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The flight from Heathrow airport was delayed by half an hour or so. This was due to the backlog of flights that had already been held up due to thunderstorms. Once airborne, the flight was so quick that the cabin crew only just had chance to serve our meal and drinks before landing.
Schiphol airport was busy when we got to passport control, as another flight had just landed from America. I would say we had a half hour wait to get through, but no bother.
https://www.parkplazavictoriaamsterdam.com
The next task was to find a way to transfer to Amsterdam itself. It was easy to book a sprinter train directly to Amsterdam Centraal, through the Trainline.com app. It took only 15 minutes to get there on a very packed train. Our hotel, the Park Plaza Victoria literally faces the train station so we were soon there and checked in.
We had no plan for the first night, only to take in the atmosphere of this vibrant city. We wandered around Amsterdam Nieuwe Zijde, known as the newer section, and eventually found a little gem of a bar called Cafe Belgique. It was a quirky little place that sold bottles of Belgian beer, as well as some wicked Duvel on draft called 666. It certainly was a bit of a beast at 6.66%.
We moved on after a couple of drinks as we were getting a bit hungry now. It’s usually one of my “things” to research restaurants before travelling, but this time I had decided not to have a plan as such. It was a great decision as we found a great restaurant called d’Vijff Vlieghen, which translates as Five Flies. This restaurant is made up of five canal houses that dates back to the 1600s. The walls are decorated with old but beautiful gold plated leather which is from the 17th and 19th century. There are also some of Rembrandts’ etchings there. We sat at the King’s table, a long wooden table that was positioned higher up so that we overlooked everyone else who was eating. The menu was classic Dutch, with a three course meal costing €39.95. Everything was beautifully presented and the service was great.
https://www.vijffvlieghen.nl/en/
After leaving the restaurant we got caught in the most torrential downpour with thunder and lightning thrown in for good measure. I had forgotten my brolly so we sheltered for a while before braving it and headed to the nearest bar. This was called Cafe ‘t Molentje, the Windmill Cafe. It was nothing like a windmill but played great music, There was a stack of vinyl and two old turntables so you could pick your own music if you so wished.
Once we had dried off a bit, we headed to the Red Light District and found a great bar called Cafe Remember. I did joke that I wondered if it would make me forget. It certainly did that as I don’t actually remember getting back to the hotel!!
Day two started off very leisurely, particularly as I was still hanging from the excesses of last night. Fresh air was what I needed so we headed out for a wander into the Red Light area again. There we found a great spot for takeaway brunch called The Cheese Deli. I managed a ham and cheese baguette and a bottle of water.
We wandered around a previously unvisited area which is where we found a canal boat tour, a rondvaart (cruise) with Rederij Kooij Tours. We found out some interesting facts on our hour cruise round canals of Amsterdam. We learned that Schiphol Airport is 1.5 metres below sea level. We also now know that boat houses sell for a song. We saw one that cost €1.5 million and most of that is due to its location. Also there are more bicycles in Amsterdam than residents. The captain also told us that the depth of the canals is 3m, but not of water. He said it’s a metre of mud, a metre of bicycles and a metre of water. More than 15000 bicycles are pulled out of the canals every year…and cars too (not 15000 though), but not so many nowadays as barriers are positioned at the edge of the canals. We also now know that some of the houses have moved because they were built on stilts and have subsequently sunk into the mud of the Amstel River. They are called Dancing Houses for this reason.
https://www.rederijkooij.nl/en
https://www.locationscout.net/netherlands/38476-the-dancing-houses-amsterdam
I was beginning to feel a bit more human now so we ended up in a bar that we had visited with my son and his girlfriend. It is another quirky little place with stairs up to a wooden balcony area that gives a great view over the bar and outside.
http://www.amsterdam-red-light-district-maps.com/CafeBarDeStoof.html
After that, we returned to the hotel to freshen up and then went back out to get a bite to eat. We found a small cafe-restaurant called Grizzly, which is on Warmoesstraat. It’s an American diner type place that sells steaks and burgers. The steak was perfect and service was great, from a young lady who was so happy and friendly.
Next, we headed back to the hotel and picked up a taxi to head to the Ziggo Dome. This was the reason that the trip was booked, to go and see one of our favourite bands, Placebo. The taxi wasn’t cheap, but it was nearly five miles from our hotel. Our driver arranged to pick us up afterwards which made it easy to get back. Security was pretty tight heading into the arena, and we were soon able to grab a beer and head in. The support, Deadletter, were a bit grungy so we stayed on the concourse. Signs came up about concert goers not using mobile phones. Using phones is something that lead singer Brian Molko detests. Placebo came on late, probably Molko being his usual diva-esque self. They belted out mostly new tunes from the latest album (Never Let Me Go) and didn’t fail to please with some old classics too. If I was going to be critical, I would say there was probably a bit too much bass, and Molko didn’t interact with the audience much, but never does anyway.
https://www.placeboworld.co.uk
Back to the hotel after the gig, we had a quick drink in the bar before heading to the room. We had to be up early for the second leg of our trip.
jctraveller 
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