Solo Adventure in Amsterdam, Netherlands

 9th November 2023, Thursday

Today i was on leave and the weather was good, so decided to head out alone to Amsterdam (since my friend is working today). So she recommended me to head down to Dappermarkt located at Amsterdam Muidenpoort first before going to Amsterdam Central for the rest of the day. I prepared myself and made sure i am wrapped warmly (with my thermal wear and jackets), off i went. The wind was blowing strongly when i was walking to the train station. I waited for the 10:13 am train to head down to Amsterdam Muidenpoort station. It was a 15 mins ride....and luckily the sun was out today. When i reached the station, i made my way to Dappermarkt. Though the opening hours was from 10 am, there were multiple stalls not opened yet. But those opened were selling flowers, cheese, fresh veggies and fishes. Others were selling clothes, socks or toys. At the fresh fish stall (De Graaf - Roos & Zn), they were selling fried shrimps, cuttlefish, etc too. So i decided to buy some fried shrimps to try after long thought and i was getting hungry at that time.  I bought 6 shrimps for $5.50 and additional $0.50 for the sauce. It was nice and filling even for 6 shrimps though it was expensive.....😅..Afterwards, i just continued exploring the market. I decided to head down to Amsterdam Central as there was nothing much that i was interested in the market.

A day with sun

Dappermarkt Entrance

Available stalls

Fried giant shrimps

I took the 11:43 train to Amsterdam Central and it was just one station away. Luckily there was no train disruption or anything else going on. When i reached Amsterdam central, there were so many people around and i tried to walk towards the canal. But i think i just ended up on the tourists area where there were a lot of shops along the streets (like our Orchard road like that). So i just went shopping while looking at the buildings around. I walked for some time before i decided to go find one of the popular french fries shops - Fabel Friet in Amsterdam. Along the way to the fries shop, i walked into an alley where i saw a long queue to a cookies shop - Vans Stapele Koekmakerji and the chocolate smell nice. So i decided to queue for it while googling online on the items the shop is selling. I just saw people buying 1 or 2 boxes of cookies. So i decided to buy a box of 6 cookies (12.50 euro) and tried to eat one outside. The cookie was warm and soft, it was also sweet in the centre because of the white chocolate (It still tasted nice after 4 days and my friend seems to like it more after the 4 days period cos it become harder. I prefer it to be soft).

Amsterdam Train Station

Opposite view of Amsterdam Station

Houses in canal

Cheese shop

War memorial

Cooke shop

Freshly baked chocolate cookies

After that, i made my way to the fries shop - Fabel Friet and i saw a small crowd of people standing outside of the shop waiting for their orders. The shop was quite small with 2 cashiers taking orders and i went in to make mine. Then i went outside to wait for the staffs to call for my order.  I got a small fries with truffle mayo for 4.90 euro (The uniqueness of this shop was that you can add cheese for 1 euro to your fries). I found the fries nice and enjoyed it...just that it was too much... I saw people just threw their leftovers to the sea gulls and other birds. I just ate while i continued on my shopping. 

Queue outside fries shop

Freshly cooked fries

Then i walked until a flower market - Bloemenmarkt where the shops sell mostly flowers seeds for planting purposes. There were also some souvenirs and cheese shops around. From there, i walked to see the stalls and bought 2 tee-shirts from a souvenirs shop. After which, i made my way back to the train station but the sky got dark and was drizzling. As i walked back, i went to another souvenirs shop to get some souvenirs as the prices were 2 euros cheaper here. After that, i stumbled upon a mall-looking area where there were bigger shops inside. So i decided to went in 1. for toilet break and 2, to find a new pants for myself (the rubber part of one of my pants had become loose...😂.). I managed to get a Nike track pants instead for 40 euros. After that, i walked planning to go the train station but i went into the lego shop to fix a figurine instead. I spent quite a while inside the shop and by the time i was done, it was already pouring with rain. So i walked with my umbrella till McD and hide inside until the rain gets lighter (if i am lucky). 

