Amsterdam trip (part 1)

Huixian, grace and caritta were in town for holiday over end march to early Apr. We went over to Amsterdam from 4-7 Apr for a short trip to see tulips and windmills. I'm sure this post is probably going to bring up sweet memories for YL! haha..

Amsterdam was really good fun. One of the best trips I had in some time. Weather wasn't exactly fantastic. It was really quite cold at times, even for my standard, much less to say for the others! Even though I've been there 2 times before, I realised there are still places that I had not visited before..


At the flower market Bloemenmarkt.


Fridge magnets of all the colourful Amsterdam canal houses




Me and Hui xian


At the Rijksmuseum. decided not to go there this time due to lack of time and since I'd been there before.




At the Heineken brewery. My first time there.


The coasters are really quite cool. There are auto detected when you place your glass on the table.


"Bottle your own Heineken" - where I bottled one for myself and one for papa..


Indonesian fare with the group. huixian, phuiyeng and me met up with Grace and Caritta at dinner as they arrived the day before and had been cheong-ing all the museums with their Amsterdam card.


No interesting desserts at the Indonesian restaurant. So we adjourned to this cafe we found.


Waiting for the train to get to Rotterdam to change the bus to Kinderdjik.


Our first class seats - the information counter lady recommended us this package where its cheaper to get first class tix compared to standard class tix. very comfortable indeed!

The train went past Delft, and it reminded me of the time when I visited YL at Delft. Good memories, especially of the trip around her uni and free flow of ribs for one of the meals we had! haha...


Vending machine where you can get hot food eg burgers or croquettes.


Arrival at Kinderdjik after a 3.5 hours journey. Tram from hotel to Centraal station took 10min, train to Rotterdam took 1 hr, metro at Rotterdam took 10min, bus from Rotterdam took 1hr. Total of 2hrs 20min. But somehow, all the waiting, confusion and toilet time made it to 3.5 hours! If you ask me, its definitely worth all the minutes though!


Old retro style radio sets at the cafe where we had some lunch.


The cafe.




Our bikes for the tour of Kinderdijk! we were really lucky to get those bikes. Quite a long story, but can just say we were lucky :)


Some of the 19 windmills of Kinderdijk




First group photo
























Enjoying an ice-cream



I think Kinderdijk is so beautiful. And its so fun and relaxing just taking a bike ride along the canals in the good weather.


Waiting for the train for our journey back to Amsterdam.


Multi-storey parking for bicycles!






A favourite of mine in the Netherlands - fries with mayonnaise!

This time around (I've been to Amsterdam back in Jul 2001 and Jul 2005), it seems to me that Amsterdam had got sooo much more crowded compared to my memories of the 2 summers I been to before. It wasn't exactly the Easter holidays yet for the weekend I went, and as I said, it was quite cold, not summer peak period as yet. But it still seemed very crowded to me.