When I thought about visiting Europe, to be honest, Amsterdam was not at the top of my list.

I was planning on visiting my new French beau, Yann, who lives in the North of France.

When the time came to buy my ticket, prices into Paris were a little bit pricey, so he suggested I look at airports nearby.

As it turned out it was cheaper to fly in and out of Amsterdam, which was about a 3 and a half hour drive from where he lived.

He was actually keen on the idea of going to Amsterdam, so we decided he would just drive up there, we’d take a couple days to visit the city and then drive back down to France.

I was crazy busy with work, as I work 2 jobs every summer (65+hours a week), so I didn’t have time to plan anything at all.

Because I’d never really thought about going to Amsterdam before, I didn’t really have any ideas of what I wanted to do.

So I pretty much left all the planning up to Yann, which luckily for me, he was totally cool with.

He literally planned out everything from our accommodations to what we would be doing and how long we would stay there. (Seriously, did I luck out with this guy or what?!)

I was assured that 3 days would be enough time to see the majority of the city as it fairly compact.

My plane was an 8-hour overnight flight, so I pretty much slept the entire way and only woke up when they served the food (a girl’s gotta eat).

Luckily I had a very nice gentleman sitting beside me who woke me up when they served the food and handed back my tray when they returned to collect, as I’d fallen back asleep literally right after eating.

 Well hello there Amsterdam!

Day one

I was so excited to land in Europe and after meeting up with Yann and an ever so slightly awkward stat (I mean this really WAS only my second time seeing him face to face in person), we set out to explore the beautiful city.

We drove to one of the many coffee shops scattered around the city.

Call me ignorant but what I learned was that the shops are not actually for coffee!

This whole time I had been wondering why he kept mentioning going to the coffee shops repeatedly while he was telling me about our travel plans, and I was thinking to myself, “Man this guy really likes his coffee”.

Needless to say I found out that the shops are actually where you go to buy weed.

Ha! The joke was on me!

I felt a little foolish at the fact that I’d hadn’t known this information and I totally kept it to myself at the time. But hey, I did say earlier that I hadn’t really done my research on Amsterdam, so that pretty much served me right.

We were able to see a lot of the city just by walking around. Amsterdam is just so beautiful and I was completely swept away by it, as well as the architecture of the buildings, and all the bikes!

First up the Ice Bar

Our first planned activity was the Ice Bar. I’d never been to one before and it was a super cool (literally) experience.

Yann thought I would like it and joked that it was because of the cold temperatures.

He’d said I should be used to it coming from Canada…right because all Canadians love winter right?

Nope. Especially not this girl and especially not in the heat of summer.

The tour came with 3 drink vouchers, one to use in the front bar, and then 2 to use for the shots served in the actual ice bar.

The options were: Vodka, Vodka, and vodka.

Now I’m not a huge fan of vodka but luckily for me there were different flavour options so we weren’t just throwing back straight vodka.

I was pleasantly surprised that the shots tasted good and it was cool how they were served out shot glasses made of ice, which I thought stayed very true to the whole theme.

After the bar, we continued on our journey stopping at the popular and super busy Dam Square, as well as the neighbouring streets.

Being the heart of summer and tourist season, there were a lot of people filling up the streets getting their shopping, eating and sightseeing on.

Wine and cheese tasting

Just off the square, on one of the many streets that it connects to was our next activity: Wine and cheese tasting at the Henri Willig Cheese and more shop!

Now I love me some wine and I love me some cheese, so I was super happy to find out that we were going to be getting our tasting on.

I hadn’t known what any of our plans were for the day, Yann had planned everything out and pretty much surprised me with each thing as the day went on.

It was super fun getting to taste all the different cheeses and learning how they paired with the wine. On top of getting our taste on, we got eduated on the history of the cheese farm! 

After we drank up all the wine and ate up all the cheese, we browsed around the store downstairs and decided to purchase a couple of their delicious cheeses.

Next up, we walked through the Red light district but as it was day time, there wasn’t much going on so it was a little underwhelming for me.

I’d really wanted to return at night but we didn’t get the chance, so it’s definitely on my list for next time!

Day 2

Amsterdam is known as the city of bikes and biking is actually one of the best ways to explore the city.

I was completely dumbfounded to see all the bikes scattered all around the city– people riding them, them parked along all the roads and even a bike parking lot…I’m not sure what the correct term is but it was crazy seeing just how many bikes there were.

I took that photo up above just before starting our 2 and a half hour bike tour!

Touring Amsterdamn on bikes

We met our tour group by the Centraal Station, went over the guidelines, and then hopped on our bikes and began the tour!

We saw a lot of new places as well as much of the same ones we’d walked the day before but because we were on bikes, it was a totally different experience.

I was a little nervous riding around town, even being in a big group such as ours was.

The road lanes and the rules are totally different from what I’m used to back in Toronto and I really didn’t want to run over an innocent person or get run over by a car, or run through a light!

I know, it sounds like I’m being dramatic, but that’s just how my brain works.

It was actually a lot of fun touring the city on bikes, it really does make for a whole different experience and I totally 100% recommend it.

Our last activity for the day was a night boat tour which I was so excited about!

An adventurous night

Before the cruise, we decided to eat dinner at a restaurant that was close by so we would have enough time to eat and then head off for our tour.

But of course there is never enough time in the day and we had to cut dinner short and literally run about 10 minutes to where the boat was taking off.

We probably shouldn’t have had that bottle of wine before dinner…I guess the one during dinner as well.

*Disclaimer: running in heels slightly intoxicated is not the best experience haha…

We ended up being about 5 minutes late but we were so lucky the boat waited for us and I so extremely happy because the tour was amazing!

We were able to see the city from a totally different vantage point and passing through on the canals with the lights decorating the tunnel entrances were just so alluring.

It was a magical night.

Day 3

Our last day was a short one.

We packed up our suitcases, checked out of the hotel and headed out for breakfast at this cute little shop that served waffles and pancakes.

After eating, we walked over to the Ann Frank Museum for our last tour, but again because I hadn’t done my research, I didn’t know about buying your tickets in advance to skip the line.

And let me tell you the line cue was massive.

So we just decided to just skip it and hit the road for France as we had a long drive ahead of us.

Overall my experience in Amsterdam was pretty amazing and I couldn’t believe it wasn’t on my list to begin with.

I honestly can’t wait to go back and hopefully for a little bit longer next time.

The city is absolutely stunning and the architecture is so beautiful and distinct, I totally fell in love with it.

Have you been to Amsterdam yet?

If not, put it on the list, oh and learn from my mistakes.

Research where you want to go and what you want to see, really plan it out and in turn, you won’t miss out!

Until next time!

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