Museums and Iconic Food

After three days in Paris, my husband and I said goodbye to Paris and headed to the station to hop on a train to Amsterdam!

I’d visited both cities before our honeymoon, and I was eager to get to show Brandon around the gorgeous canals and narrow streets of Amsterdam the most. I knew it would very much be his vibe.

So I was excited to get up in Paris on that last morning, check out of the hotel and get an Uber to the train station. As a Canadian, I’m still amazed at how fast it is to just take a 3 hour train to another country in Europe. And it’s so easy to do.

By dinnertime, we’d arrived in Amsterdam and checked into our next hotel.

This time, our accommodations would be closer to the station so that it would be as easy as possible to hop back on the train to the airport when it was time to leave.

We were starving, so the plan was to pick up McDonald’s and go back to the hotel room for a night of rest. It ended up being a good idea, because once we’d reached the McDonald’s, the rain began to pour. There would be no exploring this evening!

We grabbed our food and ran back through the downpour to our hotel for the night.

*Pancakes at PANCAKES Amsterdam (May 2024)*

I had planned for a pretty full first day for us in Amsterdam, and the best way to start a full day is with a good breakfast – Pancakes!

Dutch pancakes are truly delicious. I love a savory pancake or crepe, and these pancakes from Pancakes were one of my favourite meals on this trip! We actually went back to Pancakes a few times, honestly. Highly recommend it.

*My favourite exhibits at the Moco Museum (May 2024)*

Once we were filled up, Brandon and I walked to the museum quarter: literally an area where a lot of the most popular museums in Amsterdam live. I got us tickets to the Moco Museum (my all-time favourite museum in the world) and the Van Gogh Museum, which are almost next door to one another. So we visited both in one afternoon.

The Moco Museum is a contemporary art museum inside an old house.

At the time, one of the main highlights was a Robbie Williams exhibit, “Pride and Self-Prejudice” (photos above). I loved the playful style and bright colours in juxtaposition with the reflections on serious mental health issues.

The basement is my favourite part, with bright interactive pieces to get immersed in.

*Cherry Blossoms and Sunflowers at the Van Gogh Museum (May 2024)*

Then we headed across the way to the Van Gogh Museum, where we followed the famous artist’s works through history and got to see some of his most iconic works.

My favourite part of this trip was just exploring. Wandering. Walking around and getting a little bit lost. We poked in and out of little shops until we started to get hungry for dinner. So we did what we do best and opened Google Maps to find a fan-favourite nearby spot. Which is how we found Cannibale Royale.

*Passionfruit cocktails and bites at Cannibale Royale (May 2024)*

Cannibale Royale is a very cool spot serving up smokey meats and incredible cocktails. With old school pub vibes on point, we ordered the platter for two so we could try a little bit of everything! The sausages blew me away. The tropical passion fruit cocktail was unlike anything I'd ever tried before.

If you’re in the Netherlands, you need to check out Cannibale Royale. This was not sponsored, I just really loved this restaurant!

*At Van Wonderen Stroopwafels (May 2024)*

On our way back to the hotel for the evening, we made one last stop at Van Wonderen Stroopwafels for one of the most iconic Dutch desserts. Or, in this case we had three.

This was probably one of my favourite days of our honeymoon.

It was laid back, we got to see a lot without overwhelming ourselves, and this was by far the best food day of the entire week.