Stall at Bloemenmarkt

Mall entrance

Ninja Lego figurine

After some time, i headed out and before i can walk to the station, i came across a waffles shop - van wonderen stroopwafels selling waffles and stroopwafels. People were queuing to buy the waffles but i chose to buy their stroopwafels (15 euro). After i bought it, i walked very quickly to the station as it was getting late and my friend waiting at home for dinner.  It was about a hour plus back to the home and before that, i headed to the supermarket nearby the house to buy a chicken wrap back for dinner. And, this was my one day adventure in Amsterdam....😀

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Giethoorn & Steenwijk

 4th November 2023, Saturday

I spent one week working remotely from Netherlands and I just woke up around 2 or 3 am to start work. For the whole week, there is no one day that was not raining. It was raining like mad on Wednesday night till the end of Thursday and the wind was so strong. Can even hear the howling sound of the wind the whole day. Only managed to go for a walk on Friday afternoon after my work as the sun did come out in the afternoon. But it still rained afterwards while i was outside.

Today we are heading to Giethoorn to stay over the weekend. It was a 2 to 3 hours train + bus ride from Almere Poort. So we woke up early and ate our breakfast. We walked slowly to Almere Poort train station to catch the 8:17 train. When we went up the platform, I saw the next train is going to Zwolle station instead of making a transfer at Almere Central. So we chose to take the next train to go to Zwolle station, but later we realised we will have to transfer to 2 buses (bus 71 & 70) in order to get to Giethoorn. We finally reached Giethoorn around 10 plus (the whole journey took about 2hrs plus).

Arrival

Since it is still early to check-in, we decided to explore the town and looked for our brunch/lunch around. The town are surrounded with the canal where people can cruise on the guided tour (9.50 euro per hour + free coffee/tea) or rent a boat to cruise on their own. The canal space was just big enough for one boat to pass at a time so the direction is always one-way. The boat rental cost around 25 to 50 euros per pax for an hour, so we didn't go ahead with it. It looked kind of nice too since you don't need a license for driving the boat around. But i think it may be better to come around this period if you want to drive the boat on your own as my friend said it was so much crowded during summer time and you will get stuck in the boat traffic most of the time. The restaurants also have boat rentals service available, so you can rent from any of the restaurants after dine-in.

Residential House

Church

We also tried to google the restaurants available there but found that most of the restaurants open at 12:00 pm instead. We also passed by a ice-cream shop named Venice and there were a lot of people standing outside of the shops. We just took a peek inside and decided to come back later for tea break. There was a small church and a museum available there. The walkways was also small for 2 person to walk side by side (smaller builds). As there was very few boats cruising the canal, we were able to see reflections of the trees, bridges and houses which was very beautiful. We walked till we reached a cafe named Grand Cafe Fanfare. Initially we wanted to go for a restaurant (Restaurant Fratelli) opposite the cafe but it wasn't open for business. So we went to Grand Cafe Fanfare instead. Luckily it wasn't so crowded and we managed to get a table. We waited for some time for the waitress to pass us their menu and they had a QR code which we can scan for the English menu. After flipping through the menu for 5-10 mins, we decided to order a twelve o'clock (a platter with bread, a soup, salad and smoked salmons), hot chocolate and an apple pie. 

Chocolate drink & cake

Breakfast set

The hot chocolate came with hot milk and real milk and dark chocolate chips where you add the chocolate chips into the milk. And you will have the hot chocolate drink..😂...real chocolate drink, not powder. The whipped cream they gave was also very generous, i didn't even use much of the cream for my chocolate drink. The apple pie also came with whipped cream as per request and it was quite tasty. The hot soup that came with the bread platter tasted nice but there was a mild spicy flavour to it. After eating, we left and continued walking around the town. We walked back to the ice cream shop and bought a scoop of Oreo ice cream with cone for 1.95 euro. We also bought a super thick Christmas socks for ourselves.....😊....

