Amsterdam // Part Two…

Last updated on 24 April 2025

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Amsterdam, eh? A few days ago I told you about the first day I spent in Amsterdam (which was last Friday), and today I’m going to tell you about the second day.

As I mentioned in the previous post, my dad had to go to Amsterdam for a conference, so I tagged along. His conference was all day on Saturday, so basically I had to look after myself and wander the streets. I’ve had to do this a couple of times now – entertain myself in a foreign country for a day or so – but I still get a bit nervous. What if I get lost? What if no one speaks English? What if I end up in the wrong part of town? For Amsterdam I was especially nervous, what with the legal drugs and, let’s face it, I could have easily fallen into a canal and drowned. So this goes through my head, but it doesn’t last long. I end up thinking ‘meh! It is was it is. It’ll be fine, and if you fall into a canal, then just keep swimming…’.

And it was totally fine. In the morning I joined the youth hostel on their walking tour of the city. It was really cool. There were about 20 of us who joined two of the volunteers from the hostel (who were lovely and funny and really friendly, so that was great), and we walked a route around the centre of Amsterdam, stopping every so often so they could tell us about a historical fact, or just something interesting. It was really cool just chatting with some of the other travellers as we wandered too. Thankfully, most people in the European counties speak English, other wise it would have been a very confusing and a very quiet tour. There were a couple of groups from England, and a brother and sister from the Netherlands who had just got back from Sweden (they were probably there when I was) where they had been hiking. Then there was a lady from Cyprus, and a girl from the Philippines who was travelling…and the list goes on. Really cool to just chat with them.

Anyway! As we walked, I obviously took pictures…

We ended up back at the hostel around 1:30pm, and after having a coffee, I said goodbye to those people who I wouldn’t probably never see again in my life, and wandered back to the train station where there was an information building. Inside, I bought a ticket for one of those ‘Hop-on, Hop-off’ buses, and spent the rest of the afternoon on the bus around the city. It was about an hour and half (perhaps a little more) as a round trip (from the station back to the station), so I only got off once. But on the way to where I got off, there were heaps of cool things. It would have been great if I had discovered this bus at the beginning of the day – but then I wouldn’t have been on the city walk, and that was a lot of fun. So pluses and minus. Anyway, here’s a couple of the photos from the bus ride around the outside of Amsterdam.

It was really neat because when you got on the bus they took your ticket and gave you a set of headphones. You then could plug yourself into the wall, and as the bus went past interesting things, there was a commentator speaking and pointing out various things.

I only jumped out at one stop, as I knew I didn’t have a lot of time. I was going to go and check out Anne Frank’s house…but the line was longer than the Nile River…so I didn’t even consider it further. I did, however, discover the Tulip Museum, which was really cute and really nice to have a short wander around. It told of the history of the tulip in The Netherlands, and while that doesn’t sound riveting, it was actually really interesting.

By the time I got back to the train station on the bus, I had timed it perfectly. I was meeting up with Dad again so we could get the train to the airport, at 6pm and the bus got in at about 5:15pm. I was starving by this stage, as I hadn’t eaten since breakfast at 8am (although I did have a cupcake when I did my little stop at the Anne Frank house and the Tulip museum).

I discovered there was a restaurant underneath the tourist information centre, and I had also heard that the Dutch did amazing pancakes. We had tried to find a pancake place on Friday night for dinner, but couldn’t find one, so when I saw that they had pancakes on the menu, I was way too excited for life. I ordered a pancake with bacon, and when the waiter came back with it, I discovered that a ‘pancake with bacon’ was not a pancake with bacon on top of the pancake, but rather a pancake with the bacon cooked into it. He was amendment that I smother it in syrup, which I did, and my friends, it was amazing! I highly recommend Dutch pancakes.

Then I met Dad, we got the train back, and then we got the plane home.

It was a really great trip and I highly recommend a visit to Amsterdam. I would say take a friend though, it would be much more with someone to enjoy it with, but if you’re fine wandering by yourself, then go for gold! A few things to watch out for though:

– Legal drugs. In New Zealand we have a dairy on every corner (like a mini convenience store), and here in England they have a pub on pretty much every corner. In Amsterdam there is a drug store of some sort on every corner.

– Speaking of drugs, note that a ‘coffee shop’ is actually somewhere they sell drugs and have drug infused brownies and the like. But if you go to a cafe, then you should be fine.

– Be careful what streets you walk down at night…and if you accidentally do walk down one of those streets, look straight ahead and walk quickly. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Google it.

– There are canals everywhere. Everywhere. One of our tour guides told us that there is only one other country with more canals in it than Amsterdam (I think it was somewhere in Germany…?). This makes the city incredibly pretty, but there aren’t really fences or barriers between the roads/footpaths and the canals.

– As well as looking out for the books gong up and down the canals, be aware of the traffic. Oh my goodness, the traffic. Every street for cars, also has bike lanes. And boy do they use them. The amount of times I nearly got totalled by a cyclists is so high I lost count. Watch out.

– As well as the cyclists and the canals and the cars…there are trams! No way! Yes way! These are sneaky ones because they are quite quiet. The plus side is that have tracks, so they can’t come off and run you over.

And that’s about it I think! Do go and have a visit. It really is very cool.