Amsterdam: Day 2

Our second day in Amsterdam was a productive one! We woke up around 8:00 am to meet up with our friend Lauren, who had been with her dad the night before. Our first stop was the Anne Frank House. Going there was a truly amazing and moving experience. It is definitely something that everyone should put on their bucket lists to see. The museum is extremely well done and it’s so strange and eerie to see the space that the Frank family lived in. There is no longer any furniture in the house but Anne’s room is covered in the original wallpaper that is posted over with pictures that she chose to put up. Very moving space, a must-see.

Statue of Anne Frank

Second, we went to a café for lunch, where Alex and I shared a delicious and traditional-Dutch pea soup and a chicken avocado sandwich (sans bread for me). We walked through the shopping district, where I happened to buy a hat that makes me look absolutely silly but that I LOVE. After that, we all walked to the museum campus in Amsterdam, similar to the museum campus in Chicago. We decided on the Van Gogh museum, which was amazing. The museum was so well-done; as you walked through it, it told the story of the artist’s life and described each painting, which I liked because then I actually knew what I was looking at. The museum also featured artists that influenced or were influenced by Van Gogh. Very cool place!

Yummy lunch!

Shopping district

View of the non-foggy canal. Really quite beautiful!

Van Gogh Museum

After walking back to our hostel, we decided to do a progressive dinner, which ended up taking about three hours since we walked around the city between each place (we found the second Christmas plaza along the way!). We started with some hot chocolate at a little pub, then to a Mexican restaurant for nachos (I know, strange combination), then to an Irish pub for the yummiest potato leek soup EVER. Oh, and some fries. The pub was so cozy and warm and Christmas-y. I just loved it. Such a great way to end our second day.

If you’ve never been, you have to go. I feel like all people think about when they think of Amsterdam is that “everything is legal there.” But the city is so much more than that- it might be my favorite place I’ve ever been in Europe. It’s absolutely beautiful, there is so much to do and see, the people are friendly, the food is great- I have absolutely no complaints. I love Amsterdam.