We arrived at Dublin Airport just over two hours before out flight (which is now the suggested time you should get there) – and it was crazy busy. Thankfully we booked the lounge so once through security we headed straight there. The lounges at Dublin are decent, nothing special but it is worth the price of admission to avoid the crowds and long queues to get even a coffee, plus, it is a nice treat.
Our flight departed a tad late, but before we knew it, we had landed into Schiphol Airport early and without wasting any time, we hopped on the train to bring us into the centre of Amsterdam. The train service from the airport is excellent as it brings you right into the Central Station smack-bang in the middle of the main tourist area of the city. On a side note, something I did not notice before on my previous trip, (which is a good few years back) there is a pretty potent smell of, er, aaaaaa, let’s just say, tobacco, in the air.
That aside, we made our way to our hotel which is less than a 15 minute walk from the station. We arrived at the (much larger than expected) hotel just after 5:00pm, got checked in and got to our room. We booked a regular room as the hotel is a tad pricy and we did decide not to book breakfast, which we were totally fine with as we knew that Amsterdam has some pretty good breakfast/brunch spots that we fancied trying.
Once we had a quick look over the room, we headed downstairs to the foyer and grabbed a pastry and a drink in the hotel ‘café’, which is a fancy champagne bar which serves pastries and some snacks if you fancy them. We had two glasses of bubbles and shared a lemon tartlet, which was decent, as was the service. We did not want to fill up too much as we had a dinner reservation for later that evening. After our nibble, we headed out for a wander around to get our bearings. Despite it being a Thursday evening and between the locals going about their business and the tourists, the place is crazy busy.
After walking around for a bit, we made our way back to our room to get ready for dinner. We are dining in a place called Wils, which is a bit of a journey as it is located right beside the old Olympic stadium, with Amsterdam hosting way back in 1928. Like a lot of the bigger cities in Europe, Amsterdam has a good transportation system incorporating train, bus and metro. We purchased a two day metro ticket which gives unlimited use on the metro and bus lines which is fantastic. To get to Wils, we had about a 25 minute metro journey which was not too bad and the stop is right beside the stadium.
Wils is a Michelin star restaurant with a huge open-plan kitchen area, our table was right on the pass so you can see everything that is going on. The staff were very friendly and of course, being Dutch, they all have embarrassingly good English. Once seated, we wasted no time and ordered our usual pre-dinner tipple, the Kir Royal. This was followed by some nibbles and snacks which you can order (at an extra cost). Then it is on to the main event. They have a short a la carte menu and a slightly bigger taster menu, however, it is possible to mix and match many of the courses on offer, which we did. I will let the photos do the talking…..
The Pass
So overall, how was Wils? Well the food was decent, it had the look of a Michelin star restaurant but some of the dishes were only ‘ok’, while a few others were better and very tasty, however, ok is not good enough for a Michelin star meal, at least in our books. For example, the staff were very excited about their asparagus ice cream – we did not share their enthusiasm. While the service was very friendly and almost flawless – given the price point, we did not feel this was good value for money. Now don’t get me wrong, if you’re dining in the Michelin star bubble, value for money is usually not your first priority but on this occasion, we felt the price point was way off for the quality of food.
After our meal, it was back on the metro and back to our hotel for a good night’s rest. The following morning we had a late-ish start, we left the hotel around 10:00am and hopped on the metro to make our way to a place called Bakers and Roasters which is considered one of the best brunch spots in Amsterdam. When we arrived there was a long queue of people waiting to get in. They have a sign outside the front door asking you to join a virtual queue on their website and once registered, you will get a message when your table is ready – we thought this was a fantastic idea. Once registered, it gives you an approximate time as to how long you will be in the queue, we were told about 25 minutes. So we wandered about for a bit and low and behold after about 20 minutes, we got a message to say our table is ready and that they will hold it for 10 minutes – fantastic.
Once inside and seated we looked over the menu and ordered some coffee and a juice each to kick things off – carrot, ginger and apple. The place was very busy, as expected, but it’s nice and bright and it has a very cool vibe going on. The menu read really well, it was one of the best brunch menus we had seen in a while. C ordered the veggie breakfast and I went with the eggs benny with a side of sausage. My benny was excellent, perfectly poached eggs, delicious hollandaise, crispy bacon and a bratwurst style sausage served on a thick buttery sourdough bread, it was fantastic. C’s veggie brekkie came with creamy mushrooms, roast potatoes, grilled haloumi cheese, poached eggs, tomatoes and a homemade sweet chilli sauce along with the same fantastic bread, it was excellent. Fantastic food, good coffee and very friendly staff, we already knew a return visit would be on the cards.
After brunch, we wandered around for a bit then made our way to the ‘museum quarter’ where you can find the Van Gogh museum, the Rijksmuseum and several others. However, we first visited the Rembrandt museum, which is actually his house. It was interesting to see some of the original sketches by the master still on display as well as where he lived, worked and taught.
The next plan was to visit the Van Gogh. Sadly, the museum was sold out and also completely sold out for the next few days. So we made our way to the Rijksmuseum, which, believe it or not, was also sold out for the day. So we reassessed our plans and the first thing we did was book the Rijksmuseum for the next day.
