#Icesterlin Day 7

May 29th

Another day in Amsterdam and we were so excited to get out there. We had a lot to tackle so we grabbed breakfast pastries at Bakker Jongejans for the road. And then quickly made our way to the Centraal Station to get on a bus to check out a windmill, Molen De Otter, outside the central area of the city. It wasn't the picturique settling you think of when you are looking for windmills in Holland but it was still pretty cool.

So many bikes! We weren't brave enough to rent them.

Molen De Otter

Molen De Otter

We had to hustle back into the heart of the city to meet a friend of Audrey's, Sonya, at  Dwaze Zaken coffee shop. I loved this coffee shop. One of my favorites. It was adorable, people were so great and I  absolutely loved their tea. I would definitely be a regular here if I lived in Amsterdam or had the opportunity to spend long stints here. It is also right outside of my favorite view of the city. I couldn't capture the area very well so you will just have to come here yourselves to see but there was something so mesmerizing about this area, the craziness of the city, the peaceful water, the architecture, just all of it was perfect to me. Most people won't see it, but that made it all the more perfect to me.

My favorite spot

After my moment at my new favorite spot, Sonya toured up around the city for a bit. We started with shopping in the Nine Streets area. The shops were great, adorable, fun boutiques to check out but the highlight was meeting on of the Boutique artist, Mark Raven.

Sonya wanted to show us this hidden area in the city call Begijnhof. It is one of the oldest inner courts in Amsterdam and it was so neat to walk through it. You want through a nondescript archway and it feels like you have stepped back in time. It was hard to believe we were in the middle of a huge, bustling city. It was so quiet and relaxing.

The archway leading into Begjinhof

Outside Begijnhof there was a street art market, Art Plein Spui Market that was opened as we walked by, we couldn't help but walk through and do a little shopping. It was so cute.

Our next inside tour stop was to walk through Schuttergalerij Amsterdam Museum Pedestrian walkway, if it wasn't for Sonya, we won't have any idea these were available to us and we would spend hours wandering alley to find these things. She was such a great guide and we had a great time getting to know her.

After the museum, it was time to part ways with Sonya and head to our boat tour with Those Dam Boat Guys. If we didn't love Amsterdam before we got on the boat we all definitely were when we got off the boat. If you ever find yourself in Amsterdam and want to take a boat tour, do yourself a favor and skip the big touristy, glass covered dinner boat tours and ride with these guys. THEY ARE GREAT! Our boat guide was Alec and he was from Santa Cruz, CA. He came to Amsterdam on vacation, fell in love with it and move out for good a few months after he got back to the US. He had such a great insight and cool perspective of the city, the people, the country, the social norms and its vibe.

We learned lots about house boats on the tour.

VOC Ship

Back side of the Flower Market

Can you spot the smallest house in Amsterdam?

THANKS ALEC!

After our tour, we took the opportunity to do a little sightseeing in the area of where we hopped off the boat tour. Right around the corner were the Tulip museum, Cheese museum, and Cow museum. These museums were pretty much glorified gift shops with tulips, cheese and cow figurines with and option to take a some kind of a tour. We stuck to the gift shop areas and enjoyed all the sights.

HOKIE TULIPS!!

Who doesn't love graffiti

Shopping, walking and exploring let to a need for an afternoon snack and we knew just the place,  Pannenkoekenhuis.

We were shocked when we got there and there wasn't a line wrapped around the building. We quickly learned that even though they were not closed, they were no longer seating people and that we would have to try another day. We were bummed but we had a backup plan. We weren't going to let these guys prevent us from eating Amsterdam pancakes! So we headed to Happy Pig and they did not disappoint.

The evening ended like all vacation evenings should go. We followed Alec's recommendation for a place to grab a beer, picked up famous apple pie at Villa Zeezicht for later that evening, ate dinner at Ramen Ya, wanted around the city until we were so tired all we could do was make it back to our house, eat pie and fall asleep.