Budget Amsterdam Trip Itinerary - 5 Days 4 Nights - Spring season

Amsterdam as a beautiful place with many canals, bridges, waterways and thousands of 17th century mansions which is build side by side. The place is very tourist friendly with paved bicycle track, boat trip in the canals and multi-cultural community. The place also famous for its delicacy such as herring, stroopwafels and cheese. If you go further, you can find traditional windmill and tulips garden which is iconic to Netherlands. Amsterdam is an open city which tolerates sex clubs and dope smoking. Do come here if you have chance to savour the beauty of this Dutch capital.




Beautiful tulips in Keukenhof. Come here from Mar-May each year if you don't want to miss viewing this tulip garden.

Wondering if you know what type of chocolate is this in Albert Cuyp market. Just look don't touch!

Amsterdam hype about marijuana. From marijuana drinks, cakes and cookies.

Do sample their cheese, its delicious.

Windmill at Zaanse Schans.

Day	Morning	Afternoon	Evening	Night
Day 1 (Tue)		1. Travel from Paris to Amsterdam via Thalys fast train. 2. Check in at Trianon Hotel @ Museumplein 3. Walking around Dam Square and scenic selfie at Amsterdam canals.	1. Purchased some grocery at Albert Heijn store. You can get quite a good deal from Albert Heijn and can get Dutch delicacies such as Stroopwafels here.	1. Traditional Dutch meal dinner at Haesje Claes
Day 2 (Wed)	1. Breakfast at Trianon Hotel. 2. Visiting Keukenhof the largest flower garden in the world. The garden is located at Lisse. You may purchase the combo ticket online (bus + adult entrance ticket).	1. Continuation of Keukenhof visit.	1. Visited the Roman Catholic church of De Krijtberg Kerk.	1. Traditional Dutch dinner at Oud Holland located opposite Dam Square.
Day 3 (Thur)	1. Breakfast at Trianon Hotel 2. Following SANDEMANs NEW Europe Amsterdam Free walking tour. This is a tip based 3 hours walking tour which will covers Dam Square surrounding.	1. Visiting windmill in Zaanse Schans	1. Following SANDERMANs NEW Europe Red Light District Amsterdam tour. This is a two hours walking tour around red light district of Amsterdam.	1. Steak dinner at Cocina Argentina (Mas Y Mas) near Amsterdam Chinatown
Day 4 (Fri)	1. Visit flora Holland flower market. This is the world largest flower auction centre located in Aalsmeer. Come early to watch the flower auction process.	1. Visiting Albert Cuyp Market. This is Amsterdam largest open air market. Do try a variety of cheese samples and delicious herring. 2. Having Kroketten at Cafe Hoppe	1. Orange Day parade	1. Dinner at Asian Kitchen
Day 5 (Sat)	1. Van Gogh museum	1. Amsterdam river cruise	1. Dutch snack bitterballen at Het Gasthuys	1. Flight going back home Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on KLM - Royal Dutch Airlines

Amsterdam river cruise by Reederij P.Kooij

A visit to Amsterdam must have at least try their river cruise tour. The tour is very informative with the guide describing every item that the boat pass by. The tour last for 1 hour and cost EUR 9 for adult and EUR 5.5 for children up to 12 years old. Discover Amsterdam from the water. In a canal boat, you can tour Amsterdam's beautiful canals, exploring the best sights Amsterdam has to offer. Since Amsterdam is surrounded by water, its best to discover Amsterdam via river cruise. No advance booking needed. The boat departs every 30 minutes and you just need to purchase ticket on the spot.


This is where you can take the river cruise.

My river cruise ticket.

Historical buildings near canals.

Amsterdam is among the most bicycle friendly city.


Nice to see beautiful Dutch style building and architecture. Most of the houses here have their own boat.

There are thousands of bridges in Amsterdam.

Beautiful sight with fresh air.

Look at how near the cars park beside the canal. Every year, there are quite a number of cases that car falls into the canal!

There is floating Chinese restaurant.

GPS:52.369,4.892654
Address: Rokin 125, 1012 KK Binnenstad, Netherlands
Public transport: Spui tram station.

Delicious herring in Amsterdam

Famous Dutch brined herring is delicious if you like seafood. It is raw herring from the North Sea catches end of spring. The herring has been cleaned, the head is removed and it is conserved in a special way with salt. The "Hollandse Nieuwe" is typically eaten with raw onions and pickles. The Dutch way of eating it: first picking it up by the tail and then letting it slide into your mouth gradually.
Or eat your herring on a sandwich, it's called a "Broodje Haring", meaning "Herring Sandwich". All these fine fish delicacies can be bought at an Dutch street-side herring fish stall. You can get it just around everywhere in Amsterdam. But you will have more selection if you go to Albert Cuyp market.

Taste:9/10(Delicious. The fish is soft and the saltiness is just nice. Great taste when mixed with onion and pickles).
Price:6/10(Moderate. The meal will only cost you around 3 Euros).

Delicious herring from Albert Cuyp market.

Wow, that's good.

One of the herring stall near flower market.

Can't resist of having second herring meal. Its so good. Take this to the airport as my last meal in Amsterdam!

