Day 3 - 20 April (Sunday)
Netherlands - Zaanse Schans (Traditional Dutch Village + Windmills)
Netherlands - Zaanse Schans (Traditional Dutch Village + Windmills)
Off to Zaanse schans to see traditional windmills!
Took bus 391 from Central at 9.35am.
Tickets cost us €7 per pax for a round trip. 1 trip takes about 40 mins or so.
It was the last stop so we could take a short nap! Just follow the crowd to the windmills!
Address: Schansend 7
1509 AW Zaandam
Opening Hours: 10am - 7pm
(check website for hours as there may be different opening hours in different seasons)
It was like a small tourist village here with souvenir shops and little huts with bakeries, snacks etc. It was very breezy (of course right?) And here are our shots with the windmill!
Vast lands with a couple windmills, not as many windmills as I expected but still beautiful.
Bought this Cheez dippers in the supermarket yesterday as most of our snacks were chocolate flavoured so had to get some less heaty snacks!
One of my favourite snack though it was some time since I last had it! It's cheap here!
Damage: €1.75
Pretty magnificent huh! Pretty traditional windmills #amsterdam #windmills #scenic
Up close shot! Wasted that I missed out the edges of the panes else it would look perfect against the perfect blue sky! You can actually pay €3.50 to go up the windmill but we thought there wasn't much since it was just a level higher.
This would be a perfect place to take wedding photos too! Spend about an hour here.
Damage: €0, free unless you want to go inside the windmill or visit the nearby museum. We didn't.
Address: Berenstraat 38 1016GH Amsterdam
Opening Hours: 10am to 7pm (however, the day we went, they were planning to close at 4pm due to unforseen circumstances), no reservations allowed.
Lunch was pancakes time! What Holland is famous for!
Greeted by the long queue while we were hungry! *roar*
Finally seated and took another long wait before our pancakes finally arrive...
I had the days special (Ham with Camembert Cheese) and NB had the banana with chocolate sauce and mixed nuts.
The pancake was very thin, texture more like a crepe than a pancake. Generous serving of Camembert cheese with slightly pan fried ham. Nice combination.
Damage: €8.50 for mine, €9.50 for NB's
Rating: 8/10, it was good but not worth it for the hour long wait.
Vlaams Friteshuis Vleminckx
Address: Voetboogstraat 31-33,
Amsterdam 1012 XK
I think fries is very popular in Amsterdam (well, maybe whole world but what I mean is...) as there were many small stores selling this fried snack. You will find a small outlet selling these fried potato sticks packed in cone shaped paper holders and drenched in thick flavourful sauces.
I think fries is very popular in Amsterdam (well, maybe whole world but what I mean is...) as there were many small stores selling this fried snack. You will find a small outlet selling these fried potato sticks packed in cone shaped paper holders and drenched in thick flavourful sauces.
Very often (if not all the time), you have to pay for the sauces to go with your fries. We walked quite a distance to find this popular outlet nearly hidden in an alley. Vleminckx serves fries in small, medium and large sizes and you could get yours with sauces like mayo, curry, bbq, sambal and many others which we aren't sure what we're those.
We chose sambal while jass chose bbq. Ours were pretty spicy but it's was just like fries with chilli, thai style without the sweetness. Bbq wasn't too bad as it was mixed with mayo. Should have tried the curry version.
Damage: €3.30 including 1 sauce.
Rating : 7/10
More sights of Amsterdam!
Puccini Bomboni
Address: 184 Singel Street
Puccini Bomboni is apparently amsterdam's nicest chocolates so we by as we had some time before Anne Frank museum tour to take a look.
Nice aroma of chocolates so we got a small packet of milk chocolate halls to try! Not bad, good chocolate quality but I don't think it's that fantastic. But it might be that we got the simple chocolates, perhaps the more "gourmet" types would be better!
Damage: €3.50-4.50 per gram. Ours was about 150 gm?
Rating: 8/10 giving them benefit of doubt that others might be better.
While waiting for our scheduled timing to visit Anne Frank museum, we sat along the canal banks looking at the boats passing by.
As it was Sunday, you can see couples on a boat date sipping champagne or an all guys beer drinking session or family gatherings with kids having some picnic fun on board their motor boats going down the canals. What a lifestyle! Wouldn't it be lovely to spend a Sunday afternoon/evening like that?
Anne Frank House (Anne Frankhuis)
Address: Prinsengracht 267, Amsterdam 1016 GV (Jordaan)
Back to Anne Frank, do reserve you tickets online upfront to save yourself from the long snaking queue which we see everyday! For online reservations, you could select your dates and timing and get into the museum from the side doors.
This was a very interesting museum to visit as it showcases the actual house and diary of Anne Frank, a 14 year old Jews girl who went into hiding during world war 2 in her father's factory which she calls a "secret annex". Her diary was unveiled by her father as a post war artefacts which told a story about how the family endured the tough 25 months of hiding through the eyes of a little yet mature girl.
Some might find it disturbing to go through everything but we actually found it extremely interesting. Definitely worth a visit.
Damage: €14.50
Rating: 9/10, Interesting history lesson!
Manneken Pis Amsterdam
Address: Damrak 41,
Amsterdam (Dam Square)
While we were set to looked for the red light district area, past Manneken Pis which we spotted on our 1st day with a long queue.
While we were set to looked for the red light district area, past Manneken Pis which we spotted on our 1st day with a long queue.
Alex and jass decided to try this as well as they were serving it with cheddar cheese. Yums!
Tried a piece and thought this was better than the last we had. Slightly more expensive but quantity seemed to be more. Worth a try munching on these freshly fried pipping hot potatoes in the cool winds.
An interesting sight, something that amsterdam is famous for while we heard some locals were sad that they were known for this and smoking weed. Oh well... We found the place but couldn't take pictures of the ladies behind the windows which we understand. Maybe it was still early but we did see some of the ladies behind the windows scantily dressed in lingerie and egging on guys to go in to what seem like just the bed behind the closed curtains.
To spot them simply look red lighted bulbs above the doors around the area.
Dinner was back at airbnb where we had to finish what we got from the supermarket! 
Our yogurt, strawberries and Viennetta ice cream. Love this ice cream since young but seldom get it as it's pretty expensive.
We got it cheaply at the supermarket yesterday during a sale and loved it!
Damage: €1.99
Rating: 9/10 for the price value!!
Damage for Day 3 = €41 per pax
Photo (all except those lousy shots taken by my mobile phone) credits to Alexander!
