Amsterdam circa 2007! haha

And here I am as a passenger in Ariane's bakfiets in 2017!


The first night while Ariane was out at a cooking class I decided to go for a walk and explore Amsterdam. I left her house with no direction and as I walked I started remembering some of the streets and out of nowhere I said: "Around here is the I Amsterdam sign and Van Gogh Museum" and I kept walking and I ended up right in front of the sign!


Since it was already the end of November, the streets were already decorated and right in front of the Rijksmuseum they had set up a skating ring that made Amsterdam look even more charming and like a winter wonderland.


One morning I went for a stroll through Vondel Park, the central park of Amsterdam. I loved walking through the paths full of brown fallen leaves, but one has to be very careful of the speeding bikes that come your way from all sides if you are not paying attention!






From Vondel Park I went to explore the canals and the many beautiful streets in the city. I especially loved the look of the trees with the falling leaves

Taking in the little bit of sun with Ariane!

If there is one thing that characterises Amsterdam is the many many many many bikes that there are on the streets. There are more bikes than cars! And people are FAST! If you are not from the city it takes a little bit to get used to them and to know the rules! Sometimes I felt as if bikes had no rules whatsoever! And for sure they had no speed limit!


I loved walking around and finding different ways to take pictures of bicycles!

Through the wheel

What ALL streets in Amsterdam look like!

Canals, plus bikes, equals Amsterdam!

This one to me summarises Amsterdam!

Boats, boats, and more boats!

Amsterdam... the city of bicycles!!!

Nothing more famous that the coffee shops in Amsterdam! Where people have been able to enjoy some cannabis without hiding for many many years! The smell of it is all over town, and it is specially strong when you walk behind younger tourists!


In Tanzania I met Micky and Eva and while talking about how much I missed peanut butter they told me about Micky's friend who has a peanut butter store in Amsterdam and I just had to go get some!

They had six different kinds of PB and they were all delicious! At the store they had opened jars so I took advantage of it and tried every single one of them! I ended up buying some of my favourite: Caramel and coconut! https://depindakaaswinkel.nl/en/

Beautiful street where De Pindakaaswinkel is, the sun hit the golden leaves perfectly!

From the peanut butter store I walked back to the station and on my way I found a museum with an amazing view and was lucky to get beautiful colours for the sunset:





I was lucky enough to get some rays of sun during my five days in Amsterdam but I mostly saw fog and by 4pm it started to get dark. The good thing about it getting dark so early was that I was able to enjoy the city with the beautiful lights.

The lit up trees by the canals gave the city an extra charm!

Busy busy!

I loved loved LOVED Amsterdam at night! The lights on the tunnels, looking at boats pass by... It's just so beautiful!!











 The Netherlands is well known for its tulips and there is one street with the flower market lined with flower shops selling bulbs for so many kinds of flowers!

Queue for the Anne Frank Museum

Statue of Anne Frank by her house!

Exotic museum, and to its left some red windows with prostitutes!

My last night in Amsterdam I spent it over at Micky's house having dinner with Micky, Eva and Jay, 3 of our Tanzanian safari crew! So much fun!

Eating some really nice food... with chapati, of course!