I am way behind on my posts!
We spent a long weekend in Amsterdam back in early April with the Giesecke's!! We met them there and then they came back to Copenhagen with us. We had a total blast! They are great travel companions...we vacationed the hell out of them!!
We stayed at the College Hotel, which is located near the museum district. The hotel is a training ground for students interested in the hotel industry. It was a nice place and for us, a good location. It was away from the craziness of the canals, but close enough that it didn't take us long to get anywhere.
The first night we went to a place near our hotels called Loetje. It was a casual steak restaurant recommended by the hotel. It was good...not a bad start to the trip.
The second day we rented bicycles for our entire stay. It was the best way to get around. The cycling there is very different from Copenhagen. The Danes follow traffic rules and are very orderly. For the Dutch, it is total chaos...people go where they want, when they want, no matter what traffic is doing. We did fine since we are pros now, but it was a little more intimidating at first.
We spent the day cycling around, exploring the canals, and searching for the perfect outdoor cafe! I loved the crooked houses that looked like they could tumble into the water at any moment.
After finding this gem above we grabbed take away sandwiches from Amsterdam Cheese Deli, which was close to the Red Light District. Inexpensive and delicious!
I made reservations for dinner at Vlaming Eten & Drinken, a restaurant recommended to us by Liz and Jeff. Prior to dinner we found a great cocktail bar called Vesper that was a 5 min walk from the restaurant. Great cocktails and cool atmosphere. Dinner was excellent. It is an intimate restaurant with about 10 tables. The staff was attentive and the food good. They are well known for their monster burger, the sticky toffee pudding, and I am not kidding, the BEST limoncello I have ever had. They offered to send us the recipe for the pudding and the limoncello, and um, yes please! I look forward to testing them both!
On our second full day, we did more of the same, cycling around the canals, popping into shops, searching for the perfect outdoor cafe...we attempted to go to the Van Gogh Museum for some "culture". We even purchased advanced tickets that were supposed to put us in the 'quick line'. When we arrived, the 'quick line' had a 2-hour wait. It was a unanimous decision to blow that off, and the search for another perfect outdoor cafe began!
We also went to a street market we had read about, but it was the typical street market and seemed like mostly junk. Seth and Greg were incredibly brave and tried raw herring, a Dutch delicacy! Seth nearly hurled, but Greg seemed to enjoy it! Lindsey and I took a pass on that one.
For our last dinner I made reservations at Lion Noir, a place I found doing some research online. I don't have any pictures from the restaurant, but it was a cool spot with a funky interior...think industrial, rustic touches with taxidermy mixed in. The food was good and we had a great time! In search of one more good cocktail, we made our way to Door 74, a hidden speakeasy. We knocked on the black door with no signage and out came a woman with a clipboard. We had no reservation, but she could fit us in at 1 am, which gave us over an hour wait. We went back early and we were in luck! We got prime seats at the bar and sampled a few different cocktails. Seth had the most flamboyant drink of the evening! :) I love finding hidden spots like this.
We realized on the last day that we had not taken one photo of the 4 of us! This picture is in front of the hotel. We all loved Amsterdam!!
And here are some Copenhagen highlights!
We were so thrilled Lindsey and Greg came over to visit us!! Thanks for coming!!
