Amsterdam in less than 24 hours? I got you.
We had a realllly tight itinerary, but still wanted to see Amsterdam. So from Porto, we flew to Schiphol airport, arriving close to midnight. It was early April, but Amsterdam was freezing. Add to that, it was raining. Mobile data was so bad it took us a while to get an Uber.
But it was all worth it. Our friend, who arrived earlier in the day, greeted us with some homecooked meal of pancit canton and spam he bought from the grocery store. And, the airbnb — despite making us take three flights of stairs — was gorgeous and cozy! It was the perfect place to settle down amid the downpour outside.
Tired, we decided to sleep in and wake up early the next day to check the city.
We realized late that museums in Amsterdam can get fully booked. We wanted to do the Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank’s house, but the tickets were all sold out — months in advance.
Good thing, there’s still Rijksmuseum. The place is huge. If you’ve played Animal Crossing, you’ll have a feast here. Several paintings Redd the Fox sell in the game can be found here, like Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. They also sell magnets of them at the museum gift shop. There’s also huge library that I couldn’t resist taking a picture of.
Next stop: Lunch. Nothing stood out to us in terms of must eat places in the city. But my friends wanted to try Ethiopian food, which, was available. We headed to Lalibela restaurant and the food (and portion) didn’t disappoint!
Time was ticking, so we did the most touristy thing — take the canal cruise. I’d say, with few hours to spare, this is a nice way to take in the city and enjoy the sites, particularly Amsterdam’s architecture.
We literally had less than an hour to get our luggage from the airbnb and leave for the airport for our next flight. But, what is Amsterdam without seeing the infamous red light district? So we quickened our pace, took the most iconic photos of Amsterdam’s canals (plus the bikes!), took a glimpse of the action in the district, and then chased a cab and onward to our next destination!