Netherlands

I visited the Netherlands around November 2024. It was my first trip there, so I’m no expert, but I’ll list things I liked.

Amsterdam

Sooo crowded. You can walk one hour from the central station toward any direction and be one street away from a crowd. Although it was better on the Monday I went there.

Museums

KattenKabinet

A museum dedicated to cat depictions. There are actual cats to pet (at your own risk).

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

Modern and contemporary art museum. The current (November 2024) Exhibition was pretty cool, but the permanent collection was a bit too noisy for my taste. There was a sick piece, though: a Hypercard stack showcasing some typographic layouts.

Rijksmuseum

The Louvre of Amsterdam, maybe? It was a bit confusing to navigate through the different areas, but maybe I was tired. Sick swords and some Dutch masterworks can be found there.

Eat, Drink

Café Saarein

A lovely, chill queer café.

Bar Buka

A lesbian bar with some board games and good cocktails.

Kaasbar Amsterdam

The Swiss fondue made with beer was awesome.

Rotterdam

Not really a pretty city. I don’t know if it’s better or worse than Brussels.

Museums

Kunsthal

I only visited one of the current (November 2024) exhibition, “Diva”, which was really neat. The other things I didn’t care.

Het Nieuwe Instituut

A museum focused on architecture (yay), design (yay), and digital culture (ended up to be a yay, surprisingly). I couldn’t visit everything since the last story’s floor is see-through, so my acrophobia didn’t allow me to proceed.

Eat, Drink

Ferry

A “mainstream” LGBT bar/club. The DJ set was awful, but the staff was lovely.

Didi's Stroopwafels

A café with some nice stroopwafels and poffertjes.

Teds Rotterdam

Pretty good brunch, but I mainly liked it for their appeltaart.

Hinoki Noodle Soup

The best ramen I had since years. They have a single vegetarian dish, but it’s really well-made. They also make yuzu based sodas, which I gulped a quickly as the soup.

Vegan Junk Food Bar Rotterdam

I felt like my belly would explode like a balloon, but it was amazing. The alcoholized milkshakes were brilliant too.

Utrecht

One of the most beautiful city I visited in Europe. The fortified parts are lovely, the canals were really inviting.

Eat, Drink

Stach

At first I didn’t realize that it was a restaurant chain. My fiancée said that she had the best sandwich of her life, and I agree that I was quite good. They’re also some sore of deli? It’s also there that I realized that pandan was popular in the Netherlands. I guess that it’s because of their history with Indonesia.

Museums

Spoorwegmuseum

The railway museum of the Netherlands. The few trains you can visit were really great, and the few others on display were neat too (there’s an Orient Express’ wagon!), but there are too few of them. The rest of the museum is mainly filled with attractions for kids. Overall, not as good as Train World in Schaerbeek, Brussels.

Overall

Nederlandse Spoorwegen rocks.