Because this is only my third blog post, I thought I’d tell you guys about how I got my love for travelling (little get-to-know Gen thing?). I probably got it from my parents (hi, mum and dad!). Growing up, my family got used to travelling a lot – before moving to England, we lived in Manila (I’m full Filipino btw) and my parents only worked on weekdays so on weekends, we’d have family time. And so, at least once or twice a month on a weekend, we’d go out of town to relax and get away from the busy city which became our little family tradition. Of course, now we’re older and have work on weekends and our parents don’t get the same days off they used to because they’re nurses, we don’t get to go on these trips as often as we used to and just tend to stay home or eat out instead. So when we do, we tend to book it for a full weekend if not, for a week.
Enough of that, as I said in my previous post, I’ll be posting about my 2017 holidays/trips aaand here’s the first one!
Amsterdam, Netherlands! (31 March – 04 April)
For a little brief info, Amsterdam is located in North Holland (province) and is the capital city of the Netherlands.
Since this was a family trip, all expenses were paid by our lovely parents (best ones ever) xx
KLM Airlines – one of the best ones!
Our hotel: Meininger Hotel by the Sloterdijk Station, this is by the reception. Cool, right? no?
My mum tends to book everything and just asks me for help and our dad (like most dads) says yes to everything or “kayo na bahala” which basically means “up to you guys” in Tagalog. So my mum, booked our flights through Skyscanner.net (as per) and our hotel was through Booking.com (again, as per). Our flight was with KLM so it was nice and comfortable like always, and the hotel my mum chose was Meininger hotel which is by Sloterdijk station just one stop from Amsterdam Centraal. I’d defo recommend this hotel if you’ll be travelling to Amsterdam in a group of 4 or more – it’s affordable, the staff’s great and breakfast is really good!
On arrival, we settled freshened up and headed out after an hour. On our way out, we purchased Iamsterdam city cards at the hotel. We only bought it from the hotel but it can be purchased online too.
We got out of the hotel after around 2/3 pm, had late lunch at this nice restaurant called ‘La Boca’ by the Dam square and strolled around the centre and obviously took obligatory photos by the canals. We planned to visit the Anne Frank Huis, but didn’t have pre-booked tickets and they were fully booked for that time we were there plus, we couldn’t afford to queue up for a minimum of 2 hours so we walked around and checked nearby vintage shops and cool clothing stores. Trust me, I’d go back to Amsterdam just for these stores.
Dam Square
Sunset by the station
The next day, our first proper day or second day shall I say was nice and sunny. After breakfast at the hotel, we took the train from Sloterdijk to Amsterdam Centraal and took a tram to go to the museums that were part of the Iamsterdam city card, such as the Diamante Museum. We stopped at one of the malls beforehand (of course, because my Mum and I are shopaholics) then we took photos by the I Amsterdam sign and checked out the Rijksmuseum. We didn’t go in unfortunately because we thought we’d go to the Van Gogh Museum after lunch instead.
Me and my little sissies
we walked from Rjiksmuseum to Hard Rock Cafe, thanks to Google maps lol.
As part of our little family tradition, we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe – we try to eat at Hard Rock every time we go on holiday, because my parents love the place, plus we went to the one in Manila quite a lot when we were younger. Also, fun fact: my dad collects Hard Rock shot glasses – I got his first one from Prague back in 2016. Anyways, this one in Amsterdam is by far the best Hard Rock Cafe we’ve been to and we’ve been to quite a few – staff were so nice and accommodating and the food was exceptional.
Et voìla!
New York Strip Steak served with Mash and Veeg
Grilled Salmon served with Mash and Veg
After lunching at the Hard Rock Cafe, we walked to the Van Gogh Museum then quickly walked to the canal cruise stop, across the canal from the restaurant and we did our little cruise! So sorry I forgot the name of the cruise company The cruise was very informative and if you sit inside you get a set of earphones so you can listen to the tour guide as you go along the sites. I think our tour went on for no more than an hour and a half – it wasn’t boring because the info being taught were actually interesting and I thought it was fun seeing locals chill on their little boats, some were drinking and dancing.
