Blogs from Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands, Europe - page 14

Who goes to Romania? That's the first question that I would get when I told people that I would be visiting this country in October. I stumbled upon a tour with G Adventures that visits the highlights of Transylvania during the Halloween season and culminating with a Halloween party at Dracula's castle. I immediately was fascinated and booked a spot on the tour along with my friend Shea. On the afternoon of October 24th, we both headed to the airport to catch our flights to Europe. Shea would be travelling to Bucharest via London while I would be travelling on KLM with a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam. Arriving in Amsterdam's Schipol airport, getting through customs was a breeze. I had a five hour layover and instead of just hanging out at the airport, I decided ... read more

While I shower, Sean steps out to buy pastries and hot chocolate for breakfast; then it's onto the Van Gogh Museum. The way they have displayed his art tells the chronological narrative of his life--from early studies of color and shadow; to study of the self ("the painted self portrait could reveal more of the man than where the machine--the camera--could ever go," he said). We learn how greens and oranges and blues up close create a peachy skin tone or ochre beard from afar; how letters from Vincent to his brother Theo reveal the thought he put into color and form; how his sorrow and self-consciousness over not being recognized for his work--selling only three paintings in his lifetime, ultimately wore him down; how after his first Sunflowers painting, he proclaimed himself the painter of ... read more

We made it to Amsterdam! After a bumpy flight from Houston that shook the wine from our glasses, we were glad to land at Schipol Airport Sunday morning. It's always exciting to emerge from a new airport into the sunlight. What adventures lay ahead? What secrets would this city divulge? Who might we chat with? We caught the bus to the Museumplein, named for its many museums in the district. Just a block from our hotel were the Van Gogh museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the modern art museum (which would turn out to be an overpriced disappointment!). A few fall leaves skittered around on the pavement as we found the yellow awning of the Bilderberg Hotel and dropped off our bags. Then, it was off to explore! The IAMSTERDAM sign seemed a logical first destination with ... read more

Another glorious day. Weather perfect, early start, off to the markets, amazing designer labels for very reasonable prices (authentic, trust me!!). Found a corner shop with the most incredible cheese and bakery selection - cholesterol nightmare!! Went to the Maritime Museum. In my opinion (and whilst admitting I might be biased), an absolute must see. Impressive building which used to be the Admiralty Arsenal. The whole place a reminder of what great seafarers the Dutch have been for many centuries. They were streets ahead of every other nation in map making. On display was a set of nine volumes of maps covering the whole globe, produced in 1595 - priceless!!. A feature item was the, now unused, Royal Barge - ornate to the extreme. Jenny suffered museum overload and bailed out after an hour or two ... read more

Wow, what a day!! If today is indicative of our holiday for the next three weeks we are going to have an outstanding time!! After a 12 hour flight from HK, we landed on time around 7.00am this morning. We made our way by train into Amsterdam Centraal Station which was very simple and quick and then found this amazing café called Le Pain Quotidien (The Daily Bread) which, apparently is part of a chain but, oh what fantastic food - all organic and delicious. We walked to the AirBnB and discovered another treat. The Silk Merchant's Palace is everything they said on the web plus more. We have a room with magnificent 3m high windows looking out onto a courtyard garden. The house is in Herengacht which is a street right on one of the ... read more