Amsterdam Day 1

My first day in Amsterdam was beyond amazing. I went into this trip knowing little about the city (should have done more research), so my mom and I have really been relying on the front desk at our hotel for activities.

My mom and I landed at the airport bright and early Tuesday morning ready to hit the ground running. When we got to our hotel they informed us our room wasn't ready yet, so after a quick breakfast, we decided to walk around for an hour or two. We stumbled across some great shopping, and a cute flower market bursting with color. On our walk we did see a couple of the notorious Amsterdam Coffee Shops but we were too chicken to go inside. We decided that some googling on protocol had to happened before we ventured inside.

Hotel 717

Street in Amsterdam

After some freshening up at the hotel and some much needed googling, we headed back out to explore the city a little more. Our first stop was a coffee shop called The Dolphin. It was close to our hotel and I read online that it was tourist friendly, so we thought it was a good place to start. Of course I can't say exactly what we sampled in the coffee shop, but I can say that it was a typical coffee house experience.

Our next stop for the day was to the Van Gogh Museum which was a quick walk from our hotel. We also saw that huge sign that says "I Amsterdam", that's a huge tourist attraction. Of course I had to take a picture or two.

We purchased our ticket for 3:00 o'clock, so we had to preoccupy ourselves for another hour. Across the street there was a diamond museum so we decided to go torture ourselves by looking at jewelry we would never possess. Amsterdam is a major trading and processing city for diamonds (which we found out through the exhibit). The jewels were absolutely stunning and hopefully one day I can become a princess so I can have some of my own.

My picture will be on the wall of princesses on day

There was an old lady who lived in a clog...

When we were fully green with envy, we made our way back to the Van Gogh museum to soak in some culture. Van Gogh is one of my favorite painters so I was extremely excited to see a museum completely dedicated to his work. The museum was four floors and took you through his entire life's work. The pieces were absolutely stunning and the museum had an excellent collection.

Completed stuffed on culture and not so stuffed on food, we had the hotel make us a dinner reservation and we headed over to a local seafood restaurant for dinner. It was incredibly delicious and my mother and I gorged ourselves on fresh seafood. (I can't really say I'm complaining though.)

The first day was a complete success. Keep checking the blog to see more adventures from this little stint in Europe. Until next time!! xxx