Ice-cream

Our Christmas socks

By 3 plus, it started to rain and we decided to walk to our B&B place - Hotel B&B d'Olde Smidse. It was located some distance outside the main town as it was slightly cheaper when we booked. Those located inside the main town were more expensive. Along the way, we also went to explore the supermarket there. When we reached the hotel, we don't see its reception. Instead the reception was inside with the restaurant. The owner came out from the kitchen and greeted us. Apparently he is the chef too...😅.....So he registered us in and wanted us to pay for our stay. My friend asked him didn't he receive our payment through Agoda as it should have been charged to my friend's credit card. So he did a check and while waiting, he gave us a brief introduction on the areas we can go nearby the hotel. He also let us know the breakfast time. He then confirmed our payment was made and brought us to our. room on the upper floor. The room was quite big and cosy. So we dropped our bags and rest in the room, watching tv. 

Hotel Entrance

Room key

Hotel restaurant

Room layout

We decided to go for dinner at the hotel restaurant later around 4:30 pm. We were the only ones there as i guessed it was still too early for dinner. There was still drizzled rain and it was cold. There, we ordered a half chicken with salad and fries, Pepsi and 6 of bitterballen. The chicken was quite dry and seem overcooked. The bitterballen was quite nice (just oily) but we just enjoyed our time during dinner (in fact, i was getting super super sleepy). After dinner, we went back to our room and rested for the day.

Dinner

Side Dishes

5th November 2023, Sunday

I tried to sleep in a little later for today but i still woke up at 6 plus. Then we got ready by 8 am and headed down to the restaurant for breakfast. We were the first ones there and the owner was also preparing the breakfast. He was cooking sausages, eggs and bacons. There were breads and different type of spreads for the breads, There were also cereals and juices. It was a decent variety of choices, not too much. I tried the crossiant, scrambled eggs, sausages and bacons. But the eggs, bacons and sausages were oily and salty. After some time, there was a pair of ladies and a family of 4 joined for breakfast. We just ate our breakfast till 9 plus, then we headed back to the hotel to collect our bags for check-out. It was drizzling when we left the hotel. When we walked out of the hotel, the pair of ladies were at their car, preparing to leave too. So we just waved bye to them when one of the ladies saw us and waved bye at us first. We decided to explore the other side of the main towel so we walked back to the main town. There were lesser people compared to the previous day. Most of the shops were not even opened for business. So we just walked and walked and there was a lot of flies flying around today, And the rain kept coming on and off the whole time. We walked till 11 plus and made our way back to Almere Poort

.

Breakfast

Hotel rooms

Swans

Outskirt waters

Bridge

We reached the bus stop at 12:08 pm and the next bus time was 1:09 pm as we missed the earlier bus. So we just waited at the bus stop the whole time and there was rain too. Finally the bus came and we boarded. It was a 30 mins ride to Steenwijk and we decided we could head down to the town for lunch first before we take the train back to Almere Central. However the restaurants we googled in Steenwijk seems to be opened on late afternoon for dinner. There was one restaurant we found opened currently was Brasserie Zus en Zo. All the shops that we passed along the way are all closed when we were walking to the restaurant. I can also see there were 3 churches in the town. We managed to get a table when we reached the restaurant. 

Street of Steenwijk 

Lunch place

We ordered a hawaiian smoothie, a platter and cheese nachos. The drink was quite good as it consisted of mango, passionfruit, apple and 3 or 4 more fruits. The food was considered salty to my tastebuds, it was not bad though but its very filling. After we finished the meal, we paid and left the restaurant. We walked a while in the town but it was like a ghost town (nothing was opened and no many people outside). We just walked slowly to the train station where we took a train back to Almere Central. By the time we arrived at Almere Central, it was already past 5 pm and the sky got really dark (like 8 plus in Singapore). We went to the asian supermarket nearby and bought some foods (frozen balls & wantons) to cook for the coming week. It started to rain again when we came out from the supermarket. We then walked to the bus stop to catch our bus to go back. I was soooo sleepy and tired and still had to wait for the bus. When the bus came, it was really really dark and it was a long ride back to the house. There was a drunk who got on the bus at some point and was making noise on the bus. He even got into an argument with another guy. I was glad we finally reached home and i can take shower to rest.

