Amsterdam days 1 and 2 were great and the rest of our trip was no different! We took our Saturday easy with some causal shopping and eating (of course) and biking (yes, biking! Me!).

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The wonderful Jordaan district!

Click to read about our bike-venture! 

Saturday morning started with a breakfast of apple pie at Winkel 43. They are known for their apple pie and I mean, who says you can’t have apple pie for breakfast? After all, we were on vacation!

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Apple pie, flat white, and espresso

Winkel 43 was only a few blocks from our apartment and after breakfast, we strolled through a beautiful farmers market.

Then, it was bike time! People ride bikes EVERYWHERE. The city is super dense so it makes a lot of sense because they are fast and convenient and bike lanes so its a great way to get around. But also extremely scary and dangerous (in my opinion)! So, I insisted on… a tandem!

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The driver

The tandem was really fun, but not as easy as we I thought it would be. They are really heavy and sort of hard to control (aka to start and stop), but it was still really fun and exciting to ride around town. We were basically locals at this point, so why not just do as they do?!

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Yes, this GIF was taken whilst ON the bike, sorry that we didn’t get any real action shots from the side, but you get the gist! And here are some more, bike not shown in frame. 🙂

We rode around the city, stopping on Haarlemmerstaat, a nice street with cute shops and cafes. We stopped briefly at Screaming Beans to refuel with a sandwich and coffee.

Pit stop
Pit stop

Shopping and biking took a lot out of us, so later (like a few hours after the photo above was taken, don’t worry, we’re not animals) we stopped for a quick drink and another sandwich at Cafe t’Smalle. It was a really cozy, old, neighborhood pub that had a great feel to it.

Happy Hour!
Happy Hour!

Somehow we still had room after all the drinks and snacks (we’ve been training for these very scenarios) and decided to go get STROOPWAFELS! They are amazing spiced waffle cookies with a thin layer of caramel in the middle – so basically heaven. So, for these fresh, hot, giant stroopwafels, we rode over to Stroopwafel Heaven where they were made right in front of us!

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The giant Stroopwafel!!

For dinner we went to Moeders, a traditional Dutch restaurant with some really savory, hearty dishes. The restaurant is kitchy and decorated with photos of mothers (the story on the menu says that they still accept photos, too bad I didn’t bring this one with me!) I had spare ribs and Omri had suddervlees – braised beef with boiled cabbage and potatoes. They were both super delicious and we even had to take some ribs to-go (which Omri ate on the plane ride home!).

The next morning we went on a brunch cruise along the canals! It was a unique way to see the city and check out some areas that we didn’t already see.

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The boat!

The views of the city were great, and it was fun to do it over poached eggs and a bloody mary!

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Cruising by the houseboats!

After the brunch boat we went to the Stedelijk Museum (I mistakenly wrote this in my first post but then corrected it – the first day we went to Rijksmuseum). We tried going the day before but the line was super crazy! This was because it was the last weekend of a Matisse exhibit – so the day before I bought tickets online for Sunday, and this shortened our wait time by at least an hour!

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Omri + Henri (Matisse)

The Matisse exhibit was really well done – it showed off the evolution of his works, from his early impressionist works, through Fauvism and his “frenemy” Picasso, to his paper cutouts and books. (I’ve done at least two projects on Matisse in school, so it was nice to see the pieces again in real life!)

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Pages from Matisse’s book, titled “Jazz”

The museum was really cool and had other great permanent Modern art exhibits, including one freaky performance art piece, and also furniture and home designs.

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In front of Sol Lewitt, Wall Drawing #1084

After the museum it was time to leave and catch our quick flight back to Bristol. I was beyond impressed with this city and can’t wait to revisit and go see some other sites that we didn’t make it to this time. Amsterdam was an amazing city with so much to see and do and has such a great culture!