To be honest, I loved Amsterdam, I think everyone’s so chill. Like, you see all these cafés and you see all these people sitting talking with their phones facing down. Like I wouldn’t mind living there.
Post canal cruise – since the family loves to stroll, my little sisters and I thought we’d go hunting for the ‘Fault in our Stars Bench’ and that’s what we did. I Google-mapped it of course and luckily, it was only a few minutes walk from where the boat dropped us off.
We also made friends with this cutie called Schnooky, he photobombed me whilst I was taking a little ootd. So we thought we’d get him in the picture but he got camera shy haha. HE’S THE CUTEST!!
Schnooky ❤
And then we found the bench, THE bench.
After that, we grabbed some food and headed back to the hotel ‘cos we had plans for the next day – which was to go to the Keukenhof Gardens. Hope I’m not boring you guys too much with my blabbing btw! I’ve noticed that I didn’t take loads of photos of the food we had so sorry if I’ve missed those out, the next few posts will surely have more ehem weight gain.
this was done on purpose, hope yous get the joke lol.
How
cute
are my little sisters!!
My mum LOVES flowers, especially tulips which is why my dad gets her flowers like all the time. Keukenhof is an annual thing and is only on from I think mid-March to mid-May which is why visiting it during the time we were there was perfect. My mum sure was glad about it. If any of you guys are into flowers and are planning on visiting Amsterdam anytime soon, I’d say visit around April so you can defo see the Keukenhof gardens at its best 😉
On the 3rd of April, which was our last day – we woke up really early, had breakfast and packed our stuff. Luckily the hotel allows their customers to leave their luggage so that’s what we did. We took the train to Schiphol and got on a coach to Keukenhof (it was a designated coach for Keukenhof). My mum purchased tickets; entrance and return travel from the little Keukenhof stall at the airport. There were staff at the airport to show you around so it wasn’t so hard to find the stall and get tickets. It probably took us about an hour or two or maybe less than that to get there (I was asleep the whole time) but yea, it didn’t take that long.
On arrival, I was actually pretty shocked at how big it was. Not knowing anything about Keukenhof prior to the visit, I thought it would just be one of those simple flower gardens the size of local parks but geez, we were given maps!! Which btw, were really useful considering the fact that the place was MASSIVE.
We walked around, enjoying the breathtaking scenery, taking our time since the coaches back to the city were like every 15/30 minutes and our flight back to Newcastle wasn’t until the late afternoon. The place was beyond beautiful, the only downside I’d say is the lack of diversity in the food places – there were a few cafés and stalls but they all pretty much sold the same thing so there weren’t a lot of choices, I’m guessing picky eaters would have to have a heavy breakfast or get food after their visit.
I’d defo recommend visiting Keukenhof though, the place would just amaze anyone. The fresh air, the atmosphere, the ambience. It was just so lovely!!
My parents btw, are the REAL relationship goals. Together since college and still strong and in love as ever!! I thank God everyday for them.
Real relationship goals: MY PARENTS
After getting to the windmill and the huge field of tulips, we headed back and got on one of the coaches to the airport, then a train back to Amsterdam Centraal, had a quick trip to the Jewish quarter and a last stroll by the canals. I didn’t take loads of pictures in the museums to show respect so yea, sorry!
We got to the hotel, picked up our luggage and then back to the airport. We had time to grab some food before departure so we went to one of the restaurants at the airport. This one’s called Kebaya. Everyone was hungry so I only got to take a photo of my food oops. Food was sooooo good as well, I actually plan on coming back!!
So that’s it for my very first, ‘proper’ blog post. Hope I didn’t bore you guys too much! Really sorry if this was too long!
Bises,
Gen xx
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GEN BARTOLOME 