The City That Stole My Heart | Amsterdam

Whenever I hear the name of this beautiful city my heart skips a beat. Amsterdam. Even the thought of it puts a smile on my face.

Last year my friend and I decided to take a spontaneous trip to Amsterdam - spontaneous in the sense that we had spent very little time together alone, and booked the trip 6 days before flying. 6 days to research, plan, pack, prepare and go.
The reason that Amsterdam is so dear to my heart is that it is not just the city than began my desire to travel the world. I didn't just fall in love with the canals and the sunshine and the tourists, but I fell in love with the boy I went with. So, yes, I'm biased. But I think anyone who has visited the hustle and bustle of this city is also biased.

We stayed in the Vossius Hotel next to Vondelpark which I highly recommend as a location. It wasn't too deep into the busy canal streets to get the disturbance of the nightlife, but close enough that we were able to walk around the city centre and get any buses and trams to other tourist locations. The large window opened over the bed, with thin white curtains flowing over us when a breeze came along, which was the perfect movie moment. We were a few minutes walk from the bus stop near the Rijksmuseum. Almost as soon as we got into our hotel room we were back out to buy a picnic to sit at sunset in Vondelpark, surrounded by groups of people basking in the heat - as we coincidentally decided to go the hottest weekend of 2016 - and gentle jazz music being played as we looked across the ponds.

Vondelpark

Seeing as it was the hottest weekend of the year this did mean we were a little hindered in our activities - our second day of the holiday we were too hot to walk anymore and headed back to the hotel room to have a break and a nap (DISCLAIMER: if you do visit this hotel room on the hottest weekend of the year please know that rooms like ours had no air con).

We spent the majority of our time strolling the streets and canals and visiting the quirky shops around the city. We did visit the Rijksmuseum on our last day - which was free for under 19's - and the air con definitely improved this experience.

The Rijksmuseum Gardens

The reason I'm writing this post almost a year post-holiday is because me and the now-boyfriend I first went with have just booked to go again for our one year anniversary. As first dates go, the holiday I've never been able to get out of my head since is certainly one for the books.

Amsterdam - I will always love you, and I'll see you soon x