Every year, on Christmas Eve, WOW Air puts their spring flights on sale, 50% off the regular price. Last year, I went to Barcelona. This year, I decided to go to Amsterdam, knowing that Belgium and Germany were a short train ride away and several low-budget airlines flew out of Schiphol. These options would give me the chance to split my two-week vacation between two countries similarly to last fall where I went to London and Milan. This time, I also brought my mother with me so if you’re looking for an Amsterdam itinerary suitable for a senior citizen, look no further.
Transportation in Amsterdam
Amsterdam is a very compact city. You can pretty much walk everywhere. But we did purchase a 24-hour ticket towards the end of our trip to move faster between sights. The tram system is easy to understand but it’s pretty slow in my opinion. Unless you’re going from one end of a line to another, it’d be faster to walk. Watch out for the bikes!
Where to Stay in Amsterdam
We stayed at Hotel Iron Horse, a quaint hotel that used to be the police horse station of Amsterdam. It is a 10-minute walk from the Museumplein and a 15-minute walk from the Foodhallen. There is a grocery store next door but no fridges in the rooms.
Communication
Normally, I would load up my Always Online Wireless pre-paid SIM. However, there’s wifi pretty much everywhere in the city. You can connect to most museum’s free wifi by just standing outside and the public squares also have free wifi, not to mention all the restaurants and bars. It was the first time I could consistently post to IG Stories without worrying about my data cap.
Amsterdam Itinerary
Day 1: Free Walking Tour
We landed in Amsterdam a bit after 10 AM. The good thing about traveling in Schengen countries is that we had cleared customs earlier in Iceland so we basically walked off the place straight onto the bus to our hotel. Most touristic guides recommend taking the train to city but if your hotel is in the Museumplein area, you can just take Bus #397 for €6.
We arrived about an hour later to the hotel and luckily, housekeeping had just finished our room so we were able to check in early and wash up before going out again.
Usually, when I travel to Europe, I have a list of sights I’d like to visit and I try to check off as many on the list as possible. This time, I had a list of restaurants/food stalls to try out. The first one was Vleminckx Fries, a little hole in the wall serving fries in a cone with 52 sauce options. I went with boring options, choosing mustard and ketchup while my Mom picked spicy ketchup. I would definitely come back to try out different sauces. Although there is a long line, it moves at a fast pace. You won’t be waiting long for delicious crunchy fries.
We continued on to Dam Square where we were scheduled to meet our walking tour guide. I mentioned before that Amsterdam is a compact city. Well, I grossly overestimated the time it would take us to eat our fries and walked to Dam Square as we showed up 45 minutes early. We took the opportunity to just sit down and watch people go about their day. Like Piazza del Duomo in Milan, Parvis Notre Dame in Paris, and Piazza San Marco in Venice, Dam Square is where the pigeons congregate. For a small fee, you can get some grain from individuals walking around with little boxes of grain and use it to attract pigeons and take a pic for the ‘gram. I don’t really like pigeons so I never partake in this activity. My mother was very eager until I told her that the grain people expected money in return. Other than the pigeons milling about, there were breakdancers putting on a show and living statues performers all waiting for pictures and tips.
Our tour guide from Free Walking Tour Amsterdam showed up right on time. As a matter of fact, three guides showed up since so many people had booked the tour. Our group was headed up by a nice gentleman named Evert and off we went to discover the Old Centre. The walk was very informative, touching on Dutch colonialism (the Dutch East India Company as evil as the British East India Company), Amsterdam architecture (the narrower the house, the less property taxes they have to pay), coffee shops and smartshops (one sells marijuana, the other sells “magic mushrooms”), and of course prostitution (the average “session” lasts 8.5 minutes). We also had a sample of Dutch cheese which was okay I guess – I am not really a cheese person.
The tour ended where it began and we left the Old Centre in search of dinner. We decided to go to the Foodhallen which wasn’t too far from our hotel. Although it has been criticized as a place for tourist and hipsters, we really enjoyed our experience there. It took us a while to settle on a cuisine – we ended up getting Indian food – and you have to be eagle-eyed to find a place to sit but the vibe was good and the food was delicious. A good start to our trip.
Day 2: Van Gogh Museum, Albert Cuyp Market
The following day, we visited the Van Gogh Museum (€18/person). We showed up a bit after 9 am and although there was no line-up to purchase tickets, there was already a decent crowd inside. The Sunflowers painting was one of the most popular, with a constant flow of admirers crowding it. By the time we left around 12:30 pm, moving around the various rooms was becoming difficult due to the amount of people so I suggest going around opening time.
