Day 2
The second day was my favourite because at the later part, I went to the Zaanse Schans with windmills and it was a total escape from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Started off the day at the Anne Frank Museum. Anne Frank was a little girl who happened to be a Jew. Just because of her race, her family has to go into hiding during the Nazi period and she so happened to write this diary that documents the happenings during the hiding. The museum forbids photo-taking, so that explains the lack of photos. It’s also the most systematic and organised museum I’ve been to, because there’s a queue for almost everything, including the reading of the diary’s excerpts. But it’s quite an intriguing experience when you read and understand the situation in 1944.
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After the museum, we took a long walk to Museumplein, where most museums concentrate at. Unfortunately, the bus driver of bus 172 was very rude and unhelpful. He quoted an astounding sum of 5 euro just for a few stops to Museumplein, so my friends decided to take a 15-20 minutes walk instead. 5 euro was way too ridiculous for a bus ride, especially when it’s still within the city. Not sure if the bus driver was out to extort tourists.
When you reach Museumplein, the first thing you’ll notice is the large “I AMSTERDAM” logo. Inevitably, there will be tons of people around, some trying to climb up the logo with the most unglam positions hahaha. But once you’re up there and have taken a photo of you being up there, everything’s worth it!
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| With my friend, Jin Dao |
I didn’t bother to enter the museums because firstly, I am not interested and secondly, they are quite expensive (>9 €). So the next best decision I made during this trip was to head to Zaanse Schans after a 30mins train ride!
You’ll have to head to Amsterdam Centraal to by the regional ticket. Just speak to the service staff at the counter and let her know that you to visit Zaanse Schans, and she’ll sell you a round train ticket that costs only 6.50€! The nearest station to Zaanse Schans is Koog-Zaandijk. Alight and you should be able to spot some map signs which will guide you to the country side. It’s about 10 minutes walk away.
I really enjoyed myself here at Zaanse Schans. The time spent here greatly differs among people, depending on your intention here. If you would like to rush things, you can easily cover this place in an hour; snap some photos, walk for steps and you’re all done. But instead, I took my own sweet time visiting crafts shops like the clog museum and cheese museum. There were cheese-tasting and clogs-making demonstrations as well, which were really nice to enjoy.
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| Ducklings waddling around like nobody’s business. |
The weather just the day before this photo was taken, was terrible. It was pouring like mad and the mood was so depressing. Thank goodness that when I came here, the sky became so clear with white fluffy clouds! Amsterdam, thank you for giving me such a nice 2nd day.
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| Ah what a nice photo under such a great great weather |
I highly recommend visiting Zaanse Schans since the cost of travelling there is much cheaper than to Keukenhof. But make sure you check the weather forecast because it’ll be pointless to go if it’s raining.
Love,
Celine
Celine Chiam is a Singapore Lifestyle, Beauty and Fashion blogger. Welcome to her world of beauty reviews, travelogues and every day tips! She’s on #dayre (@chiamhuiy) and instagram (@chiamhuiy) as well.