Weekend in Amsterdam

What do you buy your husband who wants nothing? For me in this job it is always travel! So I decided to take him to Amsterdam. My husband has never wanted to go here, he just thought it was a little seedy and full of people on drugs! I have spent years trying to educate him however with no luck! So I decided one thing to change his mind would be to take him!

We flew out early morning, arriving into Amsterdam by 10am. A quick train journey to Amsterdam Central and a 5 minute walk to our lovely hotel in Dam Square (NH Grand Kraponalsky 5*). We arrived early and checked in straight away, I could see he was more relaxed now!

We wandered the streets via the Flower Market (we went in March so it was full of tulips)! We found a lovely café for lunch and watched the world go by, then I had booked us into the Heineken Museum. This was a really great experience even though I am not a beer drinker really and my husband liked it lots! Then after a bit of wandering we went to the Amsterdam Ice Bar, by far the coolest place in Amsterdam at -10! It was cold as expected but good fun. We wandered somehow through the 'Red Light District' now getting dark, and although yes there were all kinds of ladies in the windows it was nowhere near as seedy as I had expected. We had a lovely meal in CAU, a fantastic steak restaurant, followed by cocktails in our hotel bar.

The next day was spent at the Anne Frank Museum, how very sad but interesting it was, and then a river cruise around the canals, a light lunch, a few drinks along the canals in the sun and a lovely Thai meal in the evening.

Overall I would give this city a 10/10 with something for everyone. It was so pretty along the canals, the shops were fantastic (from silly souvenirs to high end designer brands) and the old buildings stunning. I think that I proved to my husband that it is as luxury or budget as you make it. It really does offer something to suit every taste. The city we found clean, the people lovely and the food was great as were the pints of beer and cocktails. I would highly recommend this for a short city break.