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New Home Tour
Woohoo, second day Amsterdam! So I finally got round to editing the pictures and looking at them now makes me feel a little bit nostalgic (even though it was only last week huehuehue).
We started the day with waffles and orange juice at a nearby café, and honestly, if you like sweet treats, Amsterdam is the place to be. There are pancakes and waffles EVERYWHERE, buffered by all types of pastries smothered in cream. I freakin’ love waffles and pancakes, but even for me they were a bit of a sugar overload. Do we have restaurants dedicated to just pancakes? If not, I feel that should be a thing. Somebody make that a thing please, and soon.
After that we headed to Anne Frank’s house but unfortunately the queue was so insane that we had to give it a miss. Maybe if we were staying a little longer we could have afforded to while away a few hours in line, but since we were leaving the next day we decided to move on to Plan B and hop on a boat for a canal tour. It’s probably one of the most relaxing things I have ever done; combine a gentle rocking motion with an open top boat, warm sunshine and the sound of rolling water and you’ve got a certified lullaby going on. I’m pretty sure all three of us nodded off at some point or another (pro tourist level approaching 100, wow). When I managed to wake myself up, I headed out to the back of the boat which was completely open and just enjoyed the moment. Amsterdam is such a beautiful city, and the canal tour was a truly picturesque way to discover places our legs couldn’t quite manage to take us.
Deciding we needed a bit of a pick-me-up, we grabbed some Pink Mojitos and a spot of lunch. I’d like to say that holidays are a great excuse for early alcohol, but I’m feeling fairly partial to a cocktail right now to be quite honest with you (#toobad4u). Then I, as chief navigator and pro map reader, navigated us to the Vondelpark, which turns out to be just a park. A couple of people had mentioned it to the girls and recommended it as a must visit, but honestly, it is literally just a park. Am I missing something? To the people familiar with Suffolk, it reminded me of Christchurch. Great for spotting hipsters, but possibly not a tourist attraction (in my humble opinion, anyway).
To finish off the day I forced the girls to accompany me to the I Amsterdam letters. I would like to shout out to all the tall/acrobatic/freakish people that manage to clamber to the top of the letters. Those buggers are big, and you, my friends, are everyday heroes.
Amsterdam turned out to be a real mixed pot, covering everything from the surreal to hilarious to the downright beautiful in only two days. There’s so much more to see and I know I’ll be heading back someday, if only to take my Mum to the sex museum to see her reaction. Well, I guess her 50th birthday is coming up…