For lunch, we wanted to go to the Avocado Show. However, when the hostess told us that the waiting list was 3 hours, we decided to look for another option. While looking at the map, I realized that the Albert Cuyp Market wasn’t too far and off we went. There, we found a local seafood store called Volendammer Vishandel that also sells seafood-based snacks to go. My mother took a herring sandwich while I opted for fried calamari rings (I think that what it was). It was absolutely delicious though we knew we couldn’t go wrong when we realized that the line of people waiting to order was 90% local.
We continued to wander in the market. When we stumbled onto the Poffertjes stall, I knew I had to have some. Poffertjes are delicious Dutch mini-pancakes. They are normally served with butter and sugar but you can add all kinds of toppings for an extra fee. A few stalls down from the poffertjes was the Original Stroopwaffels stand, another delicacy on my list of things to try. Although the stroopwaffel was good, I found it too sweet and much preferred the poffertjes.
After lunch, we returned to the hotel to nap. In the evening, we went to the iamsterdam sign, hoping that the morning crowd had thinned out. Although there were a lot less people, we didn’t quite have the sign to ourselves. We returned to Foodhallen for the second night in a row to have dinner, this time we had Chinese food and more fried seafood.
Day 3: Anne Frank House, Canal Cruise
I had pre-booked tickets to the Anne Frank House (€10/person) two months before our trip so our schedule on that day was pretty much dictated by that visit. At this point in our trip, I was very sick and was craving hot chocolate to warm me up and soothe my aching throat. On our way to the Anne Frank House, we stumbled upon a small restaurant called Bistro Bij ons. There, I ordered a hot chocolate and poffertjes. Although I felt a little better, I did not want to leave the warmth and comfy chairs of that place. Alas I had no choice since our Anne Frank tickets were time-stamped.
The Anne Frank visit went about as well as you might expect. It was a very sobering experience. Although it was crowded, no one really spoke. Everyone listened to the provided audioguide and went through each room wordlessly. I was glad that the only other activity I had planned for that day was a boat tour because I don’t think we would have been able to handle another museum visit.
It was nice to have some time to decompress after visiting the Anne Frank House. Our boat tour was booked with Those Dam Boat Guys (€25/person) and the meetup point wasn’t far from the Anne Frank House. So we walked around the neighborhood for a bit and then stopped at Cafe Wester where I ordered another hot chocolate this time with bitterballen. The hot chocolate was great once again while the bitterballen was decent. I imagine that it’s one of those snacks that you eat mindlessly with a cold beer because I wasn’t very impressed. Ajax was playing SC Heerenveen on TV and it was entertaining enough to raise my spirits.
One of the Dam Boat Guys captain came to pick us up at Cafe Wester where everyone was told to meet and then took us to the departure point where another captain would actually give us the tour. The boat tour was pretty entertaining. Unlike most tours that take on 20+ passengers where you listen to an audioguide or a monotone human guide, Those Damn Boat Gus tours are limited to 10 passengers in an informal BYOD setting where you’re welcomed to eat, drink, smoke, and share with others. Although the captain dished out the usual tour info about Amsterdam’s canals and their history, no topic was off-limits when it came to our questions. We learned about canal maintenance, Holland’s education system (our fellow tour mates who were American were very curious about tuition costs and student loans), and transgender prostitutes. It’s always a sad moment when tours like this come to an end, as just when everyone is finally settling in and getting used to each other, it’s over. If I ever go back to Amsterdam, I’ll probably book this tour again, just for the company.
Day 4: NEMO Science Museum
On our last full day in Amsterdam, we spent most of the morning and early afternoon at the NEMO Science Museum (€16.5/person). I had a blast over there. Although the museum is mostly targeted at kids, there are plenty of things to do for curious adults. Maybe you want to go back to childhood and put yourself inside of a soap bubble. Maybe you want to save the Earth from falling asteroids. Or maybe you’ll get hit with a wave of nostalgia and step on the DDR machines. You can do all that and more at NEMO. There is also a demonstration called Chain Reaction that takes place several times throughout the day. Just think of falling dominoes on a large scale and you get the picture. NEMO wasn’t originally on my list of activities. I honestly did not expect to have as much fun as I did and was so glad we had followed our boat tour guide’s recommendation.
We spent hours at the Science Museum. We had no other plans for the rest of the day. I originally wanted to go to the A’DAM Lookout and get on the over-the-edge swing but since my mother wasn’t interested, we spent the rest of the afternoon just wandering around the old Centre.
Final Thoughts
Although my sickness left me exhausted at the end of each day, I enjoyed my time in Amsterdam. I would definitely return to check some things off the list such as the Rijksmuseum, the A’DAM Lookout, and an Ajax game. I think five days is the perfect amount of time to enjoy the city. If we had stayed longer, we probably would’ve taken day trips to other cities.
Trip Breakdown
Total Spent: ~$549
Flight: $394 CAD / person
Transportation: €19.50 / person
Activities: €79.50 / person
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