No products in the basket.
11 Things to Do and See In Amsterdam | A Bike Route
Updated On 3rd January, 2020
First things first, did you read Day 1 in Amsterdam?
Because if not… head there first and i’ll see you back here in 5.
Being rebellious?
Okay fine, here’s Day 2 in Amsterdam.
The day begun as i woke (super early) at 6am to one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve EVER seen.
Every time that i got snuggled back into bed i could see the colour of the sky changing through a little gap in the curtains. I didn’t want to go back to sleep incase i missed another pretty colour (photo)!
So, after already hopping in and out of bed a couple of times, I headed out onto the balcony for half an hour to avoid disturbing my partner in crime.
Once the reds and oranges dispersed, the sky begun morphing into a clear blue ocean and I jumped back into bed to snooze a little until Iz woke up. We chose some brekkie from our perfect apartment facilities and contemplated life with a cup of coconut green tea.
Today was to be THE BIKE DAY.
Basically, before coming to Amsterdam, I had rustled up quite the itinerary of things to do. And, well, i don’t like to miss anything.
SO, the free use of bikes at our apartment came in super handy as we were able to whizz around the city on a little tour and tick everything off the list in one go.
OUR BIKE ITINERARY…
After dilly-dallying about, we set off on our bikes around 10.30am and headed to our first stop The Anne Frank House.
I haven’t actually mentioned this yet, but apart from an abundance of cute houses, canals and coffee shops, Amsterdam is also FILLED with bikes.
In every direction you look, I can pretty much guarantee you’ll see a bike.
It’s a beautiful way to get about, particularly when the sun is shining, and here they have separate bike roads for cyclists. Most people seem to have bikes locked up outside their houses in Amsterdam and you’ll see people in suits on bikes on their way to work in the morning.
It’s a very common method of transport to say the least.
Admittedly though, the road system is VERY confusing for a first timer. Not only do you have to look out for cars coming your way, you have to keep your eye out for buses, trams, cyclists and pedestrians. So just please be careful if you go!
We locked our bikes up in the nearest gap to The Anne Frank House and walked over to buy our tickets…
… at which point we were met by THE QUEUE that The Anne Frank House is notorious for.
I had read about this insanely long queue online, a week before we arrived. The only way to actually avoid the queue on the day is to pre order your tickets online.
By the time I had read this advice online, the pre-order tickets for the time we were in Amsterdam were all sold out, so we just rocked up with our fingers crossed.
Unfortunately, I don’t think theres really a ‘best time’ to head to The Anne Frank house without a ticket, as it is simply one of the biggest tourist attractions here.
So as soon as you know when you’re going – book your tickets here.
Refusing to fall behind too much on our schedule we quickly headed to spot number 2, The Pancake Bakery, and picked up some takeaway Dutch ‘poffertjes’ before jumping in the queue.
I had been recommended to The Pancake Bakery, and nope, it did not disappoint.
‘Poffertjes’ are the most simplest of creations but DAYUM do they taste good. I would say they are like little pancake balls? Covered in butter and sugar…
(Diet starts Monday obv).
After queuing for an hour and a half, we eventually made it to the front and exchanged $9.50 euro for a ticket.
(It was a long wait but the sun was out so it could have been worse.)
PLUS, it was 100% worth it.
For those of you that don’t know. The Anne Frank house is now a museum but is actually the original hiding place where Anne Frank wrote her diary during the second World War whilst in hiding.
I think it is SO important to take moments out of our lives to reflect on the past and understand the history of the world we live in today.
Just like my trip to Auscwitz, Poland, I was reminded of the insane freedom that I am blessed with.
‘I long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, look at the world, feel young and know that I am free.’ Anne Frank, 24th December 1943
I would definitely recommend a visit.
It may seem like we are always eating (we kind of are), but the long queue and the exhibition itself had lead our stomachs to rumble. We headed to point 3 on our bike tour – Pancakes! Amsterdam.
It’s a little further down the canal from Anne Frank House and serves both sweet and savoury pancakes. After demolishing our poffertjes, we both had our hearts set on something savoury and so I opted for a tomato, spinach and goat’s cheese pancake with a fresh mint tea.
My (beautiful) partner in crime went for Smoked salmon, cream cheese and guacamole on hers, and we both agreed they were SPOT ON.
The afternoon took us to point 4 on our bike tour – Bloemenmarkt.
(You may know it as the floating flower market).
It’s basically stalls, filled with tulip, bulbs and all sorts of wonderful flowers and smells.
It lines up parallel to a row of tourist shops, cheese shops and sex shops (standard Amsterdam), so great for picking up some souvenirs or just having a browse.
You can see the floating flower market on the left hand side of the canal in the picture below…
After a quick browse and purchase of gifts for those back home we headed to point 4 of our bike tour – The famous IAMSTERDAM sign.
I’m sure you will have seen people taking selfies and photos with this sign before, and well, I was definitely going to join the bandwagon…
…and stand right on top.
There are 2 sets of letters in Amsterdam plus one that apparently moves around to various events, concerts etc.
One set is at Schipol Airport (main Amsterdam airport just outside the doors).
The other (which we went to) is right in front of the Rijksmuseum.
After 100 a few selfies, the evening was soon approaching us and we quickly headed through to point 5 – Vondelpark.
It is here that we could relax away from the bus, tram and car chaos of the city and glide through some very beautiful grounds.
We had been blessed with very very beautiful weather and so the park was filled with bikers, picnics, ciders and music.
A slice of heaven.
We were very time conscious as we had already planned to catch the sunset back in town so we stopped briefly to soak in the rays and the summer vibes, before jumping back on our bikes for the last stretch.
After a bit of a detour we eventually found our way back to our apartment, showered and hopped back on the bus into town.
After a ridiculously beautiful day and an already beautiful sun rise, we knew the sun set was going to match it and so we headed sharply to one of the best views in town – Sky Lounge, Amsterdam.
We ended a perfect day with a few cocktails (the mojitos can i say, were UNREAL) and a stunning sunset.
The last time I saw a sunset so beautiful was on The Gili Islands.
Amsterdam – this was the moment i fell in love with you.
Thank you for reading <3
If you liked this post… please SHARE it!
I can’t do this without you guys <3
Love as always + happy adventuring
Mollie x
IT’S LOVELY TO MEET YOU
I’M MOLLIE AND I STARTED THIS BLOG BACK IN 2013 WHEN I HEADED OUT ON MY FIRST BACKPACKING ADVENTURE.
I’D LOVE TO SHARE THE JOURNEY WITH YOU, WE’VE GROWN A LOT SINCE THEN!
