Tere!
I personally consider Amsterdam as a city where you can enjoy yourself as long as you have sufficient money.
In addition to the fact that Amsterdam is an expensive city, museums in Amsterdam basically charge you. In my opinion, it is hard to enjoy Amsterdam with little budgets.
But!
That was because I was a student when I visited Amsterdam twice!
Now I have a job with a good salary! Besides, I save money for a trip, so I had enough funds to enjoy myself in Amsterdam. Since I spent only two days in the Netherlands, and did some sightseeing in Amsterdam for only one day, I went to two museums and three restaurants in Amsterdam this time (2023).
Table of Contents
1. Museums
a. Nxt museum
b. Torture museum
2. Restaurants
a. Anne&Max
b. Pancakes Amsterdam
c. Vlaams
★Summary
1. Museums
First of all, let’s talk about the museums that I went to in Amsterdam.
In Amsterdam there are a number of museums such as Madam Tassau and Van Gough museum, but this time I chose Nxt museum and the torture museum.
a. Nxt museum
Nxt museum is located in the north of Amsterdam (more north than the Amsterdam Central station), and you can go there by ferry. Once you arrive at the opposite side by ferry, it only takes 15 minutes by walk to the Nxt museum. When I went to the Next museum, although there was construction on the road, it was not difficult to get to Next museum as the route was not complicated.
I bought a ticket for the Nxt museum in advance. Depending on the entry time, the prices differ so keep in mind that. If I had been a student, I would have definitely not come because the ticket price was more than 20 EUR for one adult. So expensive. I’m not sure if it was because it’s in Amsterdam or because the Nxt museum is so special or both….
It seems the exhibition’s theme varies from time to time. When I went to the Nxt museum, it was the world of video games and something like Takashi Murakami’s art. I like contemporary art, so it was worth paying 20 EUR to the Nxt museum.
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Some artworks are visitor-engaging, and it was extraordinarily interesting.
It appears to take more time than an old-fashioned museum, and yet it took me only one hour or 1.5 hours to spend time in the Nxt museum.
b. Torture museum
If you have read my article on the Belfast trip, you may know that I like visiting a creepy museum. Therefore I went to one interesting but creepy museum in Amsterdam…. It is the “Torture museum”.
It’s a small museum in Amsterdam, where you can see torturing items that were used in the middle ages. The ticket price was 10 EUR per adult.
When showing my ticket to the torture museum, the old guy who checked cheerily said
“Enjoy yourself!”
and immediately I thought
“This museum’s atmosphere is definitely not “to enjoy”…
The way to display all those torturing items was creepy, and the door and stairs clattered…
It’s not good for a person who is chicken!
But I got relieved as I heard other visitors’ fun voices later so I had fun there. 😂
Partially there was really a creepy object, and I couldn’t spend time there. Every torturing item has an explanation which was interesting.
The last was very good. The last should be like that!
The ticket only specifies the date, so you can go to the torture museum at any time during the day.
2. Restaurants
As I like eating, I want to enjoy food as much as possible during a trip because in my daily life in Estonia, I save money and eat something very healthy.
It does not mean that I will be extravagant for food on a trip, but it means that I want to eat what I want to eat during a trip.
Since my stay in Amsterdam was very short, I visited only four restaurants in Amsterdam, three of which I will introduce here.
a. Anne&Max
Anne&Max is a chain cafe in the Netherlands. Depending on where Anne&Max is, the opening hours differ. There was Anne&Max in 15 minutes by walk from the accommodation in Amsterdam, which opens at 8.30 in the morning, I decided to have breakfast in that Anne&Max cafe.
I ordered only a scone (with clotted cream and lemon curd) and a cup of coffee.
I wondered if I should eat a bit more, but
I couldn’t give up a scone…!!
It was probably because I went to Amsterdam right after travelling to Northern Ireland. Plus, I love lemon curd! I sometimes bought a jar of lemon curd when I lived in Ireland in 2015.
Although it didn’t meet my stomach, it did meet my mind.
Besides them, there are other breakfast menus and lunch menus at Anne&Max, if you can find anything interesting on Anne&Max’s website, try and go there.
b. Pancakes Amsterdam
I found Pancakes Amsterdam on Twitter.
A twitterer said that you could have fluffy pancakes in Amsterdam!
However, when looking at Pancakes Amsterdam’s menu before going there, I changed my mind…
“I want to eat this banana chilli pancake!!”
It does sound like a pancake with disgusting combinations (plus bacon)m and yet I tried.
It was actually good…
It was sweet and salty or chilli’s spiciness that matched the banana’s sweetness… I don’t know how to explain because I’m so bad at reporting how good the food is and I don’t have much vocabulary, but anyway it was surprisingly tasty…
Also, I thought Dutch pancakes were small takoyaki-like pancakes. However, the Dutch pancake Pancakes Amsterdam served was a thinner pancake than a crepe.
What is more, I found “Dutch coffee”!
Researching “Dutch coffee”, it’s coffee with eggnog. I had this coffee too.
They served me a cup of Dutch coffee with a stroopwafel.
It wasn’t as bitter like normal coffee. Since it had eggnog and cream on it, it was more like a dessert coffee.
I didn’t know about Dutch coffee until then! I learnt one more thing on this trip.
Pancakes Amsterdam doesn’t have only odd pancakes. (Or rather this banana-chilli pancake is the only unique one, I would say.) Pancakes Amsterdam have both sweet pancakes and savoury pancakes. You can customise your own pancakes as well.
I happened to go to Pancakes Amsterdam Negen Straatjes at 12.00 pm on Monday, and I had to wait for 40 minutes. I was glad that it was already the end of March… Imagine, if it had been February … as I needed to wait outside. Since it was so busy even on Monday, I assume the weekends and holidays there may be a longer queue Pancakes Amsterdam.
Pancakes Amsterdam accepted only the card payment.
c. Vlaams
When you go to Amsterdam, you should definitely go to Vlaams!
You can eat Belgian chips!
(You may have thought why it was not Dutch chips, but honestly I think there is no big difference. Tell me if you know the differences.)
It’s actually a chips stand, and they have a lot of kinds of sauces in Vlaams!
When I went to Vlaams in 2018, I chose the hottest sauce, and I was killing my mouth. It was tasty though.
This time I chose green pepper, which is just a mayonnaise sauce with green pepper, and it was not so spicy, so even people who can’t handle spiciness should be able to have it.
But if you wonder which sauce you should choose, order “satay sauce” (with peanuts)!
(To be honest, I’m not 100% sure if they have this in Vlaams, but they should because in the Netherlands food cultures from some Asian countries such as Indonesia are there.)
The Dutch people like this satay sauce. I know it’s good, but I want to challenge myself.
This is why I choose something odd.
The sauce costs extra, so if you simply want to have chips with salt, you don’t need to pay for the sauce.
★Summary
Earlier I wrote I went to four restaurants, and the fourth place that I didn’t include in this article was a Vietnamese restaurant. Since I went there for my own self-satisfaction, I believed there was no point to describe it.
I spent only one day in Amsterdam whilst it was very satisfactory, and I enjoyed myself in a different way than when I was a student.
You can’t buy happiness with money?
That’s a lie, you can indeed buy happiness.
Aitäh! 🙂
zooks.ee 