The next morning we flew from Paris to Amsterdam for $56 each. Ashley and I are both very Dutch. My great-great grandparents were born in the country of Holland and died in the city of Holland in the US. We grew up in a place where we got school off for parades celebrating everything about Dutch heritage that you could possibly celebrate – tulips, wooden shoes, and made up dances performed in traditional Dutch clothing. So although we knew we would only have time for one night in Amsterdam, and neither of our families actually came from that area, we still wanted to make sure we visited the “homeland” when we could.
We stayed at Hotel Vossius Vondelpark, which as the name suggests, is right next to a large beautiful park called Vondelpark. This hotel cost us about $63 each. I remember being slightly disappointed that nobody even tried to speak Dutch to us, as I was hoping someone would see our last names and give me an opportunity to use the meager amount of it I had learned prior to our trip.
Since we arrived at about noon, we spent the rest of the day exploring the park and walking through the city, marveling at how much the architecture and decorating themes are replicated exactly in our hometown and trying our best to not get run over by bikers. We did wander over the Rijksmuseum and wasted a lot of time waiting for as many people to clear out as possible so we could take pictures in front of and climbing over the giant Amsterdam sign in front of the museum. We had passed an IceBar in our exploring and went back that evening (I had previously gone to one in Barcelona a few years before and wanted to try another one), where we got a lot of funny looks from other people there for wearing flip flops, to which we explained that we were from an area where it’s normal for it to snow for 6 months of the year. I don’t remember how much the IceBar cost, but I don’t think it was outrageous by any means.
The next day we went on a guided Canal Cruise ($17.50 each, tickets bought in advance), which gave us views of the city from a different perspective and some fun little trivia pieces about the city (There are over 2,000 houseboats in Amsterdam – who knew!). We did more walking and wandering after that, passing but not wanting to wait in line (as awful as this sounds) for the Anne Frank house. We did come across a tulip museum, which we walked through for free. When you think about it, we almost had to, coming from a place with a week-and-a-half long tulip festival!
We ended the day flying from Amsterdam to Dublin, although I think we both wish we had at least another day to explore the city, and I know that I think it would be interesting to visit some of the smaller towns outside of the capital, but that’s a trip for sometime in the future!
Total cost for Amsterdam (including transportation there, but not food/taxis/souvenirs/etc): ~$150
