June 30 - Amsterdam
We arrived in Amsterdam today after an 8.5-hour direct flight from Calgary. Philippa slept a couple hours on the plane, but Bayne was not so lucky. We took some time at the airport to activate our eSIM cards, which turned out to be a bit more challenging than we expected, likely due to a lack of sleep and being a new process for us, but with iPhones in hand, we made our way into the city and to The Bank Hotel. We knew it would be unlikely that we'd be able to check in early, so we dropped off our bags and headed out to wander the streets.
The Bank Hotel is in a different area of Amsterdam than where we stayed 9 years ago. We found this area is surrounded by many restaurants and bakeries, the latter of which really caught our eye. We stopped to have a toasty for lunch and then picked up some pain au chocolate and other little tasty treats at Petit Gateau. After finding a bench at the side of a canal, we sat and ate them – absolutely perfect!
We wandered some more, reminiscing about the last time we visited and tried to find the little café that we had eaten at before – we remembered it not because of the food, but because it had a café cat that kept us company while we ate. Ultimately, we are confident we found it but didn't see a cat present this time. It is 9 years later, after all.
After another little stop for food at Bake My Day, it was time to check-in. We had splurged on one of the penthouse rooms at the hotel, so we had a lovely view of Amsterdam. The room was very comfortable, and we enjoyed wonderfully long showers (something we hadn't been able to do in Calgary for a few weeks due to strict water restrictions).
We checked in just in time for Bayne to watch the Formula 1 race in Austria, and he even managed to stay awake for most of it. However, after that, he was ready to go to sleep, but Philippa knew that if we fell asleep then, we would wake up in the middle of the night and be starving. We headed out to get some frites and frite sauce – another fond memory of our last visit.
It was a quick trip out for food and then we finally allowed our weary bodies the sleep they were craving.
July 1/2- Amsterdam
This morning, we were off on a day trip outside of Amsterdam. Our tour guide, Pete and 6 other travellers made our way to Zaanse Schans, where we watched cheese and wooden shoe-making demonstrations. We had time to wander the area, view the windmills and shop before driving over one of the large dikes that protect The Netherlands from flooding. Our final stop of the day was in Giethoorn – a lovely little town that is only accessible by boat or foot. We ate lunch at one of the restaurants, had a town tour by boat, and then explored on foot. We returned to Amsterdam exhausted but happy we could see other parts of The Netherlands.
We hadn't made firm plans for our final day in Amsterdam, but Philippa convinced Bayne to go to the Rijksmuseum to see some famous art on display.
July 3 – Amsterdam to Bruges
Today, we travelled by train from Amsterdam to Bruges via Brussels. As we woke up to rain, we changed our plans from walking to the train station to taking an Uber instead. We arrived at the train station very early, but as we hadn't taken trains in Europe for many years, we wanted to give ourselves lots of time to figure out where we needed to go. But everything went smoothly, and we had no issues finding the platform or transferring trains in Brussels. However, we got on the wrong transit bus when we got to Bruges and decided to abandon the plan to take public transit to the Bed & Breakfast, so we took another Uber.
We are staying at Anna9 B&B, and it is amazing! Very few places look just like the picture, but our room here looks just as good as it did on their website. We are staying in the loft, so we can view both the canal and the lovely garden. However, being the loft, we have to go up several flights of stairs to get there, but the spacious room and view are 100% worth it.
Tomorrow: chocolate and Bruges in depth.
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