Amsterdam

Amsterdam is also a top 10 European city on our list. If we only return to a city every few years, we find that our experience of the city is quite different each time.Travel is so dynamic, it's wonderful. Cities evolve but so do we. People often say about places, even whole countires, "It's not what it used to be!" but I like to embrace the change and discover the place all over again. Amsterdam is great for walking but you need to have eyes in the back of your head to avoid being knocked over by bicycles, trams, cars or refuse trucks. Just stroll all the shopping areas, markets and suburbs, stopping for a coffee here or a beer there. The street cafes are lovely in summer and it stays light untill 11pm at this time of year. Sample the stroopwaffels or crokettes or something stronger from the Coffee Shops and take lots of pics of the canals and the bicycles and the crooked buildings.

Fast Food Vending Machine

SLEEPING

Camping Zeeburg is a well located, well run and friendly campsite in Amsterdam that has made it onto our top campsites in Europe list. 

EATING

Historic Hotel Le Europa has a 2 Michelin starred restaurant called Bord De Eau but if you eat in the Bistro you get food from the same kitchen, a view of the canal, no dress code and cosy tables that encourage conversation with your neighbors, in our case a friendly couple from Louisville, Kentucky. 

Envy Holland has never been known for it's cuisine but there seems to be so many new exciting restaurants in Amsterdam now. Our set menu dinner with wine pairing at Envy was world class.

Here's a list of restaurants we didn't get to but are saving for next time..

Bluespoon - in Nege Straatjies area

Jansz -  for the lunch set menu

Tujuh Marent -  best rijstafel in town

Foodhallen - for Michelin starred Bitteballen

...if you go, let us know how you enjoyed them.. 

DRINKING

Cafe Emmelot - traditional old bar in Red light District  - indoor tables with a great view of the canal and passers by if the weather turns bad (which happens a lot) Not a lot else going for it...

There are a lot of way more traditonal, atmospheric and historic bars in the Zeedijk/Damrak area where you have to stop in for a Genevers (dutch schnapps) though.

Cafe Alto -Jazz bar for late night drinks and live music.

Bourbon Street - Blues bar with live music every night.

Cafe Alto

Bourbon Street

DOING

Canal Tour- Skip the terribly touristy glass-roofed canal boat trips and hop onto a Friendship boat. Cushions to loll on, drinks for sale and the young Simon, skipper from SA and only about 12 other guests. Luckily for us it was a sunny, warm evening.

Moco Museum - We saw an excellent Banksy exhibition here this time.

The must-do stuff for tourists...

Rijks Museum

Van Gogh Musuem

Heineken Experience

Red Light District

Friendship Canal Tour

Heineken Experience

Rijks Museum

Banksy on Neil 

Pinkpop and Midsummer Madness

We went to Pinkpop Music Festival which was held from 15 to 17 June in Landgraaf, South Holland. It's one of the oldest (going since 1970) and biggest ( 60 000 per day )rock music festivals in Europe.The line up included Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Bruno Mars, Snow Patrol and the Offspring to mention a few big names. Neil enjoyed Greta Van Fleet and my favourites were Noel Gallagher and Brian Fallon. We met up with Maggie and Alistair from Munich. We found out by fluke that they would be going and it was nice to hang out with mates some of the time.

Camping De Watertoren was a great place to stay with shuttle bus transport to and from the festival.

The following weekend we joined the Benders / English family for a great weekend house party celebrating Midsummer Madness at their farm house in Schoorl, North Holland. The weather was cold and grey but at least we didn't get much rain. Christiana can cater for hordes in a seemingly effortless manner and their home just lends itself to large get-togethers.

On the Saturday we all went for a bike ride to the beach and through the dunes. A big land reclamation and sea defense project was undertaken in the area and completed just 3 years ago but you would never guess the beach, dunes and lagoon are man-made if you didn't know and the vegetation has recovered very quickly.

Brittany and Belguim

We spent 4 nights with Scott, Jody and Stella ( the dog ) in St. Malo at Camping De La Fontaine, which we can recommend as a base for the area. 

The weather was slightly iffy but we managed to travel around quite a bit and BBQ almost every night. The area is known for it's Salt Marsh Lamb (Agneau de Pre Sale ) and we also enjoyed the local cheese, butter and artichokes.

St. Malo is a nice walled port town.

The North Sea Coast has a wild and windswept feel to it.

Cancale is known for its oysters. Fresh out of the sea is the best way to enjoy them.

Saint Mont Michel is very touristy but late afternoon turned out to be a good time to visit.

We spent a night in Honfleur on the Normandy coast; returning to one of our favourite campsites La Pharne. It's about a 500m walk to the old town and marina. The city is very quaint, the waterside cafes are relaxing, there are plenty of excellent restaurants and a bar called La Vintage has live music every night.

We met up again in Belguim, this time staying with Scott and Jody on a farm outside Ghent for a few days.

Ghent is a surprisingly cool little city: an alternative to touristy Brugge.

We loved our visit to Musee Herge in Louvain-la-Neuve dedicated to the life and work of TinTin's creator.

Paris

Paris as always is a delight. Returning this year for the tennis at Roland Garros with Rina and Menon, we had better seats and cooler weather but a bit more rain. It was great to see Nadal, Djkovic, Cilic and Del Potro on centre court. And we got into court 7 to see Anderson too. Serena's comeback was a little odd and the ladies failed to capture too much of our attention. 

 After 8 days in Paris, we left to explore Brittany but popped back for the weekend to go to the Rugby Sevens.  By the skin of their teeth the Blitzbokke managed to win the final tournament and clinch the 2018 Series.

We love roaming the various neighbourhoods of Paris so we returned to some of our favourite places and found a few new places we can recommend too.

Le Halles - On a Saturday there's lots going on around here, whether you love or hate the giant yellow roof.

Marche de Bastille - A good indoor food market- stop for tapas and wine.

Quay Saint Martin  - on a Saturday afternoon is busy with lots of people enjoying the parks and cafes. We tried Indian food for a change at Marcel.

St. Ouen -While away a whole Sunday at Europe's biggest permanent flea market and spend a few hours over lunch listening to cool live blues music at A Piccolo Theatre.

Auguste - go for the 3 course set lunch at this Michelin starred restaurant by Gael Orieux. One of the best Michelin deals in Paris.

Clover - Second restaurant of Jean-Franscios Piege where the kitchen is right in the restaurant and young chefs are put to the test creating fabulous food without the pomp. How about salmon sashimi seared at the table on a hot rock that is a genuine Paris cobble stone?

Bastade - Modern little restaurant where food is served in an edible bastade, a deep dish "crêpe". 

Harry's American Bar - totally touristy and overpriced but a real institution.

Le Sherwood - The best live music venue in Paris. A little bar with cheap drinks, a wonderful relaxed atmosphere and a killer cover band. After 1.30am,the DJ continues the party.

The Moose - Canadian Sport's bar and probably the only place to see any rugby in Paris.

Le  Musset - Touristy bistro near the Louvre - Definitely don't eat here but they have pretty good house wine and a TV to watch the Tennis.

La Tavola and Casa Bini - both very good family owned Italian restaurants - just when you think you can only get French food in Paris...try one of these for a change..

MoM - very trendy, modern bistro full of locals. Burgers are big in Paris at the moment; ( well everywhere actually ) but the posh Paris versions tend to be served very rare - tartare in a bun..

We always camp at Camping Indigo Paris, located in Bois de Boulogne; one of our favourite city campsites in Europe.

For more recommendations.. see the May 2017 blog too...