Okay! So the rest of my time in the Netherlands. I would like to say this is going to be a short post – but I talk to much so it’s just shorter than the last.

Amsterdam

On Tuesday, Abigail and I made our way to Amsterdam. Abigail had an early morning flight on Wednesday and I decided to join her in exploring Amsterdam. After a final great breakfast at the hostel in Tilburg, we headed to the train station with Oliver who was also headed out – though he was on the way to France. He is spending a month in Europe before heading back to Canada.

We got to Amsterdam a little later than we had planned due to a delay. Thankfully, when the announcement on our second train came on and people started groaning and getting off the train, a nearby lady asked if we needed a translation. She and a man were able to tell us that there was an issue ahead of us and the train had been cancelled and changed to another that would be heading back the way it had originally came and we would need to get off the train. They were able to fix whatever the issue was fairly quickly and we were able to get on the next train out – after stopping to get a Ginger Shot – and we only had a 20-30 minute delay.

Once we got to Amsterdam, it became clear that Abigail, like me, could be stubborn about just walking wherever we needed to, so with our stuff we walked the 30 minutes to our hostel and thankfully were able to check in early and get settled before we went out. We explored the city for the next couple of hours – checking out the shopping district, the redlight district, and once again putting our phones/gps away and just picking locations at random. We only used our gps when we were getting a little too far from where we needed to be on a time crunch. We had decided to do a dinner canal cruise and so we had to be back to the main part of the city by a certain time. Our wanderings took us about 45 minutes away and we discovered an amazing park along with their zoo – we decided against going into the zoo since it was 30 Euros and we only had a limited amount of time before we headed to the pier, but from it looked like it’s pretty popular!

The canal cruise was great. We learned a lot of different information about the city – for instance did you know that there are over 3x more bikes in Amsterdam than there are people? They’re also the most stolen object in the city and it’s tradition to throw your bike into the canal when it can’t be used anymore so they have to sweep it with a special boat every year to pick them all up. Also – there are only a very limited number of house boats that can be in the city, you have to have a special license for it. The cost of most of the house boats is about 100-150k euros, but the cost for the license (that gets you utilities and allows you to stay in the canals) is about a half million. We saw a lot of them on the cruise and as we walked around, but I’m kind of sad at how many of them seemed to be Airbnb’s. A great find I’m sure for the people visiting, but it takes something away from it all in my mind. Oh! Another interesting fact – they don’t believe in closing curtains in the Netherlands because in their culture it can be seen as trying to keep things hidden so if you see curtains closed it’s most likely an Airbnb!

My second, and only full day, in Amsterdam was Wednesday. That morning Abigail and I walked to the train station for her to get to her flight back home, before I headed back to the hostel to relax for a couple hours. Then I met up with Kameron at the main train station and we went for lunch before he head to head to the airport himself. After seeing them off – I was now the only one of the RHDs group still in the Netherlands.

So what was I to do? I headed to check out their 8 floor library of course! Because you can take the girl out of the library but the love of libraries remains. The OBA is a great space! They have the children’s area in the ground floor where the sound wouldn’t carry and so much space for studying. There were clearly working spaces as well for those that remote work, I think you could book them in advance, or maybe it was a monthly fee? I’m not sure, I didn’t look into it. But even without those specific places, there were plenty of locations around the library to set up and get some work done – even in the middle of the day I passed a large number of locations that could be used. By the signs, I got the feeling their busiest times were in the evenings, as that was when certain areas were designated as quiet zones. But I imagine remote workers could easily find quiet spaces outside of that time. The views of the city were also amazing. I’m glad that I went and visited. They have over 20 locations around the city, but I think this one was the biggest and as it was on the way back from the station it was a pretty easy detour.

That night I needed to decide where I was going next. I had already asked my hostel if it was possible to extend my stay by a day, but they were pretty booked so the only available space was in a more expensive room. I decided to move on. I had already kinda decided where I wanted to go next, so it was just a matter of deciding how I wanted to get there (spoiler – I didn’t want to take a 12 hour train ride).

Zwolle

After deciding that I wanted to go to Denmark, I looked at the different routes that I could take, and I was reminded about a post that Kirsten (my stepmom) had sent me via Instagram a little while ago about a bookstore in Zwolle. After messing around with the different tracks that I could go, it was pretty obvious that I could make a stopover in Zwolle. And I’m so happy that I did.

Honestly – I’m pretty sure that of the three places I visited in the Netherlands, Zwolle was my favorite. I liked the vibe of the city and the layout. It’s city center is kinda like a star that is surrounded by a river. I saw multiple boats and cannoes going down the river, so I know that it’s regularly used, even with it being relatively small. I explored all over the city center in my half day that I had there. There’s a lot of great places to see, and I’m sure even more outside of the center. I also spent some time in the bookstore that Kirsten sent me!

The bookstore is so cool! It’s called Van der Velde Boeken and is in an old church. The main area is still clear, but there was obviously a couple of different levels on the sides and so they turned each of those into a section of the library. A cafe was added to part of the main level, and there were places for people to sit, relax, and read/study throughout the store. They also kept the organ and it’s in amazing shape – not sure if it’s original or not, but really helps remind you of the church origins, which isn’t too hard elsewhere either since there is still stain glass and murals on the ceiling. The best part though is Herman. Herman is the skeleton that lives in the floor of the store. There is a glass that is over his resting place, and you can click a button to turn on a light so that you can see Herman. There’s also a sculpture(?) up on the top floor that I’m not sure why he’s there or who he is since I didn’t see a plaque of any kind, but he is there.

Overall I spent only a short time in Zwolle, but it was so pretty and I hope to eventually get back to spend a bit more time there. I’d love to explore more than the city center. There really was something about the vibe of the town that just called to me. If I hadn’t already booked my trip to Copenhagen I’d probably have spent more time there. 

On the way to Copenhagen

I figured I’d just add this in here since I’m sure not going to do a post for each individual stopover location. After leaving Zwolle, I spent 2 nights in Hamburg, Germany. The only thing I did in Hamburg was go to the grocery store to buy enough food for the that night and the next day and wander around a little bit. Then I spent my one full day there resting. I specifically decided that ahead of time. I averaged 15-20k steps a day during my time in the Netherlands and had been go go go since I got to Tilburg. I loved my time, but I needed time to sleep, read, and of course work on my blog. When I’m having a blast, I’m definitely not thinking about getting things done for my blog – so I spent most of yesterday working on the posts I had completed before but hadn’t yet posted, adding some additional pages/links to the blog, and other general maintenance. I also slept in, bought some snacks from the hostel vending machine, and read for a couple hours. It was a much needed refresh before I get to Copenhagen.

Now, we’re passing some amazing views, so I’m going to spend some time staring out the windows before I eat my lunch. That’s all for now!