Random Amsterdam pics

I believe this will wrap up my posts about Amsterdam. These are just a few pictures I'd like to share:

Seen in a souvenir shop

Bear-shaped crêpes, anyone?
(This wasn't in a souvenir shop, but an everyday discount shop)

KLM(the Dutch airline company)'s captain
Salute Captain Bear, everyone! :P
(this one was at the airport, of course!)

I don't know what it is about this rabbit, but there were a whole lot of items featuring it in a souvenir shop (an I amsterdam shop!) There was the rabbit's name on the items as well, but I've forgotten it *sigh*

Steep stairs

The hostel we stayed in in Amsterdam was called Hotel Amigo. It's pretty strategic, we only had to take a tram from the Central Station. But the instructions they gave weren't very clear; they said to get out at Zoo, but the stop was actually called Plantage Kerklaan (the name of the street) I missed the stop because of that, and I had to re-take the tram in the opposite direction to get there! There is a zoo near the hotel, that's why they also called the stop Zoo.

My first impression about the hostel was this: The stairs are steep!

See?

It was a good thing my bag was quite light, or else I would have had a lot of difficulty going up or down the stairs!

The breakfast was included in the price, and each morning we would have two pieces of toast (freshly toasted for us) and a cup of coffee or tea (freshly made for us as well). There was butter, jam, etc on the table. There weren't many tables, though, so if a lot of people were to arrive at the same time, they would have to wait a bit.

(We could probably ask for more toast/refills, but we weren't sure so we didn't try. After all, it was enough)

All in all, it was nothing fancy, but a nice convenient place to stay. Very close to the tram station (and not very far from the town centre either, since we could walk anywhere in Amsterdam :P)

Maoz Falafel

Remember the vegetarian shop I mentioned? It's called Maoz Falafel.

In fact we had already seen a lot of shops (mostly kebab shops) with falafel on the menu. But we didn't know what it was...on the photos they looked like meatballs.

So one night we decided to go into this falafel shop...we didn't quite know what it was, so we were looking at the menu, trying to decide whether to try it or not (luckily there weren't too many customers) The guy in the shop probably found it obvious that we were new there, so he asked us whether we wanted him to explain stuff to us. So he explained... that he would put the falafel in the pita bread for us, and we would put in whatever salad (veggies, actually, there was coleslaw, tomatoes, cauliflower...and many others) and/or sauce we wanted. And we could "refill" the salad/sauce as many times as we wanted. But... we were still missing a key piece of information.

"What is falafel?"

And he told us that it was chickpeas. He even showed us a jar of chickpeas at the end of the counter. Guess we aren't the only ones who don't know what falafel is made of? Hehe, I hope so!

Here's a half eaten falafel sandwich (I don't know what else to call it):

The brownish one is the whole falafel, the greenish (light green) one is a falafel that's been bitten into.
The dark green and red parts are sauce, and I think you should have no trouble making out the salad!

It was good! The falafel was fried, I think, so the exterior was quite crispy.

Then while eating, I happened to turn the paper (he handed us the pita bread in a paper pocket, as you can see in the photo) around to look at it:


Huh? It's in Paris?? I've got to go looking for it!
(I tried going to the website but it's not working)

Only in Amsterdam

Er...I'm not sure whether that's true though :P

Cannabis pops!

I saw these on the counter in a souvenir shop. I was wondering whether they really put cannabis inside, so I took a look at the ingredients (written at the bottom of the container's label). Turns out the main ingredient was corn syrup, with some hemp extract and colouring.

I bought one!

Tasted horrible.

So don't worry, I won't be smoking cannabis. :P

Munching away on vlaamse frites

In Amsterdam you can find loads of restaurants serving international food (the most common being Argentinian and Indonesian restaurants). But it is so hard to find one with Dutch food. The most typical Dutch thing we could find was this:

vlaamse frites
There are several types of sauce, not only mayonnaise.

Okay, so it doesn't look very appetizing. But it's because I forgot to take a photo before we started eating. This is vlaamse frites, and there are lots of shops selling it. You can see people walking around with a cone of fries in their hand, munching away. By the way, this one (with the yellow cone) is supposed to be the "number one" vlaamse frites in Amsterdam, but we found that another shop sold better ones. (at the other shop the fries were crispier on the outside) So don't be fooled...don't buy from Manneken Pis (that's the name of the shop), buy from another shop further down Damrak! (that's the main street leading away from the Central Station)

Each time we bought fries, we went to the Dam square to sit down and eat it.

