Amsterdam

canals



tulpen



beer



chocolate



yarn



Safe to say, we liked Amsterdam. After a mild passport panic (we booked the trip two days before the new passport arrived - this is NOT something which is covered by travel insurance so I was a tad jumpy for those two days) we arrived in Amsterdam.

We stayed at this hotel which was super nice and positioned just between the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh museum and the Amsterdam equivalent of Bond Street, so when you're tired of looking at all the beautiful and priceless things behind glass you can wander off and look at some Rembrandts instead (I'm just kidding - though who doesn't love window shopping at Chanel?).

We visited the Philips wing of the Rijksmuseum (the rest is undergoing refurbishment) and the Anne Frank house and the Heineken Experience (which was a bit of a highlight). We also had a glimpse into the proceedings of Dutch academia when we attended Mathieu's defense of his doctoral thesis.

Oh, and I found a yarn shop. I'd had a quick google for yarn shops in Amsterdam before setting out but hadn't got as far as finding out where one would actually be (if I'd found the article on Marie's blog before setting out this would have been much easier). And then we happened on it by accident when heading down a side street back to the tram stop one evening. I made a mental note of the address and managed to manouvre the boyfriend back there between the Anne Frank house and the university aula. After he had extracted a promise that I wouldn't buy Rowan or Jaeger (basically nothing that I could get in England) I went inside to find wall to wall....Rowan and Jaeger. Damn! But wait, there in the corner, Regia sock yarn. Luckily the boyfriend didn't know about Regia (I've not bought it before) and it wasn't really cheating as I've never seen solid colour Regia in the UK. I bought 4 balls, 2 in a subtle varigated denim shade, two in a lovely spring green. It packed up a lot easier than the tulips anyway.