I have a love for the city of Amsterdam.  So when my Dutchie suggested staying for a weekend for his birthday, I couldn’t say no.

Amsterdam is seriously full of so many things to do and see.  You can not get bored in this city.

Hundreds of museums to choose from, boat trips, tastings, bike rentals, you name it, Amsterdam has it.

Last year I was showed something awesome and I want to share it with everyone.  I was surprised that I had not come across this myself, especially how often I have been traveling over, but better late than never.

The Holland pass is great, you can buy different size packages and those tickets can be used to get into attractions for whole family.  If you haven’t come across this before, you can thank me later.

http://nl.hollandpass.com/

Our weekend plans were to visit family, relax and enjoy a drink or four.  So looking at what was to offer, we picked the Artis Zoo and we made full use of the alcohol based attractions… After all, we are young! 🙂

We found a great deal at a lovely pop up hotel which was just a 10 minute walk from the train station, called Good Hotel.  I think it should get renamed to the ‘Cozy Hotel’ because it was tiny.

Although it was a tiny room that didn’t even have a TV, those beds made up for everything the room lacked because they where so comfortable.  The plan was not to be in the hotel room much the whole weekend, so there was no complaints really.  One more thing to mention what I loved about the hotel was it’s great view.

We were incredibly lucky with the weather the whole weekend. Dutch summers are quite unpredictable and sometimes the humidity is too much for my Scottish body to cope.

After dropping our stuff off and freshening up our first stop in our weekend was ofcourse alcohol related!  We headed straight to the glorious Heineken museum.  When in Rome right?!

I would highly recommend the Heineken museum to anyone, even if you do not like beer.  The museum is really interesting and interactive.  You get to hear about the ingredients which they use, watch all the Heineken advents from the past and you even get turned into a bottle of beer. Oh and they give away free beers, what more could you want from a museum?

After walking through the museum and ending up in the bar for the last of the free drinks, I had a little dance and finished off our beers then we decided the night was still young and we headed to the Bols museum.

I have been to the Bols museum before and I will be honest… It’s too much reading for me and I’d rather have people explain at least some of the things on display.  But I was now in the mood for some cocktails, so Bols museum seemed like the best place to go because they have such a cool bar at the end.

Bols museum is located near Rijksmuseum and only a 10 minute walk from the Heineken museum.  I would love to share some cool photos of inside the museum, but I totally forgot.  I was just too focused getting to the bar at the end.  But I suppose this is impressive.

Like the Heineken museum, you get some free drinks.  You get to pick two shots of your choice and one free cocktail, but after that you can buy drink tokens to get more cocktails, woohoo!

When we thought our night could not get any better when walking to the Bols museum, we noticed there was a festival going on at Museumplein.  After a look online we found out it was the Uitmarkt.  A free festival were they even had the likes of Kenny B performing and a silent disco! I have never been to a silent disco before and I had to be dragged away, otherwise I could have danced all night long. It was the perfect way to end the night.

After a lovely sleep in the super comfortable beds, we had to get up early because we were going to the Artis Zoo with some of my Dutchie’s family.  I was surprisingly hungover free but the same could not be said for my better half.  Poor lad!

We made the super smart decision to walk from our hotel to the zoo as the weather was perfect but gosh we soon regretted it!  It easily took 45 minutes, which may not sound bad, but when you’re feeling fragile the 45 minutes were torture.

After the long walk and nearly getting lost we arrived at Artis, we really couldn’t have picked a better day to go!  The sun was shining and it was the perfect temperature, not too hot and not too cold.

I would highly recommend going to Artis Zoo if you get the chance!

After having a lovely time at the zoo and having lunch, we said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel for some chill time before we decided where to go for dinner.  My Dutchie and me are both laid back when it comes to making decisions so sometimes we really hit a stale mate if neither of us fancy anything specific.

But we hit jackpot when we decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe.  I have only ever been once before and it was a while ago, so I wasn’t sure what to expect but my god was it good!  I still dream about the food and would happily just take a trip to Amsterdam just to eat there!

Our Saturday night was not as crazy as the night before.  No serious drinking or stumbling across a free festival, just eating until we couldn’t eat anymore then going back to the hotel with serious food babies.

Before we knew it, it was Sunday and we needed to check out.  There was only one last thing I really wanted to experience before we headed back to Eindhoven and that was visiting the Icebar!  It was something I had seen other people do and I just loved the idea! Standing in below freezing temperatures in a room made of ice? Alcohol?  Okay take my money.

Before you go into the giant freezer you get to pick a free cocktail!  I am a classy gal so naturally I went for sex on the beach…

Had to drink them pretty quickly because you can’t take them inside which was rather annoying, but next you have the pleasure of putting on some grubby wet thick jackets and gloves.

My phone did not like the cold and started playing up and completely died, so I unfortunately do not have any more photos.

We never stayed too long in the Icebar, it was too cold and the wet clothes just did not make for a good time.

Feeling a little tipsy after the Icebar we decided to stop off somewhere to eat and sit in the sun too warm up.  We have found an amazing cafe which left me with my best memory of the whole weekend. Not because we were sitting down for a long period of time, nor because I love to watch the world go by, nor was it because I was getting a little suntan. It was purely for the picture below… I have not seen this on a menu ever in The Netherlands and I have not had this for too long!!

I was one happy girl and could happily go home now after our amazing weekend in Amsterdam!

Amsterdam holds a special place in my heart and it never fails to excite and impress me every time I am there.

See you next time Amsterdam x

 N x