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We got up reasonably early and had our complementary breakfast at Banks Mansion. Wonderful included breakfast, with a large range of cold cheeses, meat and breads, as well as an egg chef cooking eggs, pancakes, bacon and sausages etc. to order. Delicious.
We then caught a taxi for our prebooked visit to the Anne Frank house. This was such a moving experience to be in the very place where Anne lived. It is an absolute must do for anyone interested in the second world war. Definitely prebook, the queues were ridiculous and moved very slowly as the house is quite small therefore it takes some time to get around.
After Anne Frank we started walking around Amsterdam. We were aiming to get back to the station to purchase our tickets to Den Haag and Delft for the next day, and I also wanted to check out the Hilton Doubletree near the station – firstly to see the Skybar and secondly because my parents are visiting Amsterdam following a river cruise next year. The Hilton was the hotel the cruise company were planning on putting them in so they wanted our opinion of what it and
the area were like. We wandered firstly towards Dam Square for a look at the Royal Palace. We popped into the Nieuwe Kirk for a brief look before walking down Damrak in search of Mannekin Pis to try some of the famous frites. We found it fairly easily and shared a small cone of these wonderful hot chips with mayonnaise. I am not normally a hot chip fan but these were great. Thank goodness we only ordered a small serve, it was massive!
We reached the station and purchased our tickets for the next day and went on to the Hilton and the Skybar for lunch and some drinks. The view from the bar was okay, but probably slightly nicer at night. It is not a particularly nice area so my parents have decided to also stay at Banks Mansion, which is so much prettier and they will be spending four nights like us. We ordered some bitterballen from the tapas menu to share, they were very tasty.
After lunch and drinks we simply walked around. I remember walking down streets named Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, another named Spui and Spui Straat. We were trying to
find the Begijnhof but finally had to ask someone to point us in the right direction. It was a gorgeous, peaceful place with two lovely churches. We spent an hour or so just soaking up the atmosphere which was very pleasant.
We had decided not to bother with any other museums and galleries. We had seen so many in two trips to Paris this year and are not really fans of the heavier Dutch art so other than Anne Frank we just wanted to wander around which is exactly what we did.
We wandered along the floating flower market and around Rembrandtplein before heading back to the hotel for more wine and cheese and to get ready for our dinner at Indrapura. We had the rijstafel at Indrapura which was a delicious end to another lovely day. Indrapura was much more expensive than last night’s meal, we had the middle rated rijstafel and a bottle of wine and the bill came to around €110.
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