Amsterdam Diary:
- Carina Campbell-Welsh
- Aug 14, 2019
- 7 min read
After a delayed flight and several coffee's later we arrived in Amsterdam city allowing us to begin our travels; in the city famously recognised for its leniency on drugs and sex amongst other taboo subjects. What we discovered here, was so much more. In my opinion Amsterdam is a city built for its people, its celebrates freedom and individuality, whilst catering for its citizens. This can be seen through the fact that even the most touristy of attractions still have a homely yet cultural feel. This has been one of my favourite cities that I have experienced and I am now even considering whether I would want to move here for a period of time. My only advice to all you jet setters is BE CAREFUL OF THE BIKES!
Pride:
After quickly getting ready at the hotel and gathering our surroundings, we headed on out to Dam Square where we were met by Amsterdam Pride, so of course we had to investigate and honestly? This was so much fun. Turns out that this was actually me and John's first Pride but I am so ready to go and experience more especially in Scotland as Edinburgh and Glasgow's are supposed to be amazing. This definitely set me up with high expectations for the trip because if being surrounded with so much love and happiness doesn't make you at least a little emotional I don't know what will. Still didn't manage to find myself a wee boyfriend or girlfriend but aw well maybe next time ae?
Sex Museum:
If visiting Amsterdam, you need to visit the Sex Museum to get a photo with the giant penis if for anything. This although was not the highlight of my trip, however I am glad that I am now able to say I have done it as it was an enjoyable yet odd experience. I went into this experience believing that the museum would be more about the biological side of sex which I will tell you now it is not. The museum is very gimmicky and has numerous statues of different sexual positions and even has has animatronic that flashes you on request. This is a fun trip perhaps to do with a group of friends.
Rijks Museum:
This was actually a museum I wasn't sure how mad I would be about as I prefer more contemporary art or something a little more thought provoking than hundreds of paintings of old dead white men (though I still appreciate the sheer talent behind these obviously), however I actually had a really good time here overall. The museum held a few Van Gogh Paintings as you all know is one of my favourite artists of all time and it also is home of the Night's Watch though I couldn't actually comment on that to you as I only saw half of it due to their chosen timing of cleaning which is carried out by a massive machine. Although there was a room filled with art work which was inspired specifically by this piece, which helped me see how inspirational this piece had actually been to many people making me appreciate it a little more.
Stedelijk Museum
Of course I had to use an edgy neon light as my picture for this section, am I right? The Stedelijk Museum is Amsterdam's modern art museum and is well worth the visit as is located in the same area as the Moco, Van Gogh and Rijks Museums. I would suggest giving yourself a couple of hours to complete this museum as there are plenty of rooms and an audio guide if you are interested in learning more about the individual pieces. Plus you will want to have battery in your phone, camera because there are plenty more neon lights that you will want to take hundreds of photos of from all different angles if you are anything like me.
Canal Cruise:
This was something that I had to do whilst in Amsterdam. This provides for a relaxing seventy- five minutes and takes you around the whole of the city. You can also listen to an audio guide on most of the canal trips though me and John decided not to do this and sat outside allowing us to get good photos and take in the sights.
Ice Bar:
The ice bar was one of my personal favourites from my travels here as for starters the price includes three drinks which as we learned prepares you perfectly for any night out. When you
first enter you are in amongst all the other visitors in an ordinary bar like environment and here is where you are given your first cocktail form your own choosing from their menu. In order to receive your drinks throughout the night you are given three tokens each which represent a drink. Then at your given time your group will be called for your turn in the ice bar. Now I will warn you when they say its cold. It's COLD! The temperature estimates around -15 degrees and in hindsight this skirt may not have been the best choice of wear for that day, however the staff do provide you with a coat and gloves as you can see from the photo. Your other two drinks can be claimed from inside the ice bar and you have a choice from numbers shots, juice or a pint which come in glasses made entirely from ice, which is a lovely added extra in my opinion. The price of our ticket also included a photo printed out each from the photographer that goes about inside, so overall I feel this experience is well worth your money and well worth visiting.
Anne Frank's House:
Okay, so I am going to start off by telling you to book tickets in advance because getting tickets to this has been one of my biggest stresses this year. If you're booking around a month ahead of your trip you should be fine, however if you're living the broke like like we were you will need to buy them on the day. Now 20% of the tickets are released on the day of however, they tend to sell out within the first two minutes. This means you need to get into an online queue and the tickets are released at nine o'clock. To put this into perspective John woke up at 7am to get in the online queue and used my Mac and both our phones and we still never got any for that day. It was only on the last day of our trip that we managed to snag us two tickets. Although I can confirm that it is totally worth it. This was perhaps the best and yet saddest experience of the whole holiday. This is also the only museum that I would say the audio guides are essential for as they offer so much interesting information that I wouldn't have known otherwise.
You are also able to go behind the real bookcase that hid them for two years and are all to explore through their bedrooms and living area which is I will warn you, very emotional.
Moco Museum:
The Moco museum I loved as it contains exhibits from Banksy who you all already know I love from my Milan blog when me and John were lucky enough to see some of his work out on loan there. However this is one of the main museums to see his work and I can safely say that I have fallen in love with his thought provoking work all damn over again.
This leopard escaping from a barcode cage was my favourite as the meaning of this is down to debate, it could be consuetude to represent commercialism over the imprisonment of animals or how everything has now been given a price in today's society including "wild" animals which are only in zoo's supposedly to protect them. I personally loved this piece as I continue to think and analyse the piece even now.
The museum also held much of David Arsham's work whom I had never heard of before but very quickly learned that I loved his work and what he was attempting to express through it. The exhibits included his elastic walls which I found interesting as they were left down to the viewers imagination and allowed us to take away from it what we wanted .
Van Gogh Museum:
This is a very popular destination in Amsterdam as you can imagine, so booking tickets to this in advance is essential as you are unable to turn up on the day. This was the last thing we done on our travels here and what a way to spend our final hours can I just say. We were lucky enough to visit when these beautiful sunflowers were on loan to the museum. Although I much prefer newer artists takes on art such as Banksy whom I spoke about earlier, I have fallen in love with the sheer emotion conveyed through Gogh's work. A man a head of his time, and this museum is definitely worth visiting on your travels as you can see his many portraits, his famous field with crows and also even his palette and paints.
Museum of Prostitution:
This museum actually turned out to be one of my favourite activities during my travels to Amsterdam. The museum is a hidden treasure located in the heart of the world famous red light district. The museum was originally a work place for a prostitute, however things took a turn for the worst when she was murdered one night in a case that has never yet been solved by police. This led to the place being turned into a museum in honour of the girl. The automated device provides a tour which takes you through the different rooms, illustrating what it is like inside the real rooms of the red light district. The main rooms are that of a normal bedroom, a luxury bedroom in which a bath is located and a bondage room to cover all basis of what customers may be looking for that night.
Bye for now:
Bye for now Amsterdam, I am already so excited to visit this beautiful city again.
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