When you live somewhere day in, day out, you tend to take it for granted. You don’t explore, you don’t really take photos (unless it’s for Instagram’s sake) and you don’t visit museums or tourist attractions.
And when I say “you”, I of course mean “I”.
I’ve been very guilty of this ever since I moved to Amsterdam. Having visited the city twice before moving, I’d already done a flurry of touristy things and then once I lived here I fell into the trap of thinking “there’s plenty of time to do such-and-such-a-thing”. One of my resolutions this year was to make sure that I got around to the places that were on my list from last year and so, with that in mind, Scott and I headed off for a day in Amsterdam playing tourist.
We started the day with some oversized pancakes at the Upstairs Pannenkoekenhuis and quickly realised why it was we rarely do touristy stuff – because there are hundreds of “actual” tourists doing the exact same thing. Wait half an hour for a table?! What is this nonsense??
Nevertheless, we waited it out, then left with full bellies and pressed on to the Museum of Bags and Purses.
This was a museum I’d been wanting to visit for a while, even though it seems a slightly odd one to be located in Amsterdam. Boasting the largest collection of bags and purses in the world (over 5000, dating from 1600AD), it is located inside a traditional canal house and even has its own restaurant serving afternoon tea and cakes shaped like shoes and handbags (worth the visit alone, surely?)
Even Scott enjoyed this museum, because there was a lot of history and interesting stories surrounding the evolution of bag design and why/how they were first used, by both men and women. Some of the bags were crazily intricate, while some were just downright disgusting (check out my “lizard arms” pic on Instagram if you don’t believe me).
This is a privately owned museum, so is slightly more expensive than some other museums in the city (around 9.50 Euros at the time of writing this), but there are plenty of discounts for students/children/OAPs and if you have a Museum Card or IAmsterdam card you can get in for free. I’d definitely recommend it if you’re looking for something a little unusual (read: not your typical boring museum).
Next up, we headed to the Chinatown section of the city, mainly because we had a spotted an interesting Chinese bakery there on a previous visit and were getting a bit peckish. We picked up a spring onion bread and a custard roll (which was actually a lot like a delicious custard donut).
Before we scarfed them, we popped into a fishmonger across the road and ordered a portion of kibbeling (fried pieces of white fish) and some fried mussels. I love kibbeling, being the fish and chips fan that I am, but wasn’t totally sold on the mussels. I did love the Chinese pastries, particularly the custard roll, which I’ll be picking up again in the future, I’m sure.
Lastly, we headed to one of the canal house museums in the central canal ring. There are a couple of these museums, that essentially give you a glimpse into what life was like for the crazy rich, but honestly, I didn’t really like it.
I’m not going to give the name of the particular museum we visited, because it wasn’t really their fault that I wasn’t impressed, more that I’d enjoyed the bag musuem so much that it was a bit of an anticlimax. I also didn’t like that the house had been renovated several times and certain rooms had been moved around, meaning that you didn’t feel like you were stepping back in time as you do in old houses and palaces that I’ve visited at home.
In short, if you’re really interested in seeing what these big, grand canal houses are like inside, then by all means give them a go. But in my humble opinion, it wasn’t worth the entrance fee and we ended up rushing around the rooms so that we could leave.
Our touristy day in Amsterdam has definitely opened my eyes a little more to what we are missing by staying mainly in our cozy neighbourhood and I hope to do it again soon, albeit not on a sunny Friday when the crowds are out in full force!
I think I have done a lot of the touristy things in Amsterdam but have not been to the Museum of Bags and Purses. I would be interested in knowing what other items you have on your list so I get ideas of something I have missed?
I still haven’t seen the tulips yet because last year I was too busy moving. And I also still need to get out to Zaanse Schans for a day and take the dog to the Bos and I’d like to visit the Maritime Museum and the Noord beach bars during summer… The list seems to keep growing 😉