It’s been less than a month since I moved to Angoulême, but I already went for a little trip with my partner to the Netherlands. My last travel abroad was a year ago, to Brussels, but I can’t remember the last time I flew abroad on a plane! We spent two nights in Amsterdam and four in Rotterdam.
| Date | Morning | Afternoon | Evening | Night |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30/10 | — | Amsterdam | Amsterdam | Amsterdam |
| 31/10 | Amsterdam | Amsterdam | Amsterdam | Amsterdam |
| 01/11 | Amsterdam | Rotterdam | Rotterdam | Rotterdam |
| 02/11 | Rotterdam | Utrecht | Utrecht | Rotterdam |
| 03/11 | Rotterdam | Rotterdam | Rotterdam | Rotterdam |
| 04/11 | Rotterdam | Amsterdam | Amsterdam | Rotterdam |
| 05/11 | Amsterdam | — | — | — |
We spent two nights in Amsterdam, and four in Rotterdam. For the first two days, we stayed in Amsterdam to visit some museums and get some drinks at some lesbian bars. We thought that the bars were not really lively at first. I was a bit disappointed by the Halloween celebrations. Or the lack thereof… We also realized that most Halloween parties were planned before or after the 31st, which sounds weird to me. Am I crazy?
Following Amsterdam, when we moved to Rotterdam, we planned to visit the other big cities by hopping into a train every day.
I witnessed the worst DJ set ever in Rotterdam, but I understood that Dutch people only start to hang out for parties starting 22:30. It explained why our previous outings at bars were not so lively.
We spent the fourth day in Utrecht. This city is so beautiful, a really nice surprise after our Rotterdam experience. We visited the railway museum there and strolled around until we took a train back to Rotterdam early in the evening. Talking about trains, I spent quite some time on Mini Metro during our rides. What am I saying, it started a real Mini Metro mania. I love this game, it’s one of my favourites! Our other entertainment source while waiting was reading One Piece. I read fourteen volumes (63–77) in a week, which is not bad.
We wanted to hang out in The Hague, but since we really wanted to check the “Diva” exhibition at the Kunsthal museum, we had to free our Sunday for it. And then on Monday, the opened museum in The Hague were not interesting, so we went back to Amsterdam instead to visit Rijksmuseum and eat a Swiss fondue for our last day.
I think that this trip was brilliant. I was really charmed by their simple three trains service system, which seems to work very well for a 41.865 km² country. By the end of the trip, I kept thinking about swimming in the canals, but maybe I got indoctrinated by the France 2024’s swimmable Seine campaign. Maybe some kind of monster lives below the surface? I have the FOMO now… I’m tired and sick, so I kept it short! Anyway, you can read about the places I liked there on the dedicated Netherlands page.
