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Amsterdam Museums Everyone knows about the main Amsterdam museums, the big three, the RijksMuseum, Van Gogh and Anne Frank House. I’m including  a bit of practical info about them at the end of this post so that you see the less visited museums first. These are often overlooked and are great places to visit. If…

Breakfast in Amsterdam One of the things I love about travel is eating out and I prefer it if each meal is a great meal. I also tend to do a lot of walking on tours as well as just exploring on my own so breakfast is a really important meal for me. I try…

Things to do in Amsterdam East In this post is a random collection of tings to do in Amsgterdam East. Here is a quick list of what is below: Street market –  The Dappermarkt Small Museum – ‘t Kromhout Snacking – The Best Kebab in Amsterdam Drinking – The Brewery by the Windmill Eating –…

COOL SQUAT RESTAURANTS IN AMSTERDAM Squat restaurants have a special place in Amsterdam. Many buildings were squatted in the 70s, 80s, and 90s because they were empty and abandoned. The communities that squatted the buildings often run an informal restaurant, all done by volunteers and not for profit. DE PEPER De Peper is a lovely example of one of these and you can see the philosophy behind the place in the photo above. The food is vegan and organic. For the starter and main course you pay between 7€ and 10€, depending on what you can afford, you decide. Dessert costs 1.50€ and beers are 2.50€. When I went the food was delicious, the starter was a white miso and light vegetable soup and the main course was a seitan and pumpkin pie with white beans and mushrooms and salad….

Top 5 Amsterdam Views Every canal corner has a top Amsterdam view and there are various church towers that are sometimes open that have great views. But what I’ve done here is chosen places that are always open, and tried to get a balance of street views and panoramic views. I hope you enjoy them…

Top 5 Amsterdam Beer Bars I love beer. IPAs get me through the summer and Autumn Bok Beers get me through the colder months. Amsterdam has a great selection of beer bars and a growing number of microbreweries. This list is really my favourite 5 in the city but really I could make a list…

Amsterdam Coffeeshops  Sure, coffeeshops in Amsterdam serve coffee but their primary function is to sell cannabis, either grass or hash, both loose and in pre-rolled joints. If you’re looking for a shop that sells fancy coffees but not soft drugs then you should rather look for a place advertising itself as a “cafe”. A Bit…

For lovers of contemporary design, The Frozen Fountain is an inspiring space filled with furniture and objects from the weird to the wonderful and much in between. There are various rooms that are laid out with large innovative pieces. This furntiure is, unfortunately, never going to grace my appartment as it is way too expensive,…

A tulip grows from a bulb. You need to plant the bulb before the end of October (Norhtern hemisphere) so that it spend the winter underground and pop up as a plant in early spring. The plant has 1 flower which opens up and gives us so much viewing pleasure! When tulips are planted in…

  People often ask how the city deals with dead bikes. By dead bikes I mean bikes that are locked in a public place with no apparent owner. There are a lot of bikes in Amsterdam. The figure that does the rounds is that there are about 1 million bikes owned by the 800 thousand…

How do Dutch windmills work? Incredibly well and improved for hundreds of years although now they are really just kept to preserve Dutch heritage. You don’t get more quintessentially Dutch than a windmill but like many typically Dutch things they come from somewhere else! Think about it, the Dutch are famous for tulips that originated in…

Amsterdam houses tend to be quite narrow. But sometimes this narrowness is taken to extremes! Which is the narrowest depends on how you define narrow. Do you take into account only the width of the facade? Does it matter if the house widens away from the street. I think so. Singel 7 Singel 166 Kloveniersburgwal…