Amsterdam- Part 1

Arriving in Amsterdam & Day 1

I am going to have to write two blog posts regarding this trip as we did so much & we took hundreds of photos!!

Friday arrived & I woke up with a massive smile on my face (for once in my life #notamorningperson ;) ). Throughout the day, Callie & I were texting asking for the work day to pass quicker so that we could get on the plane to Amsterdam. 15:05 came around & I saw Josh, Callie & Austin arrive at my work to collect me and I let out a little squeal. We rushed to Airparks, the place we were leaving our car whilst abroad, and took the shuttle to the airport. I was so impressed with the seamless service we received would definitely recommend it. As we arrived at the airport, everything started to feel more real!! YAY!! The flight took about 50 minutes; as soon as we took off, we were pretty much then getting ready to land haha - very different to our 14 hour Chile flight!!!!!! 

As we left the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, we were welcomed by thousands and thousands of people who were also arriving in Amsterdam.  The ticket machine lines were so long with people busily trying to purchase train and bus tickets! It was PACKED!! I had luckily researched Amsterdam on Wikitravel & found a place we could buy a 48 hour pass (FYI- This GVB pass doesn’t work on the train or buses into the centre, so be sure to buy another ticket or you can buy it on the bus as well.) which allows you to travel on any GVB tram, metro & bus (once in the centre).

We arrived to our AirBnb apartment, which was a minutes’ walk from the Van Gogh museum and Rijksmuseum. Once we unpacked and ‘freshened’ up, we headed to a Pizza restaurant that was on the corner of our block which had been recommended to us by the lady who we were renting the apartment from. It was delicious; I ordered a yummy ham and mushroom Calzone and it was definitely the best Calzone I had ever had.  After leaving stuffed, we headed back to the apartment, played some games and then headed to bed!!

We woke up at about 8.00 to get ready for the day. Once we were all dressed & having taken a morning selfie, we headed to try and find some breakfast.  Luckily there was a market pretty much outside of our front door, so we each grabbed a Crepe from there which was once again DELICIOUS!!

We then headed to the Rijksmuseum and took pictures infront of the I Amsterdam sign.. 

...Central Station.. 

... on a Canal Cruise (This is a MUST!!!!)... 

(Austin was hungry so we stopped for some Stroopwafels) 

...posed by some beautiful Canals/bridges...

 ... and then our time slot for the Anne Frank House was fast approaching so we walked through the Noodermarkt to get to it! What an experience this was! It very humbling and inspiring!! The many many hours I had spent on the Museums website, refreshing it every 5 minutes to see if any tickets had become available were so worthwhile as finally getting the online tickets meant that we could literally just walk straight in; I was not up for queuing for 2-3 hours in the rain like everyone else stood outside!! The Secret Annex was a lot bigger than I was expecting. I had read the diary in Primary School and so it had been a long time since I last studied her remarkable story! There were some beautiful videos of her Father (Otto Frank) & one of Anne's friends - truly touching! There are inserts of Anne’s diary on all the walls throughout the house that I felt was a lovely touch. The best part was actually being able to see and read her ACTUAL diary; it just sent goose bumps around my body!! My favourite quote on one of the walls was from her Father, which read…

To build up a future, you have to know the past.

After visiting the house, we were all starving so we headed over to the 'floating' flower market to look at that before it closed & whilst looking at the flowers, we kept our eyes peeled for a yummy restaurant.  We came across an Argentinian restaurant where we enjoyed some Hamburgers & Fajitas :) 

After filling our bellies, we went to the Red Light District, 

Oude Kerk, 

..the Royal palace, sat in some clogs

and by then, we were shattered so we headed to a supermarket where we picked up some smoothies & treats to eat whilst playing games in the evening. We then headed to bed to prepare and recuperate for our last day :(