Although I grew up in London and spent over 15 years in Europe, I am probably one of the only people I know who has not been to Amsterdam. A lot of my friends when we were in our late teens headed over for weekends, but I always dug my heels in and refused to go. Now it’s not because I don’t want to go to Amsterdam, on the contrary it looks like a beautiful city and one I would love exploring. The main reason was I didn’t want to go to a city and do the stupid teen thing and spend the entire weekend sampling the various ‘cafes’, end up in a haze and miss my flight home – and worse still not get to experience the beauty of Amsterdam.
Now years later, I am living in Christchurch in New Zealand, and my neighbour, one we have grown close to especially post-earthquakes, is a lovely lady from Amsterdam. Over the last few years, I have talked to her about her life in Amsterdam. She is still a keen cyclist, and I see her often heading off to the shops on her bike complete with basket and bell. And the best of all is she makes us traditional dutch desserts, which are delicious, but unfortunately the recipes are a closely guarded secret.
So Amsterdam is definitely on my list for the next time I go to Europe, and below are the things that I have on my Amsterdam Bucket List so far:
Visit the house of Anne Frank
Go to the Van Gogh Museum
Watch Ajax play football
Cruise on the canals
Take a bike ride tour around the city taking photos of the beautiful buildings
Find a proper Holland windmill – although I’m guessing I would need to go out of Amsterdam for this!
Spend a night at the Nachttheater Sugar Factory club
Take a walk around the red light district
Collapse into bed after a busy day at one of the many beautiful hostels in Amsterdam
and I suppose I can’t go to Amsterdam without visiting one of the ‘coffee shops’
Have you been to Amsterdam? Is there anything else I should have on my bucket list? Would love to hear some recommendations from you all.
Featured Image: iasaglobal.org
6 Comments
Leah Travels
June 13, 2012 at 12:38 pmHey…I’ve never been to Amsterdam either! You named two things I really want to do: Anne Frank’s house and riding a bike through the city.
Katherine
June 13, 2012 at 1:40 pmYeah those definitely are high on my list. Think it would be so pretty to ride around. They have lots of guided tours too which I think woould be really interesting. Would love to explore the rest of Holland too.
Christy
June 29, 2012 at 6:36 pmI only did 3 of these things. I got horribly sick just before I got to Amsterdam, although that didn’t stop me from visiting a coffee shop, the red light district and taking a canal tour. I need to go back and do the rest of these things. Have fun!
Katherine
July 2, 2012 at 9:21 amThat’s a shame – I hate when illness mucks up your travel plans – and unfortunately everyone gets it at some point! Hope you get back there and manage to do the rest of the things on your list.
Danny
January 27, 2013 at 7:03 amI was born in Amsterdam.
And i live 30 min away.
But my grandmother lives there and i often visit.
I have never seen what the big deal is about Amsterdam, most of the people that want to visit do it for the drugs.
Katherine
January 30, 2013 at 11:32 amThat was one of the reasons I was never very keen. Then I did a little research and discovered all the other amazing things to do there. Plus the beautiful countryside and towns in the rest of Holland too.