Holiday Thread

[Marcia Queen]

Hiya

I will be going to Amsterdam for the first time this weekend, for a mini break . Is there any advice or any area of particular interest anyone is willing to share? My hotel is located near the Mercure Amsterdam Airport. Many thanks.

[canadian_turtle]

The "negen straatjes" (nine streets) for cute/different shops and browsing along the canals. Vondelpark and all the museums on Museum Square. Kalverstraat for shopping. The Dam to watch street entertainers. Have a cone filled with fries with mayonnaise or a snack out of the wall (yes, really). There's also a few restaurants in the centre (where all the bars are) that do typical Dutch dinners such as boerenkool and hutspot.

The Netherlands is small so you can easily take the train from Central Station to other cities anywhere in the country too. My family lives pretty much the fartherst away from Amsterdam and it's about 3.5 hours by train, but that's so far away you don't want to go there Bigger cities in the west such as Rotterdam (lots of culture), Den Haag/The Hague (lovely cute city), Leiden, etc are all less than an hour away.

Enjoy! :)

[Diane65]

If you are interested in food the top floor of the department store KaDeWe is AMAZING - see this link on tripadvisor http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_R ... ml#REVIEWS

The rest of the store is nothing special but the food hall is worth a visit.

I'm always interested in food - just clicked on the link and just seeing the cakes makes me extremely interested Thank you so much

[Diane65]

The "negen straatjes" (nine streets) for cute/different shops and browsing along the canals. Vondelpark and all the museums on Museum Square. Kalverstraat for shopping. The Dam to watch street entertainers. Have a cone filled with fries with mayonnaise or a snack out of the wall (yes, really). There's also a few restaurants in the centre (where all the bars are) that do typical Dutch dinners such as boerenkool and hutspot.

The Netherlands is small so you can easily take the train from Central Station to other cities anywhere in the country too. My family lives pretty much the fartherst away from Amsterdam and it's about 3.5 hours by train, but that's so far away you don't want to go there Bigger cities in the west such as Rotterdam (lots of culture), Den Haag/The Hague (lovely cute city), Leiden, etc are all less than an hour away.

Enjoy! :)

Haarlem which is the capital of Northern Holland is so pretty and everywhere that Canadian-turtle says is wonderful - Lieden is an old University town and this is my favourite coffee shop http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... QEjtvTcn5Q the staff are lovely as is the food. They have the best hot chocolate ever in Holland and I can't for the life of me remember the name but there is a chain of eateries where you can get almost any type of cuisine from a roast dinner, Dutch, Indian and its heaven - its called The Place or the market and its inexpensive - Canadian Turtle to the rescue please. There is a direct train from the airport to the city centre and you literally just cross the road to the city, there are lovely flower stalls along the banks of the canal and apparently you can carry them back home but check first. You will love it and the Dutch people are very welcoming

[Octopus]

Hiya

I will be going to Amsterdam for the first time this weekend, for a mini break . Is there any advice or any area of particular interest anyone is willing to share? My hotel is located near the Mercure Amsterdam Airport. Many thanks.

Go and have a broodje haring in Jordaan!
Nieuwmarkt is nice too, especially on the evening.

That reminds me I'm pretty sure I didn't tell you about my Brussels/Amsterdam trip I did in July... (?)

My friend and I almost missed our bus (at 6.10am!), we ran like crazy and fortunately it left Brussels late! We arrived at 6.20 and it was there. Hallelujah.
Once we arrived in Amsterdam, we directly went to Lelylaan where our host lived - in an 'anti-squat': a former town hall, where 6 people live and p*y a very little rent. It looks like a squat, it's full of graffiti, but they p*y and stay there to prevent the building from being damaged. The only condition is that the tenants need to accept to be moved from time to time to other anti-squats.
It was strange and cool at the same time, our host was nice and came back from 4 years of traveling, mainly in Asia and Africa. Another girl was spending the night there, a Finnish one, I think she arrived from Germany and was supposed to go back to Finland a few days after.
There was a party the night after, in one of the tenants' room who actually turned his room into a kind of 'club'. While he was DJing, people were dancing and taking all king of drugs or laughing gas... they were all very nice, nothing bad happened, no accident etc. And I enjoyed the shirtless boys very much. Especially the one who opened the bathroom door while my friend was having a shower in the morning - I was between the door and the shower curtain so he couldn't see her, but I could see HIM. Very handsome. Good morning start.
Anyway.
First day: we spent most of our time in Jordaan, eating & drinking & walking & enjoying the warm weather. We went to the Negen Straatjes, then walked through Burgkwallen Nieuwe Zijde, Dam, De Wallen, Binnenstad.
We had an "apéritif" there on the canal and met three young Australian people who were traveling. They never heard about couchsurfing so we explained them how it worked and they were really amazed by it! We gave them our email addresses and had diner in some nice pub along a canal before meeting the Finnish surfer later for a drink... and going back to the party that was taking place at our house.

