I’m not in the best of health when I arrive in The Netherlands, having picked up a cold somewhere on one of the many flights where the people seated next to me were coughing and sneezing their little hearts out. So, my first couple of days in Amsterdam are pretty quiet. It’s raining heavily when I arrive late at night, and even with all my wet weather gear it is a challenge to stay dry. Luckily the apartment I have booked is right in the centre of town, so there’s not far to walk, and my host has kindly packed the fridge full of supplies.
I had such a wonderful time in Finland, it was hard to let that go and look at Amsterdam with fresh eyes. But I do, and I like it. It has a similar feeling to Copenhagen and Stockholm, it’s a compact city which is easy to get around, and there is a lot to see. The city is famous, of course, for its liberal attitude to sex and drugs, and there are loads of people here for that. The smell of marijuana is all around and there are long lines of people heading into the red light district (mostly with British and eastern European accents). I am not much of a drug taker, marijuana makes me feel woozy. I do go for a walk through the red light district though, which is fascinating and odd and cool at the same time; with beautiful scantily-clad girls standing in red lit window displays checking their phones and smiling at people as they walk past, live sex and peep shows on offer and a lot of toys for adults everywhere you look (and star-struck men, some of whom are trying desperately to look without their wives noticing….and failing). But there is a lot more to see here. There are more than 100km of canals to explore by foot, bike or boat; there are amazing museums to spend hours in admiring the works of famous Dutch painters like Vermeer (Girl with a pearl earring) and Rembrandt, who were masters at capturing light and skin tone, and Van Gogh; the bruin cafes (brown cafes, that look like an English pub inside) have amazing food and you can while away time very happily by yourself or with friends; CHEESE; Amsterdam has the oldest stock-exchange in the world; and if you head to the train station you can be in a different city or town within 30-60 minutes.
A friend and ex-work colleague from NZ, James, is now living in Utrecht with his wife Lesley and their gorgeous boy Luca, and I jump on a train to spend a night with them. Utrecht is only 30 minutes by train from Amsterdam, it is the fourth largest city in the Netherlands, it’s really beautiful, and way less crowded than Amsterdam. Definitely worth a visit if you come here. Many of its buildings date back to the middle ages, the canals are prettier than those in Amsterdam, and there are loads of cool museums and things to see and do. Utrecht was also the beloved home of Dick Bruna, who created Miffy the cartoon rabbit, and many other characters that I remember from my childhood. He was clearly a much-loved man, and there are monuments to, and memories of him everywhere. There’s even a Miffy museum 🙂 It is so nice to see a familiar face from home, and James is so kind to show me the city, renting me a bike so I can experience it as a local, and introducing me to the amazingly good Dutch sandwich! It is the perfect way to be introduced to the Dutch way of life, and I love it. James and Lesley are so nice, they are building a lovely lifestyle here, having only moved from NZ in February. I had such a great time with them and it was the best way to orient myself in this new place 🙂
Tiny boxes of sprinkles for your sandwich 
Delft china 
Floating flower market 
Enormous underground bike parks 
James biked with my suitcase on the front! 
Utrecht 
🙂 
Odd! 
Stoemp – mashed potato, carrot, onion, celeriac with onion gravy and sausage yum yumm 🙂 🙂 
Beautiful art 
The realism of the faces is just incredible 
Dick Bruna 
🙂 
His work desk 
Dom cathedral in Utrecht 
Brown cafe 
Tomato soup and goat cheese and honey sandwich yum 
Cake shops are usually close to a marijuana shop ha ha ha 
Long queues outside the condom store