We’ve been in Amsterdam for 10 days already – time flies! It’s taken some time to get in the swing of things but now that we’ve settled in a bit I have some time to update you all on our travels thus far.
Despite some colder- and rainier-than-expected weather, we’ve covered a lot of ground this first week. Luckily we’ve been able to adapt by front loading our museum and restaurant exploration, saving the warm weather activities for week 2. We decided to buy Muesumkaart passes, which give us unlimited access to the majority of museums in Amsterdam and many others outside of the city. As a result, we’ve been to several smaller museums we likely wouldn’t have thought to go to otherwise and have discovered a few gems. The other great thing about the Museumkaart is that we can revisit museums as many times as we want, which really helps with ‘museum fatigue’ — the Rijksmuseum alone has more than a million items in its collection (after three visits we’ve only made it through half of its five floors!).
The other big museums we’ve crossed off the list are the Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank House. Both get so many visitors that you have to book months in advance, so these were the only planned events of our trip.
We also stumbled upon the Museum Van Loon, which is a beautifully preserved canal house, garden, and carriage house from the 17th century belonging to a well todo family. Willem Van Loon made his fortune as a co-founder of the Dutch East India Company.
Another unexpected highlight was Micropia, which happens to be the world’s only museum dedicated to microorganisms. The exhibits are really well designed and interactive — definitely worth checking out if you’re going to the Artis Zoo since it’s right next door. Plus they have not one, but two giant Water Bears for photo ops.
When we weren’t museuming, we were eating. The restaurant scene is surprisingly diverse, especially in the De Pijp neighborhood where we’re staying. We’ve had Italian, Mexican, Vietnamese, Greek, lots of seafood… and McDonalds, only once. Somehow we still haven’t had any Stroopwafels yet though!
That’s all for now. More to come soon!