We wandered around a little more, checking out some of the sights and did some shopping, I had a store I wanted to visit as did C. On our way back to the hotel, we decided now would be a good time to do a canal cruise. So we joined one of the many lines of people and within about 15 minutes we were cruising around the canals of Amsterdam. The trip takes just over an hour and there’s commentary which gives the usual history lessons and interesting facts about all things Amsterdam.
Once back on dry land, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We just wanted something casual for dinner so we headed towards a burger bar called Bar ‘B’ Burgers ‘N’ Beer. We had not booked a table but we managed to get one. The place looks like a nightclub and was very busy. We ordered some drinks and some chicken wings to start. The wings were pretty decent and fresh, not dried out at all. Then, burgers and some fries. The burgers were pretty decent, my only gripe was they were smothered in mayo and ketchup. Now don’t get me wrong, I love condiments, but there was a lot going on here. Anyhow, that aside, I neglected to take a photo of the burger. Once done we made our way back to the hotel.
The following morning, we set about getting brunch again, and no prizes for guessing where we went, back to Bakers and Roasters. This time around, C stuck to her veggie option and I went with the Kiwi breakfast (one of the owners is from New Zealand). We also went with some healthy juice options. Having had the experience of booking a table from our fist visit, we got into the virtual queue while on the metro, so once we got there we got straight in. Also like the previous day, the food was excellent.
Once we finished up, we wandered around for a while before making our way to the Rijksmuseum for our entrance slot. We spend the entire remainder of the day at the museum, while it is not as big as say, the Louvre, you could easily spend several days exploring every part of it. Like the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, the biggest attraction in the Rights is ‘The Night Watch’, by Rembrandt. We were fortunate enough that the painting was on display as it had just finished an extensive restoration project that took several months.
The Rijksmuseum is fantastic and well worth a look – top tip, book well in advance and not just for the that museum but for any other museums that you may be interested in. After our visit, we made our way back to the hotel. We were fortunate enough that a booking for a restaurant we were interested in came up (we had been on a waiting list). So we now had a plan for dinner. Before dinner we hit the cocktail bar in the hotel which is called The Tailor. The very friendly staff informed us if we did not find anything interesting on their cocktail menu, that they would make ‘anything’ we fancied. As it turned out, there was nothing jumping out at us on their menu, so I asked could they put together two El Diablos, which they did – and they were really nice, in fact, if we had time, we would have gone for another one.
After our drink we made our way to a place called Ron’s Gastrobar for dinner. This place is best described as a very laid back casual Michelin star restaurant. In fact, at one point it had two stars, then went down to one, on purpose apparently. Once seated, we ordered the usual tipple of choice and had a look over the menu. Ron’s has a choice of nibbles, small plates and bigger plates for sharing. Our waiter suggested perhaps one or two nibbles, two or three small plats and maybe one large plate to share but it was entirely up to us as to how much or little we wanted to order. Here’s a rundown in photos of what we had.
Ron’s Gastrobar was really enjoyable, we loved the idea of picking and choosing from the options on the menu and everything we had was really tasty and the staff were fantastic – and much better value than Wils. Once finished up, we headed back to the hotel for a good night’s rest.
For our last day in Amsterdam, our plan is to visit Zaanse Schans which is about a 50 minute bus journey outside of Amsterdam. As we wanted to make the most of our day, we decided to have breakfast in the hotel. We felt this was probably not the best idea but it would save us time. The breakfast room looks fantastic and is huge but of course that’s where everything good about it ends. For a five star hotel, there really should be table service, but maybe they just can’t get the staff. That aside, it’s the usual large buffet selection with some hot food and you can help yourself. They did have an egg-station where you could get fried eggs or omelette. The coffee was pretty desperate, a usual trend in hotels, anyhow, we ate our fill and left, we really should have just gone back to Bakers and Roasters again :-).
Once packed up, we checked out leaving or bags at the hotel with a plan to pick them up later and headed to central station to get our bus to Zaanse Schans. As this is a local bus, it makes several stops along the way, it is possible to get a train but the station is about 1.5 km from Zaanse Schans. Once off the bus, you can easily spot all the windmills off in the distance, there was not as many as I thought there would be but none the less they look interesting. There is no charge into the park, however, you have to pay to visit any of the windmills which will set you back 15 euro. The interesting thing to note is that really after visiting one, you are unlikely to pay again to visit another.
After walking around the park for a bit we crossed the bridge to get some lunch in the town. There were a few options but most were small cafés which is all we really wanted. We sat outside in a local bar ordered some coffee and shared a toasted sambo. After lunch, we crossed back over the bridge, took a few snaps and decided we were done for the day. You could easily knock out about two or three hours at Zaanse Schans but overall, bar seeing the windmills up close, we were not really impressed. We hopped back on the bus to make our way back to Amsterdam, headed back towards our hotel to grab the bags and before we knew it, we were at the airport gate waiting to board our flight.
We had an enjoyable few days in Amsterdam – there is plenty to see and do even if you just wander the many side streets along the canals as it’s very pleasant. We really enjoyed Ron’s Gastrobar and Bakers and Roasters was fantastic and when next in Amsterdam, we’ll make our way there. On this trip, we did not get to the Van Gogh museum or the Anne Frank House, so they will be on our hitlist when next we are in the area.
Until next time,
Bye for now,
C&J
cjfoodandtravel 