Last Friday, mum woke me up at the crack of dawn, 4 am to be precise, to get dressed to go to the airport.
We were having a mother/daughter trip to Amsterdam!
Once we'd checked into our lovely little hotel, 717, we took a stroll around in an attempt to get our bearings, which proved to be a little difficult in 27 degree heat, so we went for a tour around the canals.
I actually left my camera in my room this day, in my excitement to go out an explore.
We found a couple of blocks of streets with lots of restaurants, where we stumbled upon this little gem, a minute tapas restaurant, with no name, and about five tables.
We started off with globe artichoke, peppers and onion,
Battered courgette, grilled peppers and onions,
Closely followed by an enormous plate of paprika squid,
Which would have been amazing if the jelly like bits had been taken off,
But these, these were so good, razor clams in some sort of pesto (I can't read Dutch), if a little overcooked,
Seeing as it had cooled down, if only by a few degrees, we tried to walk off our lunch by doing a little retail therapy,
It seems that cheese is quite popular in the Netherlands, so much so I must have become a little overwhelmed because I found this on my phone;
Amsterdam is so lovely to just amble around, looking in little individual shops and pouring over their beautiful clothes.
All this ambling became thirsty work, so we found a little bar on the side of the canal, and ended up having a Heineken (as it's brewed in Holland) floating on top of the canal,
I mean how is this for a relaxing view?
We finished off our drinks and continued on our quest for food, this time, supper.
Mum and I are really big on our asian food and we found a little Thai restaurant (again, I don't know the name, helpful!)
They squeezed us in and gave us a starter as a surprise, coconut, peanut something or other, we didn't understand and it wasn't on the menu, but the best bit about it was was all the ginger packed inside it!
The waiter told us to wrap the leaf up like a parcel and pop it all in at once, mum and I eyed each other dubiously, but did what we were told, it was amazing!
Next was the usual line up of hors d'oeuvres that you get eating asian food, chicken satay, tempura butterfly prawns and spring rolls, all of them delicious.
The queues go around the corner during the day but if you wait until an hour before it closes you'll get in in no time at all!
