Winter wonderland in Amsterdam

In De Waag Restaurant at the Nieuwmarket - right across
the street from our house! 

Part of surviving expat living is to every now and then leave the country you are residing. I needed a reminder that even though my French is not perfect, at least it is a lot better than my Dutch. My boyfriend and I just returned from our winter holiday in Amsterdam, and I completely fell in love with the city. As a SoCal girl, I am used to the crazy scene of Las Vegas and thus had it in my head that Amsterdam was the European version of Vegas. In fact I couldn't have been more wrong; sure it is probably one of the more liberal cities in the world, but it has a ton of history and the canals weaving through the city are gorgeous. I am a firm believer that everyone should visit Amsterdam, and wanted to pass along some of the highlights of the trip.

Our room at the Double Dutch Guest House

DAY 1: Arrive at Amsterdam any way you can - boat, plane, train, car, walk if you must. From Paris, Amsterdam is a little under 4 hours (depending on whether there is ice on the rails). We arrived at Central Station, which was about a 10 minute walk from the Double Dutch Guest House we stayed at. The guest house is owned by the Barengay Bed and Breakfast, but instead of serving breakfast the guest house provides a kitchen to use for the duration of your stay. I have to be a little critical of the kitchen, as it was missing some vital equipment (oven, colander, vegetable peeler, etc). I was interested it making dinner each night, so it did make it difficult to try some baked Dutch cuisine or even pasta, so we just had to stick to simple stuff. However the room was very comfortable and the live-in cat made the place very homey. Everything was pretty much walking distance from where we were staying and I thought the area was very accessible. 

DAY 2: Get oriented on a canal tour. Sure, as an honorary Parisian I snicker when I see those Paris bus tours driving by, yet the first couple days you are traveling to a different city a guided tour is very helpful to get to know the area. Plus the tour allowed us to explore the canal system, so really you can't go wrong.

After the canal tour, we made our way to the Van Gogh museum. I love impressionist art thanks to the d'Orsay Museum in Paris, so I was pretty stoked to go. The museum was on the other side of the city, so we took our time walking there and exploring the back streets. I even came across a big English bookstore, which I thoroughly enjoyed walking through as I haven't seen any large bookstores in France. We took a detour through the flower market and wandered around some of the cute  alleyways to search for holiday gifts. We finally made it to the museum, which has the largest collection of Van Gogh's work. The museum is organized very well, making it small enough not to be overwhelming but definitely leaves you feeling soaked enough with Van Gogh's bright paint strokes. 

DAY 3: In continuing with our artsy trend, we went to the Rembrandt Museum which was about a 7 minute walk from our house. The museum is actually the house where he used to live, and the museum did its best to restore the house to its original state to recreate the life of an art entrepreneur.

To change up the tone of the trip, we headed over to the Heineken Experience. Here we learned how the beer was made along with the history that was rooted in the Netherlands. The tour came with a tasting of their beer, which was an interesting comparison to my normal wine tastings. We went to the nearby Hard Rock Cafe for a late lunch, which was great to satisfy my American food craving.

DAY 4: We made our way to the Botanical Garden and Artis Zoo, which were both pretty close to each other. It was snowing when we went, as we seem to like going to the zoo in the worst possible weather (flash back to the time we went to the San Diego Zoo in the pouring rain...). Lucky at both places there were a lot of things to do inside, and it was nice to be surrounded by and cacti while watching the snow out the window. I admit the parks were beautiful in the snow, but the wind made walking around a little too cold for my liking. Would only recommend doing this in the winter if you have really, really warm shoes.

Palm trees safe from the snow

Snow monkeys!

They looked really cold. 

Unfortunately Florian started to come down with a cold, so the rest of the next day we stayed at the house until we left for Paris. Still, the trip with him was amazing and it was nice for both of us to discover a different country together. As I got off the train and headed back to the metro, there was no doubt that for all its benefits and flaws Paris is definitely home. I am thankful I had the little get away as a reminder.