On Sunday we went with the Finnish girl to Oostelijke Eilanden en Kadijen, then Nieuwmarkt en Lastage before having a huge burger that a seagull tried to steal from me, and taking the IJpleinveer boat.
We went back to Brussels on that evening.
I have nothing to say about Brussels unfortunately... it was lovely, I saw all the things I remembered visiting 10 years ago, but didn't find it amazing at all. Actually the city reminds me of Lille, where I used to live in France for a few months, and where I don't have good memories! So that might explain it...!

But Amsterdam was lovely

[Beate]

Once we arrived in Amsterdam, we directly went to Lelylaan where our host lived - in an 'anti-squat': a former town hall, where 6 people live and p*y a very little rent. It looks like a squat, it's full of graffiti, but they p*y and stay there to prevent the building from being damaged. The only condition is that the tenants need to accept to be moved from time to time to other anti-squats.

There's a similar scheme in Britain where you can be a "guardian" with others for empty buildings like old schools or the like and you p*y little rent but it's never for very long so wouldn't be for me, but I guess it's great for young people.

[Octopus]

It's great if you don't have a family, maybe if you're not in a couple, but it's definitely for people who are not scared to share.
We were sleeping in a big room: one wall separated us from our host's room, and on the other part of our 'bedroom' was the 'neighbor' 's kitchen (just a fridge and some cupboard to be exact). So the guy had to come in our bedroom to take his stuff in the fridge. We didn't care about it, we were quiet and clean and not disturbing at all.
But the neighbor and his gf were/are upset by the fact people sleep once in a while in this room... and upset by parties... and upset by everything, apparently.
If you live in this kind of building you need to be open-minded and accept the fact you will share everything, whether it's convenient or not.

[Diane65]

What an amazing experience Octopus - I love reading of how we both love the same places but have completely different experiences (I too had never heard of coach surfing before) possibly because I'm twice your age I stayed at my friend's near Leiden when I went to Holland and got a fab deal at the Hilton in Brussels when I stayed there(£40 for B&B - I didn't eat again until about 7pm as so full)
I did really enjoy Brussels especially around the Grand Place just people watching and I can see the resemblance to Lille which also looks like a very beautiful city so it probably is because it reminds you of there.

[Octopus]

It's not about being young or not - it's about having money or not
If I had a real full salary, I would probably split couchsurfing (to meet people) with hotel (to sleep properly)!

[Marcia Queen]

Hiya

Thank you all for your advice and suggestions with regard to my recent trip. We had a fabulous time in Amsterdam and Bruges (apart from showers in Amsterdam on Saturday). We arrived from our hotel by coach to Gassan Diamond Polishing Centre, where we saw a selection of diamonds and jewellery from a 100 to 1000s euros (could not b*y any). The group strolled from there to the City Centre where our tour guide pointed out The Central Station, The Jewish Museum, The old Palace and their version of Madam Tussauds.

We had half day trip to Volendam which is a fishing village, here we had the fries in the cone shaped paper with mayonnaise along with some nice fried fish. Picked up some souveniers and admired the sea views. We left from Voldedam and went to the Clog shoe and Cheese factories which is at the same place. Here we saw the guides in traditional dress and we tasted a variety of cheese, waffle biscuit and some chocolate.

On our arrival back into Amsterdam we had dinner at James Argentinian restaurant, where we had Unlimited Spare Ribs with Rice & Fries, Ladies Steak, Grilled Salmon and drinks. The meal for the four of us came to approximately 100 euros. Later in the evening, (this is where the city came to life), we visited the Red Light District and it was an eye opener .

Next day we travelled to Bruges where we had some lovely Belgium Chocolate and a horse and carriage ride. We visited a cathedral and took in the the lovely sites of this small village.

We had a great weekend and will definitely return to Amsterdam for a longer time .