Cheese fries

Salad

Lassi

Hotel stayed: Hotel B&B d' Olde Smidse

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Weesp & Muiderslot Castle

 29th October 2023, Sunday

Today woke up around 7 plus, thinking it was late as per Singapore time. The weather was also nice and sunny. So we decided to head out to have a walk in the forest behind my friend's house. We had our breakfast and headed out for a walk. The wind was blowing strongly and it was cold (temperature was about 13 deg). We strolled through the path, greeting everyone we saw along the way. Some people were jogging, strolling and walking with their dogs. We saw wild mushrooms in the grass, potatoes ready to be harvest in the fields and modern windmills. There was even a super big dog holding a long branch on its mouth and wanted to bring home with it. The owner said the dog was only 18 months old and it was very obedient. We walked till 9 plus and decided to head down to Almere centre to go to a mediterranean eatery named Eethuis Lila. My friend had dined once and found the food nice by far, so she was recommending to have breakfast there.

Great day for a walk!

Breakfast place - Eethuis Lila

So we went and took the bus to head down to Almere Central.  When we reached there, there was no customers yet. However, they only serve breakfast dishes and soups so we can't order others from the lunch and dinner sections. We decided to go with a Harira soup and a big breakfast set to share which included breads, pudding, eggs, Moroccan mint tea. The food was quite nice. After the meal, we walked to the central area where there were a lot of branded shops around. We also went to a asian supermarket to see what asian food are they selling. After that, we decided to head down to Muiderslot Castle in Weesp and have ice cream there. So we walked to the bus stop and took a free bus to Weesp. It was about 30 mins ride to Weesp main station. From there, we went and look for bus 110 to go to the castle. However, it was a 45 mins wait before the bus comes. So we decided to head down to the town and get ourselves some ice cream from Nelis' IJssalon. It was 15 mins walk to the place, most of the shops were closed. When we reached there, we ordered 2 scoops in a cup for 2.5 euro and we took mango and pistachio flavour. Ice cream was quite smooth and not bad, just the mango one was quite sour and pistachio flavour was not strong enough (not as good as the one I had in Florence).  

Breafkast!

Famous ice-cream in Wessp

Reflection of Sint-Laurentius church

Then, we headed back slowly to the bus stop while eating the ice cream. We took some photos along the way back and waited for the bus to come upon reaching the bus stop. A young couple walked up to us asking if they could pay with their credit cards for the bus fares. My friend told them we were not sure and they could ask the driver when the bus comes. Then we had a small talk with them while waiting for the bus. They were from Mexico and Spain, they met each other while working in Finland and they were there for short holidays. And they told us the expenses in Finland was much expensive as compared to Netherlands. After that, we boarded the bus to head to the castle. From the bus stop, we still had to walk a 10 mins distance to the castle gate. We purchased a entry ticket for myself since my friend had free entry to the castle. And so we went to explore the castle and it started to drizzle too.  There were 2 routes - Knight's route and Tower's route to access different rooms in the castle. The castle was used as a water shield to fend off enemies in early years and served as a trading point in the later years. The count Floris V who lived at that time was collecting trade toll for every boat that passed by the castle. There was also a poet who lived in the castle after the Count. There was a torture room and armoury room too. We spent exploring the castle for about 2 hours. Later we went to the garden outside the castle to take a look. There was nothing there, all the flowers and veggies are all dead. Maybe it will be nicer in spring or summer period.

Knights' Armours

Fire place for warmth with the bench able to turn around

Torture Room

We decided to make our way home as the castle was closing at 5:00 pm. But before we left, we walked to the water shelter outside and took a look inside. There was a video on how the dutch had used water to defend their lands in war times but it also scarified its own people in order to have this water defence system. So it become a question of whether water is a foe or friend to them. After that, we headed out to exit the castle. We walked back to the bus stop and took the same bus 101 to the central station. From there, we took the free bus back to Almere Poort. Along the way, we caught sight of the moon rising out and it was so round and big. The sky was getting dark too when we reached back to Almere Poort. We went to supermarket to buy some ingredients for the coming week and bought a wrap and two Netherlands Balls back for dinner, Once done, we made our way back home where we ate our dinner and rested for the day.

Model of castle

Moon of the night

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