Hi Everyone,
Apologies for the late Day 5 post, you can blame the motion sickness from sailing in the North Sea, but here we are.
Day 5 is the Amsterdam stop. I am so excited to be here, I’ve been here before with two of my cousins several years ago, but cruising into Amsterdam was on my bucket list.
We were up early for breakfast and we were still sailing into Amsterdam along the canal, we even got to sail past Grand Central station. We docked at around 10 and gained clearance at 10:30. A benefit of being in a Haven suite is that they escort you down to the gangway to disembark before everybody else which means we didn’t have to wait too long.
Once we were disembarked we were greeted with a local folk band before we walked to Grand Central Station which took only about 10/15 minutes which is perfect if you’re cruising in.
Grand Central Station is beautiful, we walked underneath the station to get across to the centre from the canal side and there were so many shops. What I’ve found with Amsterdam is that their main public transport areas are more like shopping centres, if you’ve flown into Amsterdam Schiphol Airport you’ll understand.
Once we got onto the main side of the station we started walking up Damrak which is the Main Street that connects the station with Dam Square and the Royal Palace. It’s lined with shops ranging from souvenir shops to the explicit museums and there’s also a lot of hotels / hostels as well as restaurants and cafes (the normal kind).
Once we got to Dam Square, my mum says to me ‘what building is this?’ And my response was ‘this is their palace mum’. She was very unimpressed with how the palace looks, it blends in very well within its surroundings and you could mistake it for any building. But the give away is all the security guards and railings surrounding the outside of the palace.
As you may know by now, I love giving people a bit of background to the buildings I’ve visited. To explain why the palace looks like any other building it’s because the building was only transformed into the palace in the 19th Century. Before it became the palace it was actually the town hall.
Once we had some photos taken in Dam Square we decided to explore the side streets. We walked our way towards the Red Light District area, the most touristy area in Amsterdam which they are trying to make it less concentrated in tourists. On the way we stopped by a rubber duck shop which my son was fascinated by, also we had to take a picture for my auntie 
We found some beautiful photo spots on some bridges and side streets before reaching the Red Light District which isn’t very lively during the day. It’s a very different atmosphere in the evening which we didn’t experience this time but my children are still young (even though they were both in the stroller having a little nap). At the end of this district we reached Oude Kerk.
Oude Kerk is the oldest building in Amsterdam which towers over the Red Light District area. It’s a ticketed entry which costs €10 per adult and children under 13 years is free. We didn’t go in but people say it’s a church that’s really worth visiting and you can climb up the tower to have a view of the oldest part of Amsterdam.
On our way to lunch we walked along more side street where we saw the stereotypical Bulldog Coffee Shop. In Amsterdam these legal Coffee Shops are part of the experience, if you’re of legal age of course, to experience the legal use of cannabis. In these coffee shops you’ll be able to purchase cannabis in various different forms. You’re probably wondering why on earth have they created legal cannabis coffee shops in Amsterdam, they do this because it’s safer, they have their own legislation to state that the products must be up to standards which makes it safe to use as it has no impurities unlike other countries.
For lunch we decided to have Chinese dim sum. You’re probably wondering why on earth are we in the Netherlands having dim sum but when we did our research the dim sum in Amsterdam is really good and tasty. We did our research and Oriental City was the best option for us so we booked ourselves a table for 2pm, we weren’t sailing out of Amsterdam till 7pm. If you are after a dim sum lunch I would highly recommend this restaurant, even though the prices were on the more expensive side, the portions were big. We had 10 different types of dim sum and a plate of noodles which was enough for us, if not too much! We were so full afterwards, this restaurant isn’t far from Dam Square.
After lunch we decided to wander over to Anne Frank’s House which is further out of the city but in walkable distance. It’s in another area of Amsterdam that has lots of shops, cafes and restaurants as well as hotels. We didn't go inside the House as we couldn’t even get tickets. If you want to go to Anne Frank’s House I would highly recommend you book your tickets well in advance as they sell out really quickly. I’ve been inside several years ago and it seems that it’s changed again so it’s on my list to go again when the children are older and we do a city break.
After a few photos we made our way to the famous flower market. There’s a Starbucks next to the flower market so I bought myself a much needed Pumpkin Spice Latte to drink while we had a look around the flower market. There are sooo many different types of tulips that you can buy at this market as well as other flowers. Each stall had different tulip bulbs and also they had these unusual but pretty tulip vases.
After exploring the flower market for more than an hour we decided to leisurely wander back to the cruise ship. We found another rubber duck store that had a really cute bathtub set up in the back that was available for anybody to use and take photos. We managed to get some really cute photos of my little girl who seemed really happy just playing in the bathtub.
Further down from this store was the Instagram famous Van Wonderen Stroopwafels. I’ve seen this store all over influencer pages on Instagram but the queue was super long and I was still full from my latte. Here they make fresh stroopwafels and you can add all sorts of toppings onto them like caramel or chocolate chips.
On our way back we also found the Lego store, this had a moving windmill all made out of Lego. Impressive right. In the window they also had a really cute flower display also made from Lego.
I love my cheese and Henri Willig is a famous brand in Holland. Of course I bought some cheese to bring home as it was so tasty last time. If you just want to try the cheese they have samplers of all their cheeses in store so make sure you give it a try. The last time I bought this brand of cheese I bought a Lavender goat cheese, yes it was purple in colour, which sounds absolutely disgusting but it was actually really tasty, it did look like soap though.
We didn’t leave Amsterdam till 7:30 in the evening which meant we watched the sailing out of Amsterdam at night. It was absolutely beautiful.
I had showered and was getting ready for bed when I decided to put the bridge camera on on the tv and to my surprise we were going through a lock. When I looked into the Amsterdam lock it’s actually called Ijmuiden lock. Apparently authorities say it’s the world's largest canal lock. It’s 500-metre long and 70-meter wide which replaced the smaller, nearly 100-year-old one at Ijmuiden, a small port city connecting the North Sea Canal to the port of Amsterdam.
The next stop was Zeebrugge which I am currently writing the blog for.
Until next time, stay tuned.