Getting ready!
In general, I highly recommend to take care of your trip as early, as possible, especially if you go in Amsterdam during fests, holidays, football plays and who knows what else. Just do it 😀
View on Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal
The Flight
This we had flight with Eurowings, but my husband tried to avoid them as long as possible due to that horrible incident in March of 2015. But there’s a lot of flights in Stuttgart to different destinations. We were easily seduced by relatively low prices on flight tickets :D. Nevertheless, I must warn, even though Eurowings is representing itself as
Our, so to say, “cancelled” flight
lowcoster, their prices are a bit higher than prices of Easy Jet or Ryanair. Of course it depends on when you buy tickets, but usually if you buy them beforehand, their prices are ridiculously low.
When we got to the airport, we went to check our flight status. As we found our flight we couldn’t believe our eyes. CANCELLED!
Amsterdam weather
The city met us with chilly weather, wind and the sun.
– How do you like it here?
– About the weather… I expected something else. I think it’s quite cold here!
– Well, it’s our spring!
^ Dialog with a host of one of our hotels ^
Yeah, for us it was cold, ’cause before our trip in Reutlingen it felt almost like summer with its +20-24 during the daytime. So +12-15 was quite fresh 😀 Besides, we’ve never been to Amsterdam during spring or fall, so it was difficult to imagine the weather there. I guess you may know this feeling, when you go not in a warm country and you have no idea what to take with you. We did our best preparing, but we couldn’t foresee everything.
When we arrived in Amsterdam, it turned out, you should definitely wear a normal warm jacket, a scarf, a hat and gloves (optional, it’s just my hands freeze utterly easy). Apparently I didn’t have gloves, and my husband even worse – he didn’t take any scarfs or hats with him. ‘So we spent first hours buying necessary items, otherwise it would be just unbearable :D.
If you go in Amsterdam during spring or fall, always take with you a normal coat, (and a raincoat), scarfs, hats, gloves and UMBRELLAS. If you don’t use them during these months, you’re lucky! Anyway, it’s better safe than sorry!
if there’s no rain in the morning, be sure, it’ll be in the evening.
Something about food in Amsterdam
You’ll find hundred of cafes, bakeries, cafeterias and restaurants, especially in the city center. But I would like to tell you about that we’ve tried.
The most amazing thing that I’ve experienced there is Albert Heijn (well, it’s not only in Amsterdam, but in the Netherlands in general).Essentially it’s a supermarket with a huuuuuuuuuuuge section of food-to-go (no jokes, I really liked it). I hate restaurants (I don’t like waiting) and fast food (too delicious sometimes, addictive and unhealthy). So that Albert Heijn was a rescue for us – there’re some kind of different combined lunches. Portions are huge and more or less healthy (if you don’t use dressing :D). The only one drawback – they’re cold, but if you live in a guest house, you won’t have any troubles with heating it up.
Cafes & restaurants
- My weak point is burgers. I mean not on everyday basis, but while travelling, why not? So that I would like to recommend one place – Burgerlijk ( Runstraat 1). The only one place so far where a patty is really huge! And tasty of course. Burgers are sufficient themselves, but you can add something else from the menu for an additional price. Burgers cost about 6,5 euros, I don’t remember precisely. And last, but not the least, there’re veggie burgers, so if you have a vegetarian companion, they will also be pleased 😉
- Amsterdam Centraal is a treasure trove of cafes, restaurants etc. Since one of our hotels was located on another bank of the city, we strolled pretty often through Central Station. So when we were there again, we saw Kyoto Sushi & Grill and decided to have dinner there. And, I must say, it wasn’t a mistake – the restaurant has a quite authentic interior design, a great view on Oosterdok and reasonable prices. The food is tasty and courses as usually large, so I couldn’t finish mine physically 😀 The staff is friendly and always ready to assist. For example, I ordered a course with beef, and only when I was half way eating I realized that the beef is medium rare, while I prefer medium well or well done. I asked to make it well done and we didn’t experienced any problems, and, on top of that, the chef even made my course great looking once again and add some extras there (without paying for that) 😀 So if you like Japanese cuisine, I advice to drop by there.
To be continued! 😉
