Hello! From this post on I will focus on the country I live in at least for a few weeks. We have lived here together ever since we met, so we did have the chance to travel around the country quite a lot. For some reason, I completely ignored it for my posts so far, but I will now fix that mistake.

While my opinion of the Netherlands as a country for travel is quite low, with its fairly boring landscapes and well-planned cities that all can at times look the same, there is still a ton to see! Living here might've made me a bitter man towards all the wind, rain and flat landscapes, but the truth is that a tourist can enjoy a lot of places. Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague.. And much, much more! Let's dive into the first one.

Amsterdam

Yep, I will start it off easy with the most popular of Dutch cities. The most crowded, the most popular.. Is it also the most beautiful, the most exciting? Well, that depends on your personal taste. I believe Amsterdam in its peak is far from a great city to visit - when it's crowded, there are tons of people trampling you from both sides, the ever-present smell of weed.. It is not exactly my thing.

That said, I have visited recently right after restrictions have been lifted, and I have to admit I enjoyed this new face of Amsterdam. There were people, but not that many and it made it feel lively, but also extremely enjoyable. No crowds, but all the pretty places, all the history and culture.. that's all still there! Much more my thing.

So this will be a little different than my usual post, because this won't be a recollection of my one travel to the place.. We've obviously been to Amsterdam multiple times - everyone a friend or family visits us.. They wanna see it! It is also worth noting that it is very easy to travel within the Netherlands - it only takes us 1-1,5hrs to get from our city to Amsterdam, even though we pass two provinces on the way. Yay for good train connections.

The Canals

I believe the one thing that is the most iconic not just about Amsterdam, but the Netherlands as a whole is its canals. It's like Venice, except everywhere.. And cleaner! These are what provides about 90% of the Dutch charm and they are a pleasure to look at. It is also just so nice to walk by them - they really make your stay much better. That said, one of the biggest contrasting photos I have in my collection is.. The Amsterdam canals in the winter vs in the summer.. And in the night!

At night.. They are actually quite romantic!

In the winter on the other hand.. It's a little depressing, even though we searched for the greenest spot for a long while!

And here's the real beauty of the canals.. when it is colourful and beautiful.. in 2018!

Amsterdam is full of canals, they make up the majority of the touristy part of the city. This means that if you go to Amsterdam, it's completely impossible to miss out on that - and that's great, cause to me they're just the best thing about the city!

Landmarks

But people do not usually go to Amsterdam for the canals.. and usually not even for the weed! There are tons of landmarks, musea, as well as all other kinds of great places to see. I'll show you some of them that I found interesting.. Or not, but still believe they're good to mention!

If you arrive by train, you actually start off by seeing a beautiful building - the train station itself. It looks a little like a church or a place of worship at least. That is because the man who designed it was mostly designing churches and well.. It turned out he couldn't really leave that style behind while creating other buildings. That might not be a bad thing, as it looks magnificent!

Another big building to see in Amsterdam, that you just cannot miss (not even because it's so important, it's just on such a central location) is the city hall! It is actually quite beautiful, as is a surprising amount of architecture in the city.

I guess that's also a "family reveal", as I didn't have a picture of it without them. They visited one winter and really enjoyed Netherlands!

I do not want to make this post too lengthy, as I know it is nice to sometimes just get bite-sized pieces. Due to this, I will just include one more place I really like and then save the rest for another post. What will that be? The Amsterdam Lookout Tower is a great place from which you can look over most of Amsterdam, as well as go on a swing that is.. quite high up!

That's us with Amsterdam in the background.

For some reason some people are really into getting pictures with these letters.. My girlfriend included.

For some reason you can also get up on a horse over there..

Make sure to follow me if you wanna see more of the Netherlands, as I will be posting about it for at least 5-6 posts. I got Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Breda, maybe Utrecht, maybe some more too! Amsterdam itself is a great city to visit, especially now that the crowds are not yet back!