More Amsterdam adventures

We started off another day with another canal ride.

And found more “I Amsterdam” letters. Complete with people climbing all over them.

We didn’t stay on the boat too long. Just enough to get us to a cafe with coffee.

We stumbled upon this grand looking place – Cafe Americain – and decided to give it a try.

The decor inside was very decadent art nouveau.

Grandma got a hot chocolate and I got a cappuccino. Nothing too special, but the drinks did come with rich little “Cafe Americain” stamped chocolates. I could’ve eaten at least 4 more.

After caffeine we hit the streets. Destination: the floating flower market.

Turns out they forgot a word in the name: it’s more like the floating (fake) flower market.

Most of the stalls were selling cheesy souvenirs with nary a live flower in sight. Pretty disappointing.

That is, until we came upon the very last stall. Real flowers! Be still my heart.

They were also selling gorgeous dried flowers.

And, of course, their fair share of touristy souvenirs too. I had to get a picture in the clogs at some point.

The streets in the surrounding area were packed with tourists. Like, claustrophobia packed.

We decompressed by looking at windows filled with quiche…

…and assorted baked goods.

Then we did some more wandering…

…until we came upon this cute little lunch spot called Sugar and Spice Bakery.

They made me an almond milk flat white and I swear it was the best coffee of the entire trip. Still not as good as Two Guns back home in MB, but waaaay better than all the machine made cappuccinos I’d been drinking in Amsterdam thus far.

The Gma and I both got a brunch platter, which came with a slice of quiche, a mini yogurt parfait, croissant, baby sandwich with hummus and eggplant, and a slice of cheesecake to finish off the sugar coma.

Such a unique, quirky concept. And so delicious.

And, oddly enough, this cute and wholesome little bakery was literally right behind the Red Light District.

I had to do a loop up and down the place, just to say I’d seen it. And see it I did. Lots of tacky sex shops, saloons, and windows filled with bikini-clad hookers trying to sell their services.

Since we were there during daylight hours, everything was relatively tame. There were a fare share of drunken coed types peeing in open stalls (gross) and running around in costumes (it was Halloween, after all) but most of the people walking up and down were just average tourists trying to see what the hub-bub was all about.

After our extremely brief stint in the Red Light District, we walked the 6 minutes back to our hotel for some glorious chill time. Ah, the joys of napping.

We did venture out one last time for a late night snack.

Cheese plate + wine + bitterballen, which are fried savory meat ball things that everyone said we had to try at least once. Verdict: meh.

But my lovely company more than made up for it. ❤

xoxo