The first night we looked for a Dutch restaurant, we only found two near Leidseplein, and neither appealed to us much (too expensive, and not much choice of dishes). So we ended up in an Italian restaurant :P

grilled salmon

The main dish was good! The fish was grilled just nice, and the potatoes were crispy on the exterior. The soup as appetizer was good as well, and they gave us bread with garlic butter to make our own garlic bread.

with our tomato soup and garlic bread as appetizer

tiramisu as dessert

On Friday before leaving, we finally went to try Dutch dishes. It wasn't a Dutch speciality restaurant though, there just happened to be some. I tried a Dutch beefsteak; it was good but it's not like there was any special flavour that can't be found elsewhere.


One thing we noticed in the Dutch restaurant: they didn't give bread, unlike French restaurants (or that Italian restaurant we went to) Instead they gave fries. I guess potatoes are more important than bread in Holland...

One night we didn't quite know what to eat and ended up in a vegetarian shop. It turned out to be surprisingly good! I shall reserve that for another post, though ;)

Two fishing villages: Volendam and Marken

After leaving Zaanse Schans, we went to a Dutch farmhouse where cheese is made. We listened to an explanation about how cheese is made (which was less interesting than the clog-making explanation 'cos there was no demonstration to go with it this time), then went into their cheese shop where they let us taste different types of cheese. Besides the natural cow's cheese, there was cheese with herbs, with garlic, and even with chilli. I couldn't differentiate the different cheeses very well; even the chilli one didn't taste that different as first, you only taste the chilli when you've finished a piece.

Then there were goat's and sheep's cheese. I had already tried goat's cheese before in France, and I hated the strong taste. The goat's cheese smelt (and tasted) less strong, though I still didn't like it (it's less bad, that's all). The sheep's cheese, on the other hand, tasted surprisingly creamy. There was also smoked cheese that looks like a (fat) sausage when it's uncut. The outside had that smoked taste we usually get on ham, so I kinda liked that. ("kinda" is the key word :P)

Hidayah bought one of the natural-flavour cheese, but since I'm not really a cheese person, I didn't buy any.

The room where we heard our explanation had cheese lined up against the wall. The cheese sold in the shop there were smaller, though. I think the bigger ones are only bought by cheese shops where they cut out the right amount when you want to buy it (fromage à la coupe)

The shop doesn't only sell cheese; it also sells other cheese-related stuff such as cheese knives and a kind of mustard sauce (I think they eat it with cheese, we could try it as well). During the cheese-making explanation, they showed us a cheese knife and a cheese grater, both of which could be bought in the shop. And I saw this propped up among the wares.

They also sell it!

After that, we went to Volendam (the farmhouse is quite close to Volendam). The bus dropped us off and our guide walked us to the pier to show us where the boat was waiting. Then we had some free time to walk on our own before the boat's time of departure.

The bottom right photo was taken from the boat before we left.

leaving Volendam behind

heading towards Marken
On the right is the part that connects Marken to the mainland.

I can’t remember everything the tour guide said about Marken, partly because I was feeling pretty sleepy at that time (she explains stuff to us in the bus on the way to each place). From what I remember, it was an island with saltwater surrounding it, and its inhabitants were fishermen. Then, “something” happened and the saltwater turned to freshwater (I’m quite blur about what that “something” was) and instead of herring (I think that was the fish she mentioned) the fishermen started fishing eel. But there were less eels, so less jobs, so they had to go to Amsterdam to look for jobs. Now the island is connected to the mainland, so it’s become a peninsula.

Oh well, something like that :P

That’s all I know about Marken... If you really want to know more, I’m sure the Internet will yield some answers ;)

arriving in Marken

Marken is really small...we had a walking tour there, I guess it was because buses couldn't get through the narrow lanes! To prove how small it is, here's a signboard there (Hidayah mentioned it to me, or else I wouldn't have noticed)


On the left, you have kerk (church), museum, ..., bibliotheek (library). You have a hotel in the middle, and on the right, parkeerterrein (which I guess is a parking lot) and busstation. None of them (the church, the hotel...) have names, which means that there's only one of each in the whole town!

