23 June
9:45pm – After having gotten an email from Icelandair the day before that my flight via Reykjavik was now two hours later, I take off from Boston Logan airport with SwissAir via Zurich.
24 June
11am (5am in Boston) - Arrived in Zurich
12:30pm - Flight to Amsterdam took off
2:10pm - Landed in Schiphol
3pm - Had my OVchipkaart (Dutch travel card), got in the train to Leiden centraal
3:30pm - Arrived in Leiden Centraal
4:30pm - Chilled, got groceries, made salad for grandparents
25 June
11am - Pick up sister at Leiden Centraal
12pm - Boat on the Rhine to Leiden
1:30pm - Train to Amsterdam
2pm - Walk down the Damrak. The Damrak is the name of the long street that cuts the north of Amsterdam, before the stacked U’s canal belt or “grachtengordel”. It’s very touristy with a lot of international restaurants and souvenir shops on the right but it connects Amsterdam Centraal (the central station) with the canal belt and the rest of Amsterdam and there’s picturesque buildings on the right.
2:30pm – We have a some fries and a broodje kroket (a fried cylinder with beef ragu inside in a bread roll) “out of the wall” at our favorite fast food chain FEBO. It has a traditional counter to buy food but it’s known for having a vending machine wall with slots of different Dutch fried foods for one or a few euros. You get here by taking a right towards the end of the Damrak just after the hotel/restaurant “De Roode Leeuw” onto the Damraksteeg and then take a left at the end of the alleyway.
3pm – After walking along the busy and sunny canals, we sit outside along the river with a glass of wine
4pm - Walk along the canals to Albert Cuypmarkt, unfortunately no snacks for sale at this time of day like poffertjes (mini pancakes with powder sugar/butter) or stroopwafels (wafel cookies with syrup, sometimes seen in Starbucks/on planes)
4:30pm - Avocado show, we share a toast, it has chicken on it which is a little weird
5pm - De Carrousel = share poffertjes/pannekoeken (Dutch pancakes; a bit thicker than a crepe but nowhere as thick as American pancakes). We haven’t had real poffertjes in a while and they are incredible, very buttery and the powder sugar is a great addition.
6pm train back to Schiphol, I say goodbye to my sister and head back to Leiden to my grandparents
26 June
Hang out at home with grandparents
27 June
8:30am - train to other grandma in Bussum (east of Amsterdam)
10:30am - Singer museum cafe, gardens, see a bit
12pm - Walk around Laren
1:30pm - Home
3:30pm Train to Den Haag (The Hague), not the capital but where the government is.
5pm - arrival at the station, picked up by my uncle
5:30pm - cake + dinner
7pm - Cousin’s end of elementary school play (6th grade before you go to the 7-12th grade “middle school”), hilarious.
9:30pm – Go back to my uncle’s house to hang out for a bit
10:30pm - Drive back to Leiden
Comments