Amsterdammmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!! I was so bloody excited to
bring Dylan here.
I will say that I got judged, A LOT, for booking up here.
People associate Amsterdam with drugs and sex but manage to completely override
how absolutely beautiful the city is. I didn’t care If they judge me though
because I knew Dylan would love it and I was correct.
This time we flew with Easy Jet. I really do not like Easy
Jet at all but they were flying when I was going so couldn’t avoid it. The
flights return were around £40 so grabbed a bargain. The way back was an
absolute nightmare and I have hated Easy Jet since. Have I used them again?
Well yes.
We flew from Edinburgh instead of Glasgow because it was
cheaper. Edinburgh has a play area for
children so it kept Dylan busy.
We used AirBnB and stayed in a two bedroom apartment in Borneostraat,
Indische Buurt, with a balcony. The stairs in the apartments / hostels in Amsterdam are very unusually steep. This can be difficult with a push chair but doable. If you can’t manage this I would recommend messaging the hosts first beforehand to double check.
Amsterdam is just beautiful, you could walk about for hours. As usual Dylan wanted to go to the zoo so the transport there was easy enough. The tram was 2 minutes away from the apartment we were staying, number 14, and the journey was only about 15 mins. You can buy tickets there and then. The Zoo again was huge and you can pretty much spend a full day there. We went for lunch to a little café about a 5 minute walk from the Zoo, we munched chocolate and pancakes. Dylan loved it a bit too much.
We made our way back to the city centre which was just utterly spectacular. The people were friendly and we walked up and down the canal for hours looking at the boats. There was a wee café with a couch outside that wee sat to watch the world go by. If he was older I would have rented bikes out. What I would say is the road are so busy with cars, trams and bikes…crossing roads car be scary at times.
We walked about for hours because the place just flows naturally so there is always things to do. We were all over the place. We went to the notorious Amsterdam sign, Hobbermastraat 19, we found a little cheese shops and tasted all the samples then on the way to go onto the Hop On Hop Off bus stop (15 Euros) there was a spot outside the Heineken Factory where Dylan wanted to watch the bikes again. There were no seats so we literally just sat on the pavement counting bikes and waving to the people cycling by. There were so many and most of them waved back. Dylan was so excited by this and said he wanted a bike..which I bought him that Christmas. We used Sat Nav to walk about because it was such a lovely dsy.
Parts of Amsterdam are for adults but they are out of the way so you don’t particularly stumble across them unless you go looking. At no point was this an issue with me being there with a child. I would 100% go because the people were friendly, the city was busy and vibrant also. The way back was an absolute nightmare though, the worst airline experience I have had in my life. I got on the wrong train which was completely my fault however I JUST made it to the airport in time. I had already checked in so I only had to go through customs. Amsterdam airport is pretty big and due to me being so flustered I asked an Easy Jet worker where I go and she pointed to a lady. I walked over and showed her our boarding passes which she didn’t scan, she just opened the gate for me to walk through, we went through customs and some how ended up in a VIP area.
She was cold, insincere and
anything but helpful. I literally only had enough money to get Dylan a sausage
roll, he sat eating that and watched me cry. A few random people came over to
ask me if I was ok but I never answered because I was in such a state. I put a
post on Facebook which got a lot of feedback and support. A man I worked with
paid for flights for Dylan and I to get home. I had to wait 14 hours in the
airport before the next flight. Dylan wasn’t potty trained at this stage and we
had no nappies so can imagine the nightmare that this was.
The McDonalds there had a play area and space to charge your
phone. We sat in McDonalds for about 5 hours playing on the Ipad and trying to
pass time. A McDonalds worker saw how upset I was, came over and sneakily slid
Dylan a McFlurry without her manager seeing. I have never been so grateful in
my life. I later sent McDonalds a thank you letter for her because that small
gesture made Dylan happy, took guilt away from me and just restored my faith in
Amsterdam after dealing with that horrid woman at the service desk. I
complained to Easy Jet afterwards, but they washed their hands of it and said I
should have been there on time. I was there on time but had the Easy Jet worked
pointed to the commoner’s queue and not the VIP lounge then I would not have
been in that situation. I have learned a massive lesson though, I will always
arrive super early at the airport and have some money still in my account in case
that happened again. Luckily Dylan is a great kid so it could have been so much
worse. Would not put me off going back to Amsterdam but if I can avoid EasyJet then
I will.
contact
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