After the walking tour, we set off back to Amsterdam, passing by Monnickendam. The guide explained more things to us on the way back, but I was quite sleepy, so I probably missed some details. I remember the landscape being a "water, water, everywhere" one (something like what we saw on the way to Zaanse Schans, except that there was more water), and it seems that a big percentage of Holland (50%, I think she said) is below sea-level, so they have to pump water constantly to avoid flooding.

Clog-making in Zaanse Schans

On the way to Zaanse Schans, the first stop in our excursion, we could see the Dutch countryside. It was more or less like this:


Lots of water, that's what the guide said. She said that it rains often in Holland, luckily it didn't rain much when we were there...there were only a few raindrops when we were walking in Amsterdam.

Upon arriving in Zaanse Schans, we went straight to the clog-maker. There was a part of the shop with machines to make clogs. According to the guy who explained it to us (you'll see him later ;) ) with these machines a clog can be made in 5 minutes, which he went on to prove. (my first and last photos of him making the clog are at 3:04pm and 3:08pm respectively!)

So here's how a clog is made:

The block of wood he is holding is the one he's going to use to make the clog. It's poplar wood.
(In front of him there were blocks of wood like tree trunks as seats, but they were filled up so we went around to the side to be able to see. Then he said that there were seats in front, so we went there and got a first-class view ;) )

The first machine is used to sculpt the exterior of the clog. On the right is a piece of wood that is already shaped, and the piece of metal above it follows its contours and so the blade on the left follows its movements and cuts the new piece of wood accordingly. The two pieces of wood are rotated in a helicoidal motion so that every part of the wood is sculpted.
(at least that's what I understood from my first-class seat :P)

The second machine uses the same method to sculpt the interior. You can see the finished clog on the left. But this time it isn't fully automatic...

...he has to move the clogs and the blade manually.

And then he completes the clog by hand.
(I like this guy, while he was cutting off the ends of the wood he said "I can even do your nails if you like" lol)

I'm sure you're wondering what this is for. No, he wasn't trying to inflate the clog. He was showing us that they use fresh wood to make the clogs. After he blew into it, water came out of the toe-end of the clog. He said that the clog is air-dried for four days. (at least I think he said four :P)

The clog he made was a child's size, and here he's showing us his. To choose our size, we need to be able to slip a finger between our heel and the clog.

Later we saw another guy explaining the clog-making to another group of visitors; Hidayah said that it probably depends on which language they needed. Our guy used English, Spanish and Italian, which were the languages used in our excursion group.

There were a lot of clogs for sale, and we tried some on. There were also clog decorations all about the shop.


And guess what else we can use clogs for?

I'm not sure whether it's a real lamp or just a decoration...

After the visit to the clog-maker, we had free time to walk about and see the windmills on our own. We had just enough time to see the windmills, but couldn't take the time to walk about leisurely. I heard the Spanish-speaking people on the excursion saying poco poco tiempo amongst them, so I suppose that they found that they felt the same way.
(my limited Spanish includes these words: poco=little/few, tiempo=time)

So after all the indoor photos, this is Zaanse Schans, the outdoors:

some houses

and the windmills!

Thanks to Hidayah for the clog-making photos; with photos from both our cameras I was able to reconstruct the whole process!

Flowers, flowers everywhere!

First stop: Keukenhof!


We bought a ticket for 19€ at the tourist information centre in Amsterdam (near Amsterdam Centraal, the central station) which included the bus ride from Leidseplein (a square in Amsterdam) to Keukenhof (and back, of course) and the garden entrance fee (the entrance fee alone is 13.50€). We had to take the tram (or walk) to Leidseplein on our own and take a bus to Schipol airport, then another bus from Schipol to Keukenhof.

There are already a lot of photos of this garden all over the internet, so I shall only put photos with me in them! (this way they'll be unique :P)



There was a big pair of wooden shoes on one of the garden lanes, and this giant one in a square:

Is it just me or does it look like we're driving?