GPS:52.355421,4.892987

Address:

Albert Cuypstraat 67 /HS

1072 CN Amsterdam, Netherlands

020 201 8800

Public transport:

Tram 4-25 > Stadhouderskade

Tram 16-24 > Albert Cuypstraat 

Tram 3 > 2e Van der Helststraat

Van Gogh Museum @ Amsterdam, Netherlands

In my opinion, this is just an average museum. This museum don't contain much paintings and the focus on Van Gogh is just half of it. The entrance fee of 14 Euro for such a small art museum is quite expensive. I have been to Lourve, Musee d'Orsay & Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) so I know what is the standard of this museum. Both Lourve & Musee d'Orsay only charge 10 Euro and MET only charge 20 USD for such extensive collections. The only good section which I can learn is the painting analysis section on the top floor. Using x-ray and electron microscope, it unveil hidden painting under then main painting of Van Gogh. The analysis is quite detail until it able to tell Van Gogh painting style, material used and behaviour. Besides that, I notice that this museum have quite a weird rule. The visitor can't take photograph of the painting. I never heard of this rule in other art galleries before. This is such a disappointment to those who travel half the globe just to come here to visit and can't have their own photo in the museum as their memories. On the exit, there is this small store selling all the art work and merchandise of Van Gogh. Perhaps this is the reason why photography is not allowed. Other museum also have this but this store seems to have more things compared to other.


Moderate queue in the morning.

Quite expensive for such a small museum.

Its a multi level art gallery. No photo allowed. Perhaps I can only show this.

Van Gogh merchandise shop. The famous Sun flower painting on the merchandise.

Opening hours: Daily 10:00 to 18:00, Friday to 22:00
Public transport: Tram 2-3-5-12 > Van Baerlestraat, 16-24 > Museumplein
Bus 142-145-170-172-174-197 > Hobbemastraat
Entrance fee: Euro14.00

Merci Chocolate & Ritter Sports

I am a favourite of Merci and Ritter sports chocolate. Their chocolate is strong in chocolate flavour and not overly sweet. In Europe, the chocolate is very cheap compared to Malaysia. If you happen to visit Amsterdam, you can get it cheap from any Albert Heijn stores in Amsterdam.



Merci chocolate with 8 different flavour. In Amsterdam, this is just around MYR8.50. But in Malaysia, it priced at MYR24.50.

Fine extra dark chocolate. Brought this in Albert Heijn for only MYR4.00 a piece. In Malaysia, the standard price would be MYR9.90.

Delicious Stroopwafels & Sweet stuff from Amsterdam

Amsterdam in Holland has many kinds of sweet food stuff to try on. I like their stroopwafels. The sweetness is amazing and suit my taste. Its so sweet and packed with strong caramel flavour. The toasted waffles makes stroopwafels even better.


Daelmans famous stroopwafels.

This is how mini stroopwafels look like.

Large size stroopwafels from Albert Heijn. Good stuff but sticky. For those who don't know what is Albert Heijn, its a famous supermarket chain in Holland.

Snelle Jelle. This spice cake is made from rye flour. If you like cinnamon, then you will like this cake.

Wilhelmina peppermint candy.

Windmill @ Zaanse Schans, Amsterdam

Zaanse Schans located in Zaandam, Netherlands has one of the best view of windmill in Netherlands. Some of the windmills are still functioning and are open to visitors.


Craftsman workshop.

Windmills.

Nice view of windmill.

There are a few cheese shop here where you can visit and try out their cheese samples. Really amazed with the cheese selection that they have. I am full trying out all their cheese samples :-)

Traditional Dutch wooden house.

Windmill from near. The weather is cloudy.

Inside windmill. Look at the huge gear.

I am up the windmill.

View from top of windmill.

Reached at the top. Must take a photo :-)

Lovely country side.

Herd of goats.

Zeilenmakerspad street

Traditional Dutch wooden shoes.

Remember. Bus 391.

Bus: Take Connexxion bus 391 from Amsterdam Central Station which has its terminus right beside the main entrance of the Zaanse Schans. The bus ride takes you there in around 40-45 minutes and the bus leaves every 30 minutes (in rush hours even more frequently). The bus link at Central Station is at the bus station at the east side of the main station entrance, at the bridge. The bus will stop just outside of Zaanse Schans where you can just walk in.
Coordinate: 52.473305,4.820981

Paris to Amsterdam by Thalys

Thalys is a high speed rail service between Paris and Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne. I decided to take Thalys train as oppose to take flight due to travel by train is easier and basically you don't need to be 2-3 hours before departure to reach the platform for boarding. By taking train, you only need to be at the platform about 15 minutes before departure. Flight with Paris and Amsterdam is priced at such an expensive price an its not worth it. The journey from Paris to Amsterdam by Thalys takes around 3 hours.

Due to my flight from Kuala Lumpur is on standby basis, I have no choice but to book this train quite last minute. And at the time, I booked my ticket, I notice that the price of second class cabin is the same as on the first class cabin. Sure when you are paying for the same price, you will take the best available offer. First class cabin comes with free reading material, WIFI and meal. I would give my thumb up on the meal offered. Its tasty and good quality. Another good thing is that they start serving after each stop. So they served me 3 times during the journey.

From Paris, passenger need to board the train from Gare du Nord train station and follow the signboard for Thalys.


This is the red colour Thalys train.

This type of time display board is still in use. Its a really old train station.

Time for boarding train 9339.

First class cabin. Red colour seats and huge comfortable chair.

My lunch. Courgette terrine with mint, tomato coulis, salmon fillet with guacamole, organic quinoa salad with herbs and roast aubergine slices. Wow such a technical dish name!

Zoom in the meal to make this blog reader hungry :-)

I request for free red wine of Emilen D'Albert from France.

Pistachio cheery tart.

Butter cake.

Finally I reached Amsterdam Centraal station.

For more information on the Thalys train service, please visit: http://www.thalys.com/