Surviving a London Winter: Ice Skating and Amsterdam

As the temperatures have dropped in London, I am finding it harder to get off my cosy couch and brave the frigid winter weather! In order to stop yourself going inside (and force yourself to get out and explore London) we have tried to make as many plans as possible on our free weekends. 

The most exciting thing we had planned for the month of January was a weekend trip to Amsterdam with our friends Dave and Georgia. We all left straight from work on a Friday night and jumped on a short plane ride over. We rented an apartment that was right in the centre of Amsterdam and perfect for what we needed. As soon as we arrived we decided we had to get out and do something. 

Below are some pictures of us not long after we arrived, we went out for some drinks, had some delicious red wine and capped it off with some amazing nutella waffles - yum! We also stopped by the red light district, although you can't take photos here. The red light district is basically the sex and prostitution centre of Amsterdam, as you walk down the streets you can see women in windows, posing and pouting for male attention - it was actually quite awful to see. If you look at them they push a little buzzer that makes noise and is supposed to invite you closer (I couldn't really bring myself to look at them in the eyes) and when they have a 'customer' they simply close the blinds on their window! It was really bizzare to me that sex being sold as though it was a legitimate trade. Before we knew it it was almost 3am and we had all had a very long day!

The next day, after my standard Saturday sleep in, we headed off to explore Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is an absolutely beautiful city! It had snowed overnight, which meant our morning photos were all capped off by a layer of snow.

On our way to brunch we walked past many of the beautiful canals. They are absolutely stunning and all lined with beautiful old, crooked apartments and bikes. 

We got all rugged up, as it was freezing cold and headed off to grab some brunch from a restaurant Dave had found online. We went through this lovely park, which was gorgeous, albeit cold! There were still a lot of people (more than in London) out and about, enjoying the cold yet sunny day.

As you can see Amsterdam doesn't shy away from it's reputation for being the home of sex and drugs. There are many 'coffee shops' that have clouds of strong smelling smoke pouring from them. It is completely legal to smoke weed and eat 'space cakes' in the 'coffee shops' in Amsterdam.

Some of the beautiful canals in Amsterdam!

We visited the Iamsterdam sign, which is literally a giant sign with the letters I-A-M-S-T-E-R-D-A-M - doesn't so that exciting right? Well, it's absolutely packed with tourists, climbing all over the letters to get a good picture. It is such a simple and strange thing but super popular!

We jumped in among some of the letters and got some photos - we had to look directly into the bright sun so we all have horrible squint-faces happening! Below is the best photos I could get of the entire of the Iamsterdam sign, without it being completely recognisably covered with people.

Next stop was the Heineken Brewery!

This is the home and original production site of Heineken, it's safe to say the boys were excited!

The brewery tour was actually really cool. Below you can see Michael, Dave and Georgia learning about how beer is made and afterwards we went and checked out all the old beer silos (I think there is a better name than that but I can't remember what it is) and of course Georgia enjoying her sample of beer. We learnt that when you drink beer you are supposed to take big gulps, rather than small sips and that's one of the reasons men typically enjoy beer more than women.

Some random pics as we wandered through the brewery. Life got a bit much for Dave and Georgia and they had to take a seat and have a little rest haha!

A lot of the brewery was Heineken propaganda, there were green things everywhere and I am pretty sure they were trying to brainwash us but it was fun anyway!

We did have a bit of fun on this bicycle photo program and spent a while take photos of us going for a fake bike ride along the Amsterdam canals - there were lots of other fun/stupid things like this to keep people entertained. 

From here we headed home, these are a few photos of some of the shops in Amsterdam. The bottom right photo is taken right outside the apartment we were staying in, this was one of the main streets of Amsterdam and a pretty cool place to stay for the weekend. 

That night we decided to engage in some amusing activities that Amsterdam is famous for... that is as far as I will go with that story, I will leave the rest to your imagination. 

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The next day we were all a little worse for wear but we decided to make the most of our last day in Amsterdam. 

First stop was the Anne Frank house. I don't have any photos because you aren't allowed to take any. I was really looking forward to this because The Diary of Anne Frank is probably one of my favourite books, my copy at home is a little worn out as I have read in several times and it's an absolutely amazing story.

The Anne Frank house was really amazing. You are taken through the actual house they hid in and the 'annexe' where they lived for two years during the war, all the pictures that Anne pasted on her bedroom are still there and in tact and her diary (that parts of which are available) are displayed in a museum. It was a really worthwhile experience. 

After this we went on a canal tour of Amsterdam, we pretty much just cruised along the canals for an hour for another perspective of this beautiful city. 

A few snaps taken while on our canal tour and a random picture of Georgia smashing her breakfast omelette. 

Finally, we spent the last part of our weekend wandering through the streets of Amsterdam, perusing various cheese and vintage stores and finally capped it off with some amazing waffles!

I had an absolutely amazing, yet completely exhausting time in Amsterdam and we were lucky to have some  amazing people to enjoy the experience with! Even though I have spent the last week totally exhausted it was worth it and it reinvigorated my wanderlust and gave me some motivation to plan some more weekend breaks.

Aside from travelling to European cities we have been doing some other things more locally to get through the winter haze. Michael and I had our first official Sunday roast with our amazing roommates, Lucy and Ray! We cooked up a vegetable and lamb feast, topped off by amazing pudding and coconut ice cream. I have this new found understanding regarding Sunday roasts, I can completely understand why Brits love their warm, filling Sunday roasts in the middle of winter!

On another night out with Dave and Georgia we went for a stroll around their neighborhood. The photo on the left is of a lane that was used in Love Actually. For those who know it well, there is a scene at the end where the man who is crushing on Keira Knightley plays a Christmas Carol and holds up a bunch of signs telling her how much he loves her. Well, that scene was filmed in this cute and very typically British lane. 

The photo on the right is Michael in from of PERRIN'S LANE! Yes, that's right! The Perrin name is everywhere!

Another highlight of the month of January was an ice skating adventure at Somerset House. 

We headed here on a Friday night after work, again with Dave and Georgia (just thought I would point out that we do have other friends, the most exciting things we do just seem to be with these two).

A shot of me on the ice rink at Somerset House.

For the most part we caught onto it pretty quickly and spent the hour skating around the ice, reasonably confidently, there were no huge spills between the four of us but there were definitely a large number of people stacking around us!

Michael was not confident with his skating skills to begin with but once I convinced him to let go of the wall he was off! Unfortunately those rental skates really hurt your feet! After an hour I was definitely ready to get them off as my feet were killing me!

A pretty nice group shot of the four of us at Somerset House. 

So at the moment we are one month down, with one month left to go of bitterly cold London weather. I am actually getting used to it, although it does sorta suck having to brave the freezing cold in the dark each morning when I head to work. We have passed the shortest day of the year and blue Monday (which is known as the most depressing day of the year) so we are almost there!

School holidays are coming up for me in a few weeks (we get a week off) and we have a day trip planned to Brighton, as well as tickets to Thriller, the Michael Jackson musical. I am now playing netball at school once a week and with another team (outdoors) also once a week. With these activities, work all week and the essential weekend drinks and dinners we are definitely keeping ourselves busy! 

Until next time.

xx