Unfortunately it was quite cold while we were there (it was especially because of the wind). But it was quite sunny, so the photos came out okay :) At one time when it started getting warmer, we spotted an ice-cream stand and decided to get ourselves some Swirls. I don't know if they have it elsewhere; it's ice cream with fruit pieces (really chunks of fruit!) and topping that they swirl to mix it all up.

Me and my Swirl

I asked to add the topping (20 cents only) after the waitress had swirled it, so when she said she had to swirl it again, I told her there was no need. After all, it looks nice on top as well ;)

But, after eating the ice-cream, it wasn't so sunny any more and we started feeling cold again...so we pretty much welcomed the opportunity to go into the greenhouses! (at least I think they're greenhouses; they aren't green but it's indoors)

There was this living room setting where we can take photos...turns out that there is from Holland with love written at the back. I didn't notice it until my friend told me...


And to wrap up this post, here are some more flowers!

Where did I go?

Now you know! (I didn't buy the hat, I just tried it on outside a shop)

More precisely, I went to Amsterdam.

Frankly, there's not much to see in Amsterdam if you don't like museums. Hidayah and I didn't go into a single museum (though we did consider going to Madame Tussaud's); our time in Amsterdam was spent walking around. It's a nice town to walk in, I really liked it even though I'm unable to say what I liked! :P

We used the public transport as well. Trams are the best way to get around, and if you see something interesting you can just walk there later. The system can be a bit confusing until you've tried it...then you'll see that it's really quite simple! I searched a lot on the internet for information about the public transport in Amsterdam, but the only information that kept coming up was that there were strip-cards, and the number of strips needed for a journey is the number of zones you cross plus one. (if you stay in the same zone, it means you cross one zone, so you need two strips) The used strips are stamped either by the conductor or in a machine.

This information is very clear, but how many strips will I be using? The problem is that there are hardly any maps showing the public transport zones clearly! (or the tram lines, come to think of it) So now I shall tell you: In Amsterdam there is ONE zone. The other zones are in greater Amsterdam, but tourists usually don't go that far out of Amsterdam.

The good thing about this strip-card system is that one card can be used by as many people as you like, provided that the right amount of strips are stamped. So Hidayah and I shared one 45-strip card. I wanted to take a photo of it (with all the stamps on it) before leaving Amsterdam, but forgot :/ Luckily Hidayah still has the ticket and will be sending me a photo :D So I shall add it later!

Edit: I just added the photos of the strip-card we used (thanks Dayah!)

Each stamp has the zone (5700 for Centrum, the centre of Amsterdam), the date and the time on it. After stamping, you can use the public transport for a certain period of time, which depends on how many strips you stamp. (for two strips it's one hour)

We spent three days in Amsterdam, arriving on Tuesday and leaving on Friday. On Wednesday we went to Keukenhof, the famous tulip garden outside Amsterdam. That was the main reason we wanted to go to Amsterdam, and also why we could only go during the April holidays and not during Christmas or winter break...the garden is only open from March to May!

On Thursday we decided to go on a planned excursion. It was a trip to Zaanse Schans to see a clog-maker and windmills, then to Volendam and Marken, two fishing villages. These places are situated outside of Amsterdam, so it's not that easy to go there on our own. The excursion cost 31€, pretty expensive but definitely worth it if you want to visit these places anyway! There was a visit to a farmhouse where cheese is made and a boat-ride included. But more about these trips in another post, that way my posts won't be too long!

(None of those trips took up the whole day, we spent the rest of the day walking around Amsterdam)

Upon reaching Amsterdam from Keukenhof, we noticed this field with I amsterdam on it. (seems that it's a kind of brand for Amsterdam tourism) So the next day we took the tram here to take photos. The building at the back is Rijksmuseum (the state museum) In fact we didn't know at that time what the building was...we just took photos! :P



I'm in both the photos...try to find me! ;P
(remember, you can click on the photos for larger versions)

As a guidebook said, no visit to Amsterdam is complete without a visit to its red light district. So we went there, and here's a photo:


Hehe, hope you're not disappointed! :P

We went there at night as well, and there were more people than in the daytime. Mainly tourists though.

To end this post, here's a photo taken at the Schipol (Amsterdam's) airport:

Guess what I’m pointing at?

I have more to write about, but I shall spread them over several posts; that way they'll be easier to read...and to find!