Hello Everyone! So here is the final part of my travel diary from my trip to Amsterdam!

On our second day, we wanted to go visit a museum as Amsterdam is famous for them. On the way we stopped in this awesome little cafe for a spot of lunch! They had a wonderful log fire burning away and served organic, fresh food. I had a lovely mozzarella and pesto panini! 

We then visited the Amsterdam Museum. It took you through the history of the city, right up to the present day. It was very interesting and well worth a visit. 

Afterwards, we spent a few hours just wandering about, popping into bars and taking in the city.

The last time we were in Amsterdam, we visited this amazing tapas restaurant. I spent ages online before we went trying to find out the name and eventually discovered it was called Pata Negra. It is such a quirky wee place. Lots of tiny tables crammed together, writing scratched into the walls and graffiti all over the walls outside but the food is just amazing. A word of warning if you decide to visit this place, the menu is in Spanish and no English menu is available so bring your A game! 

We went for manchego cheese with bread, patatas bravas (fried potato with a garlic and chilli mayo), fried chorizo, spanish omelette and deep fried cheese croquettes. A total fried feast but my god was it worth it. This is without a doubt our favourite restaurant and I'd return time and time again just so we can eat here!

After dinner we were stuffed so we went for a little wander before heading back to Freddy's Bar. The Amsterdam light festival was on during our visit so I decided to snap some pictures of some of the light displays!

Our flight back to Edinburgh wasn't until 9pm on our final day so we had plenty of time to kill after checking out of our hotel! Here you can see me inside a giant clog, and some police horses which were patrolling Dam Square (security was stepped up a lot after our first day as a result of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris). We did a little bit of shopping and had lunch in a burger restaurant. Then we headed to a huge cigar shop which my other half found so he could purchase some cigars and enjoy one in their smoking lounge. Once we had crammed all this into our day, it was time to head to the airport and fly back home :( 

Thanks to easy jet we also got an extra hour in Amsterdam airport :P 

So that was my trip to Amsterdam! We've said we would love to make it a yearly visit so fingers crossed this will be possible. It is one of my favourite places to go and I'm sure we will be back as soon as we can! 

xx

Amsterdam: Part 1

If you follow me on twitter, you may be aware that last week I took a little trip to Amsterdam! I booked it as a birthday present for my other half away back in June! Here is what we got up to on our trip!

We arrived in Amsterdam rather late on the Tuesday night thanks to Easyjet changing our flight time from 11am to 7pm! We were staying the NH Grand Krasnapolsky hotel right in Dam Square. It was a beautiful hotel. Our room was newly refurbished to a very high standard! The bed was so comfy I could have slept for the whole trip but that would have been a waste!

We arrived too late to go out for a meal so we got some famous dutch chips with mayonnaise to take out! 

The next morning we headed down to breakfast. The breakfast was served in the most beautiful room I've ever seen (see last photo). We enjoyed some eggs benedict followed by poffertjes (dutch pancakes)

After breakfast we decided to take a walk down to the zoo! 

The zoo had an amazing butterfly pavilion  where you could walk about whilst they fluttered around you. 

On the way home from the zoo we stopped in this quirky little bar for a drink, then grabbed a waffle at a bakery. 

After a quick change, we went to this awesome cocktail bar called tails & spirits. They did these amazing cocktails, including the Zombie which is so strong they only serve 2 per person! 

After a few drinks we headed on to an Italian restaurant called Vasso. We had researched the place and knew we wanted to try it. I had the Salmon Tagliatelle which was probably the best pasta dish I've ever had. It was so flavoursome! I then had lemon sorbet and strawberries for desert. The sorbet was creamier than your usual sorbet. It was devine!

We then headed off to Freddy's Bar. My other half collects and occasionally smokes cigars and he really wanted to try this bar which has an indoor smoking room. It was such a cool place to just relax with a glass of vino!

So that was day 1 in Amsterdam! Part 2 is coming up soon! 

xx