The Netherlands - musings on our mid 2013 travel there...

I pledged to finish my musings on our overseas travels this mid-year.... before the end of 2013! So here I am... ready to let my thoughts ponder on our travel experiences yet again...

Amsterdam had the most amazing art...

It was wonderful to see my favourite Dutch magazine, 'Flow' in the shop around the corner of where we stayed!

...and we had loads of yummy foods... like these apple tart with proper Dutch cream ('slagroom') and coffee with milk ('koffie-verkeerd')...

 Strolling along the water streets of Amsterdam made us feel that this is real!  We explored the 9-streets ('9 straatjies') area where lots of arts are being sold :)

Oh, and all the bookshops were amazing! Especially the 10th most beautiful bookshop in the world, 'The American bookshop' on Het Spui!  Its claim to fame being a tree growing through its different levels.

...and then a visit to Amsterdam is not complete without cycling from Volendam to Marken and then catching the ferry back to Volendam... SO much fun!!

Then there were the art shops that I follow on facebook... that I had the chance of looking up in person!

Penelope Craft with the amazingly beautiful collection of wools was a certain highlight!!

What made our stay in Amsterdam especially memorable was the friends that we met up with...  Anne, I saw again - for the first time in 10 years! This pic was taken on Dam Square with the then recent coronation of the new king still very visible in pic's everywhere...

We will always have the most amazing memories of this experience in a country with its language very close to our own - which added so much to make our experience more interesting!