Photo Essay – Amsterdam Revisited

Revisiting a place has very many benefits – you can see the things missed out on your earlier trips, re-live the earlier holiday, eat more of the local tasty cuisine, check out the non-touristy sites, take this trip at a more leisurely pace and see the changes that have taken place in the intervening time frame. Last year I had a chance to revisit Amsterdam for a day (after 5 long years) and loved my second trip here. (You can read my post on the earlier trip at – Amsterdam – The City of 3Cs). Since I had seen the touristy Amsterdam on the previous trip, I spent my day just aimlessly walking around noticing the things I had missed out on my last trip and revisiting some of its famous sites. Though I still have a left to explore on my next trip (I keep figuring out things I missed through other blogs, magazines etc), I am sharing my experience of this trip via a photo essay below –

Just like my last trip I reached Amsterdam this time too via a train and the Amsterdam Centraal Station was my introduction to the city. But on my previous trip it was covered in scaffolding and protective covers due to ongoing renovation and we had not been able to see it. But the restoration work was now complete and I had a fabulous time walking around this gorgeous building.

The gorgeous Amsterdam Centraal

A Unique Souvenir from Amsterdam – Tulip Bulbs

An important part of any trip for me is to pick up gifts and souvenirs for friends and family back at home. I love shopping for such gifts and am always on the lookout for items that are local and unique. Things that will actually take you down the memory lane revisiting that place or remind the other person (who’s been the recipient of that gift) of you and that place.

The Dutch Souvenirs in Amsterdam

Amsterdam – The City of 3Cs

Towards the end of our Europe trip we stayed with our friends, P & J in Netherlands and went on a day trip to Amsterdam. Though many may argue that this was a very short time for such a big city, but this was ok with us and kind of worked out better in the end.

Since we visited this city at the end of our trip, we noticed the stark differences here vis-a-vis the various other cities that we had seen. While every other city was beautiful, clean and presented its best foot forward to show off in front of us; Amsterdam had no such pretensions and showed us exactly what it is. It’s very inviting with its beautiful canals, some amazing museums, and architecture but at the same time it’s also very disturbing with the attitude of people around, the run down look of some city centric areas and the “in your face” red light areas and the sex toy shops.

Hence I feel that this is a city of extremes, either you really like it or you just don’t.