[The following post is from the archives of my In Search Of Incredible blog, originally published on 4 August 2016]
30 November 2015, Monday
It was our final full day in Amsterdam, and we took it easy today. After having breakfast at our apartment, we headed out for a stroll at Westerpark, a small and lovely park located at our neighbourhood’s doorstep. It was another cloudy and gloomy morning, with not a hint of blue skies. Nevertheless, we had a pleasant time walking along the gravel paths, admiring the pretty white ducks lazing by the water’s edge and smiling at the locals who were out for a jog or a brisk walk.
After that, we headed over to Bloemenmarkt, the famous floating flower market, located on Singel Canal between Koningsplein and Muntplein. Apparently, it is the only floating flower market in the world. In actual fact, I couldn’t even tell that the shops were floating because they were all packed closely together and firmly secured to the canal bank. They were more like barges than floats.
As we walked down the row of shops, we saw an amazing array of tulips on sale – there were the traditional solid red ones, the common white with pink streaks one, pure white, purple and orange ones and much more. Now I know why they are called tulip bulbs, because they are really shaped like light bulbs. The shops also sold the tulip bulbs in pre-packed packets, which would have been suitable as gifts. It would have been cool to buy some back to Singapore and try to plant them ourselves, but we didn’t. Besides tulips, there were also many varieties of other flower bulbs on sale, which promised colourful and attractive blooms.
The Dutch really know how to maximise their tourism potential, as evidenced by the numerous souvenir shops along the way. Each shop was packed to the brim with souvenirs of every kind imaginable, and they all looked so nice. We were especially drawn to the beautiful fridge magnets shaped like the iconic shophouses along the canals, but we managed to exercise some restraint. You can also find Space Cake readily available in the shops. These are cannabis cookies containing real cannabis inside, and they come in assorted flavours including chocolate and coconut. For the record, we didn’t buy any!
After that, it started to rain and we decided to spend our time shopping and hiding indoors. We went back to the shopping street at Kalverstraat, and had McDonald’s for lunch for a change. We spent the rest of the day just walking around the city area because the weather was cold and wet, casting a lazy spell upon us.
At night, we cooked our own simple dinner comprising instant noodles soup with broccoli and tomato. I then pulled out a Madonna DVD (The Confessions Tour) from our Airbnb host’s collection and watched the concert while sipping on white wine, which was also with compliments from our host. Just to psyche myself up because I would be watching an actual Madonna concert in London in two days’ time!
Last night in Amsterdam…next up, London!