Holland - Canals, coffee shops and cèilidh

With a friends wedding happening in Lunteren and seeing I had never visited Holland before, for the month of October 2019 I decided to go with Holland as my monthly new country of visit.

I stayed in Amsterdam for the most of my trip and just under a day in Lunteren as I was just there for the wedding ceremony therefore I shall be focusing mainly on Amsterdam for this post.

Lunteren

A peaceful small town in Holland where I was attending the wedding ceremony.

It’s reachable by train from Amsterdam and takes around one hour and a half to get to. I was not there for long as I mentioned and therefore have not much to say or show about it. I did manage to get a few quick photos just before leaving it:

At the wedding ceremony I got to experiment the Scottish folklore dance of “cèilidh”. It’s a group and inclusive dance where pairs have their partners swing and tagged along the other pairs.

It makes for great fun and dynamic dancing as well as allowing for easy interaction with the other participants - that is if they don’t try to swing you around too hard ヽ(⌐■_■)ノ♪♬ .

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is known for its liberal entertainment and accessibility and those characteristics are what most people tend to refer when talking about Amsterdam.

In a way it makes sense as no other city in Europe could have such bragging rights as Amsterdam but that’s not to say those are the only characteristics that make Amsterdam such an awesome destination.

A city of visual and graphical art where you can find a wide variety of museums and pick the one(s) of your fancy.

It’s also a very easy city to walk around and enjoy the canals that branch all the way through the city center. There are boat trips happening constantly and hopping on one shouldn’t be a problem, provided you have a ticket.

Amsterdam food was quite solid. I don’t meant that in the physical integrity sense, but in how reliably delicious it is sense.

There’s a food chain called “FEBO” which serves typical late-night food and what that is, is basically a fast food restaurant that you can easily and quickly purchase from their machines which accept card payments and upon purchase one of many shelves door that contain food will open thus allowing you to get your food (i.e. chicken burger, veal sausage). Or if you prefer you can just order what you want at the counter as they are also humanly staffed.

Whilst there I stumbled upon a restaurant called “The Avocado Show”. I didn’t go in but it looked really cool and it’s definitely something avocado 🥑 aficionados will want to have a look into.

I ended up staying in “The Arcade” hotel which was a hotel themed around sci-fi, computer gaming and comics. If you’re into any of those or a bit of each this place is like a dream come true, they had a gaming room with high-tier computers and quite a few of the latest gaming titles available to play.

My room was fitted with a Nintendo64 as well and at the reception area they had “Duck Hunt” loaded and ready to play. It’s a bit pricey but it did end up p(l)aying for itself as there were quite a few hours of intensive and constant rain which were well spent here in this sci-fi/gaming/comics lodge.

Game off! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the final 2 countries of this series!