Hey! Did you hear! (I’m sure you heard because I’ve made it very known) I left the country again!
We went to Amsterdam! Truth be told, I knew…..almost nothing about Amsterdam aside from canals and bikes before deciding to go. And wow what NICE and CUTE little city!! I felt very at home and safe from the second we got there and that’s a nice feeling to have when you’re very far from home.
So listen up, kiddos, because this blog is about to be a thousand photos of buildings and about 500 photos of food. I will not be telling you to go to Rijksmuseum, or to the Heineken factory, or to smoke weed. I will however give ya a list of a whole lot of establishments that treated us real nice, broken down by neighborhood.
This trip was nice because every day was basically:
-Coffee/breakfast
-Wander around aimlessly looking at stuff for a while
-Is is time to drink yet? Let’s find a cafe.
-Time to eat again
-Now we’ll drink for the rest of the night.
Amsterdam Oud-West
This is where we stayed, and it was definitely walkable to city center, definitely bikeable, and we definitely made a ton of use of the trams to get around while it was raining.
We stayed near Ten Katemarkt, a cute lil outdoor market that’s open every day with all the food you could ask for plus a bunch of other stuff. We spent all our leftover euros on pastries there, and I got a hat for just two euro when I was unprepared for how cold it was. We love a deal.
Here’s some other nice stuff in/around the neighborhood:
Foodhallen - Everyone will tell you to go here, there’s a ton of different food stands and beer and gin and tonics and I wish I could have eaten it all but I only had room enough in my stomach for 800 bitterballen (get these they are Good).
The Breakfast Club - Would you believe me if I told you this place was only open for dinner? No? (It’s breakfast)
Lot Sixty One Coffee - w o w a good latte
Cafe Panache - We just came here for a drink, but I think their food looks very good.
Local Hero - Pretty sure this is not actually Oud-West, (maybe De Baarsjes?) but it was real cute and we had a delicious brunch there.
Monks Coffee Roasters - If I lived in Amsterdam I would go to this coffee shop for breakfast while editing photos every single day. Probably my favorite little coffee shop / breakfast that we went to. Like do you see that avocado toast I had?
Jordaan
Naturally, on this day it was pouring rain so I left my camera behind, and then I ended up taking more photos than any other day. Jordaan! So! Cute!! Out of all the neighborhoods to wander around aimlessly, I loved just looking at stuff the most in this one. They got pie, they got beer, they got stroopwafels, they got more beer. For you Boston people, this is absolutely selling the place short but it sort of reminded me of a Beacon Hill. Way cooler, but equally as quaint.
It’s important you know that “brown cafes” are Amsterdam’s version of cozy lil pubs and I think they call them that because of something to do with everything being wood and they are my ideal kind of bar. Small, cozy, often cash only, you can actually hear who you’re talking to, people get wasted in the middle of the day. Win-win-win-win. There are a lot in this area, here are a few we went to:
Cafe Chris - (Pictured above) Brown cafe, which I have read is the oldest in Amsterdam? My favorite brown cafe that we went to. Actually, one of the only places we went where it seemed like some people didn’t speak english which made it feel much less touristy.
’t Smalle - (Pictured below) Loveddd this place, and while we were there on an extremely rainy night, yelp is leading me to believe it’s awesome during the day in nice weather. Tables outside right on the canal!
De II Prinsen - Another brown cafe that was a nice spot to kill some time before going the the Anne Frank House
Other places! I don’t know what that cheese shop in the picture above was, but it was absolutely the cheese shop of my dreams and they let you have so many samples! Stop in a cheese shop.
Winkel 43 - (pie pictured above) The place every single person will tell you to get apple pie. Surprise! It was good!
Anne Frank Huis - Seems like I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but I think this was worth going to. Depressing, yes, but so interesting and it brings a whole new level of real-ness to be IN the actual place they were forced to hide in for two years.
In and around Amsterdam-Centrum
Amsterdam-Centrum is by far the touristy-est part of the city, especially once you get toward Dam Square, but there are things worth going to. The flower market, basilica, Amsterdam Centraal train station, all over here so while you’re standing there gawking at all the black tulips at the market like I was (goth flowers!!! be still my dark heart!!) just make sure you look up every now and then so you don’t walk into some college kid who’s visiting for the weekend from wherever he’s studying abroad.
Here’s some stuff in Centrum I thought was worth it:
Bloemenmarkt: We sort of hopped through here because it started raining but I thought it was cool. It’s a huge outdoor flower market along a canal. If you want to buy tulips to bring home this is a good place to get bulbs (just verify you can actually fly back to the US with them, a lot of them will say on the label).
Basilica of Saint Nicholas: Biased here as somebody who likes to look at old architecture but it’s worth a walk through.
Stroopwafels: (Above left) To be completely honest I didn’t like this as much as I thought I would? But it’s a real Dutch thing I guess so you might as well have yourself a lil snack.
Pulitzer’s Bar: (Above right) Definitely go here!! This is a very good cocktail bar in an extremely fancy hotel that I will never be able to afford to stay at but the drinks were perfect for an afternoon break from walking around in the rain.
Botanical Garden: I! Love! Greenhouses! The botanical garden here was so cool! I took a million photos but I’ll spare you. They had all the same plants I have in my apartment except 2000x bigger!
De Pijp
How many times in one blog post do you think I can be like “loved this” before it loses it’s authenticity? We we uh… loved this area. Tons of good bars and restaurants, felt very hip and young-professional, the area I’d probably hang out in the most if I lived here.
Two of the best restaurants we went to were in this neighborhood!
Van ‘t Spit: (Below left) This place only has chicken. You can either get a whole roasted chicken or half roasted chicken and various sides. And ya know, a real, fresh rotisserie chicken is just so good.
Little Collins: (Below right) A small-plates, farm to table kinda little cozy place. Readers, everything was so good! Like in my opinion, best restaurant I’ve been to in a while good. By the way, if anyone wants to have the small plates to share vs normal portions and everyone gets their own debate I am here to FIGHT for small plates.
Glou Glou: A chill little wine bar! Not like the fancy kind of wine bar, but like the kind where you could sit at your little rustic wooden table and talk to somebody for four hours straight. Which we kinda did.
Scandinavian Embassy: Good latte, cute coffehouse, saw a really cute dog in here.
Staring at Jacob: (All the way below the next to photos) Why yes we did get brunch at a place that advertised American comfort food, and yes it was quite good.
Utrecht
Last but not least! We left the city of Amsterdam! One day during our stay we spent in Utrecht which is basically…a small version of Amsterdam. It was cute! And only about half an hour away by train. We spent the day wandering around, looking at old buildings, touring the church, eating french fries. drinking beers, as one does.
