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amsterdam . . . the city

i had a lovely 2 days in amsterdam this week, a joint 50th birthday and mothers day present from me to mum. the main choice of location was to visit keukenhof to see the tulips. the weather had not been
looking good on the build up, i have to say, so we were a prepared to see tulip-less gardens.




if i had a bike - this would be it




we spent the first day looking around the city, walking alongside the canals - we chose not to take a canal cruise - ooh controversial! - i know,  right? BUT you get to weave in and out of little side roads - you can't do that when you're on a boat.


we saw some lovely little arty-farty boutique hops - it seems that they support their upcoming young designers in amsterdam which was lovely to see. a couple of shop-owners let me take some snaps of their goods for my blog so i shall show that in the next post.





we visited anne franks house and did a pretty good job at missing the queues - hot tip: go at 19:30 (an hour or so before it shuts) - no queue what-so-ever! i read the diary of anne frank when i was 11 or so and this visit has inspired me to read it again - just purchased from amazon...




cute little cafe 
the whole city had a very relaxed atmosphere - nice and chilled, no rushing, not hectic like london...exactly what i needed after a busy couple of months! we went to the flower market. bulbs, bulbs, bulbs! getting us in the mood for keukenhof tomorrow...
cute antiques stored 'antiqued' up with good ol' instagram

the city at night was just lovely, canal bridges were lit up and even more peaceful. there were lots of little bars and cafes with seats outside to chill by the water. shame it was a little bit chilly for that.


turns out i quite like fancy doors...

so the next morning we made our way out of the city to head to keukenhof but we got sidetracked for about half an hour down 'graffiti street'. here's my best picks of graffiti from around the city:



not your usual garage...


not really graffiti i know but it fitted in quite nicely here so go with it