Canals and apple pie: a long weekend in Amsterdam

I’m dusting off the blog as I’ve just been on a very new kind of trip – the first time abroad with a child! That child is Vita, she’s nearly four months old and has now been to Amsterdam.

Going on a city break with a baby is a big change but it doesn't completely alter the way you travel. For example, you can still spend the afternoon walking around the canals of Amsterdam, you just need to factor in a few more rest stops and have a ready supply of nappies and outfit changes for all eventualities. 

Most of the weekend was spent exploring the city, including taking the ferry across to Amsterdam Noord, a formerly industrial area undergoing major regeneration. Think large apartment blocks peppered with interesting bars and restaurants at street level – it’ll be unrecognisable in a few years’ time. It’s already very different to when I was last in Amsterdam three years ago. 

One of the culinary highlights of the trip was apple pie in Winkel 43, in the city’s Jewish Quarter. There was a queue outside the door but it moves along pretty quickly as everyone is going in for apple pie, which doesn’t take long to eat when it tastes this good. I asked the guy behind the bar how many pies they get through on a busy Saturday and he said up to 120, which is more than 1,000 pieces of pie.

Whenever I visit a city like Amsterdam I get very jealous of all the cycling infrastructure. London isn’t a bad city to cycle in but it’s got a long way to go before it gets anywhere near the likes of Amsterdam or Copenhagen. Cycling is second nature to the people who live there and it shows how much more liveable a place is people are prioritsed over cars.

This trip was also the first time I've ever received a passport stamp from an EU country. It was a lovely reminder of the fact the UK is rapidly travelling backwards, cutting itself off from its neighbours and generally making a tit of itself on the world stage. C'est la vie.

I love a new passport stamp but would have been happier to not need them from EU countries...

Harriet and Chloe (one of our hosts for the weekend) enjoy a 'Peep Show' in a creative space/warehouse in Amsterdam Noord

Some street art outside the warehouse containing a very nice restaurant called IJver

The canals of Amsterdam. You get all kinds of boats on the canals, from dinghies to houseboats to a boat full of drunk guys (only saw one of these to be fair)

Some of the very aesthetically pleasing homes of central Amsterdam

This street looked like it had been reclaimed for pedestrians and cyclists. Hardly any parking space for cars, loads for bikes and mini-gardens all the way along

Apple pie close-up in Winkel 43

Harriet and Vita with a piece of pie the size of Vita's head in Winkel 43. I graciously gave Harriet the biggest slice and definitely didn't say "oh it looks like I've given you the biggest piece" when I did

Another shot of Amsterdam looking rather pretty in the sun. I feel like I could definitely live in Amsterdam although I suspect the rent on any of the places in this photo would make Elon Musk do a double-take.

Maastricht and Rotterdam: everyone loves a 'Kiss & Ride'

This is a bit of a catch-up post, written months after the actual trip in March but dated March so you would never know if I hadn't told you. (I offer a thousand grovelling apologies for my bad blogging). But I felt Rotterdam needed a mention because it's such a great little weekend break. The one thing I inexplicably took no photos of was the pancake boat - a boat tour along the river during which you can eat as many pancakes as humanly possible. I managed a disappointing three, but they were pretty big so that's more like six, if you ask me.

I also spent a day wandering around Maastricht before we headed to Rotterdam. Last time I was in Maastricht, it was on the 'Euro Man Voyage' in 2011, staying on the Botel (boat hotel). 

Only one reason I took this photo. A bit of cheap, smutty humour. 

Some of the sights around Maastricht

Skeleton of massive dinosaur fish thing local to the region, back when they were roaming the earth. In Maastricht's very impressive Natural History Museum. Managed to blag a discount with my very old and tired looking student card. 

I might have been a couple of delicious Dutch beers into the evening when this photo was taken.

Markthall in the centre of Rotterdam. Impressive from the outside...

... but even more impressive from the inside, with it's huge ceiling covered in food. Lots of stands selling all sorts of culinary delights.

We were probably more entertained than we should have been - a coat rack that you operate with a pulley system in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (an art museum)