After the big wedding in Edinburgh a couple weekends ago Cheryl and I decided to do some relaxing in Amsterdam. Neither one of us had been to the Dutch city so we were pretty excited. We weren’t going to be there very long, just a couple of days, before taking an overnight ferry to Newcastle for a Europa league match, but long enough to do some leisurely exploring.
We ended up booking this place on a canal in a more residential neighborhood which was exactly the kind of quiet we were looking for. Cheryl discovered a website through Trip Advisor called airbnb which is where we found the apartment. This was a great way to go and we’ll do it this way again. It was bright, clean, had laundry, and wi-fi. That’s one difference I’ve noticed about traveling in Europe and the US; free wi-fi is readily available pretty much everywhere in Europe, even the hotels, which is unheard of here in the US. Just a small difference, like a Royale with Cheese.
Wouldn’t be one of our vacations without searching out some good food and we ate really well in Amsterdam! There’s always the frites with mayo and waffles with some Nutella (somehow these shops are always located either next to or across the street from one of those “coffee” shops) which we did indulge in (frites and waffles, not the “coffee” shops), but we also found this great little bistrot/restaurant right down the street from where we were staying called Buffet van Oudette. On Mondays they have a special prix fixe menu which includes 3 courses and glass of cava for 30 euros and it’s definitely worth it! It’s been a week but I still can’t forget the beurre blanc sauce which accompanied the cod main entrée. Sooooo gooooood. Everything was really delicious. Although they’re closed on Tuesdays we did squeeze in lunch on our last day before heading off to catch our ferry. When we go back to Amsterdam I am definitely making sure we are there for Monday night dinner!
The Roaming GastroGnome 