Lucy and Dad - choose your own adventure

Day 11 –  October 11 – Katie – EPIC Conference. Andrew and Lucy – NEMO, Maritime Museum, Lots of Walking

Weather – Clear, sunny, cold to warm in the afternoon 6-15c

Another full day in Amsterdam, another crazy day of adventuring with Lucy. We did manage to catch up with Katie in the evening for a late dinner though – although apart from that, we didn’t see her at all – very busy doing the conference thing and actually working!

Start of the day was breakfast downstairs at the hotel. A decent spread, with pastries, toast, cereals etc… They also had scrambled eggs (Which were actually pretty good), and hard boiled eggs. If you were looking for options to stay in Amsterdam, I’d say the Nova is a good, solid option, no frills, but gives you what you need and with a decent breakfast. Location is great. 

After our breakfast we had to make a move as we had tickets for NEMO – the children’s science museum. It had been recommended to us by a lady on the bus to Versailles as a great activity for kids, so I had told Lucy I’d book it. It was a decent walk from the hotel, about 2kms or so, a long enough walk to result in the, “I’m tired… Are we there yet” whinge. 

To make matters worse, we got there a little early, as they don’t open until 10am, so we had to wonder around for 30mins. None of the shops, or restaurants were open, it seems like everything opens late here. I managed to keep Lucy occupied, however, once people started lining up, Lucy was laser focused on getting the most possible out of the museum experience. Almost running through the doors, Lucy proceeded to drag me to every exhibit – we certainly got our money’s worth. The layout of NEMO is cool – you go up levels with each level having a theme – like technology or the human body etc… Lucy’s favourite was the bubbles on level one – there was one you stood in and then you could lift up the ring so you were standing in a bubble. 

The next favourite was a room that was designed as an optical illusion, if you stood in one corner you looked like a giant, and in the other corner, tiny. It showed you on the screen – which is the photo below. 

We had lots of fun in here. Lucy wanted to make sure that we touched, pulled, jumped on, ran through, and looked at everything – at least twice. We were there for close to 3hrs, and there’s lots of stairs… Wow was I tired. Up the top of the building is a cool cafeteria with amazing views of Amsterdam. We had a Fanta and a snack while we caught our breath and planned the next adventure. From the top of NEMO we could see a full scale VOC 42 gun transport ship in the harbour at the maritime museum. I sold Lucy on the idea that it could be a pirate ship and we should go explore it for treasure!!! I didn’t think an exploration of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie VOC (Dutch East India Company’s) exploits throughout South East Asia and it impact on the growth and wealth of Amsterdam would have convinced her to go… Anyway, it turns out the we really only explored the “Pirate ship”… Which to be honest, was cool enough for me – it was built as a project and took 4 years – it’s a replica of the Amsterdam which was lost off the cost England, coming aground in a storm near Hasting. Where it remains today in pretty good condition as it has been preserved in mud apparently. We had a great time going up and down the decks – “Firing” the cannon, pretending to be the captain. This was the Polly woodside, but on steroids. 

After much silliness, we decided we need a break and sat down for a Fanta and a beer under the amazing roof in the courtyard of the museum. It would be a cool place to take a serious tour – but not with a 7 year old…

We were a fair way from home and in need of some food – I wanted to get a burger and Lucy wanted pancakes – not totally incompatible in Amsterdam. I feel like their food options are catering to a certain type of crowd. There seems to be a lot of pancake shops, burger and kebab places, cheese shops – lot’s of cheese shops and lots of these “coffee” places that seem rather proud of their brownies. Can’t quite put my finger on it.... Anyway, we decided to start to walk home and see what we passed, with the agreement that we would stop at the Lego shop to make Mum and Dad mini figures, because apparently Mum and Dad had missed out.

It had warmed up while we were inside at the Museums, and the sun was shining – another glorious European autumnal day. We walked back along the water – which is everywhere – so that tells you nothing. Anyway, I wasn’t lost, but I plugged the hotel into google maps just to be safe and followed that near enough. One issue I have with Amsterdam is the crazy bike riders – they zoom around and pay no attention to the rules. Lucy and I were almost hit a few times. I decided to duck down an alleyway to avoid the bikes and by happy accident found a lovely little outdoor restaurant – it was time for a break anyway to be honest. Lucy and I sat down in the Sun, I ordered a little Dutch snack platter – full of things I couldn’t pronounce, some refreshments, and Lucy got a plate of the mini pancakes – which I also can’t pronounce.

Lovely to sit outside, overlooking the canals. I can see why they call it the Venice of the north. Beautiful. Once fully rested, we decided to continuing walking back towards the hotel and if we passed a good burger place, we would stop. Now, a word of advice – don’t just follow google maps when walking through Amsterdam with a 7 Year old. You need to pay attention to where you are or you will find yourself walking past a sex-shop with various devices displayed, doing you best to distract your child, walking even more quickly past windows, which are now occupied, with gentlemen and ladies enquiring about services. I don’t think I’ve walked so fast and pointed out so many interesting things in the canal as that very long minute – I managed to find an alleyway to duck down and all of a sudden, we’re back in the Dam square… Bloody hell, there should be signs – or Google maps should give you a warning. Let’s go get a bloody Fanta and sit down - I may have promised chicken nuggets or something while running down the street moments before, who knows. Anyway, found a burger place, ordered drinks and sat down to catch our breaths! Burger was ok – review will be up in the parallel blog post on burgers. Again, a solid 7.5 – good. Rest, distraction and Beer – 10/10.

Finally made it back to our hotel room where I told Lucy daddy needed a rest and she could use the iPad. I collapsed into bed and was out like a light for a 25min power nap. Katie was due back about 6pm and it was 5:30pm when I woke up – Since I’d told Lucy we could do the Lego thing, it was up and off again before mum got back. However, much to Lucy’s disappointment, they had actually closed the custom mini figure machine that day and had packed it up for some renovations. What a bummer!  Straight back home now for showers and a change of clothes. Katie was not far behind us, and was “hangry”, however we’d had a late lunch and weren’t really interested in going out straight away. We lasted about 30mins before we were forced back out the door in search of an authentic Dutch restaurant – Katie was a bit bummed that she hadn’t really experienced Amsterdam outside of the conference and wanted something nice.. We walked around, past various Italian restaurants, beer halls, cafes and various Asian restaurants, but nothing that really met her requirements. Eventually we got to the point of just siting down at the next place that looks ok, and then just the next place will do… So that’s how we found ourselves in the most tourist trap of locations on the Dam square, a restaurant called Majestic. They had a nice outdoor area so that was a positive. Katie did get to try the ubiquitous fried Dutch beer snacks you get at the pubs. They were ok apparently. We ordered a very average, and very expensive meal. By end of the meal, Lucy and I were pretty tired and it was closing in on 9pm. Bedtime, as we had a long train trip planned for tomorrow – Amsterdam to London via the Eurostar. I could see Katie wanted to keep going and experience Amsterdam, but I guess we’ll just have to come back another time. We did stop for an ice cream on the way home. I have to say – Lucy and I squeezed the most possible out of Amsterdam. Apparently Katie’s conference was awesome as well, so that’s a win all round.