit soon again !
Danke je ! :)
Danke je ! :)