Van Gogh at Hermitage Museum

You should not miss Van Gogh if you're visiting Amsterdam. You will probably miss the tulips season (like I did!!), you will probably skip some museums (there are plenty, it's simply impossible to visit all), you will probably skip eating herrings (something like our "kiam hu") etc, you MUST NOT miss Van Gogh!

When I was doing research on my Amsterdam itinerary, to my "horror" Van Gogh Museum was closed for renovation. I was really disappointed. However, Van Gogh is one of the most important icon in Amsterdam, sure they will house Van Gogh's paintings somewhere temporarily.

Well, the answer was Hermitage Museum, the museum I didn't really put into plan had just made its way back into the itinerary again.

The back door of Hermitage Museum when we're done visiting

I was not very diligent in making the ticket booking of museums as I thought it shall be fine. But yet... when we joined the queue, we were exactly in front of this sign.

Torturous one hour waiting time

Only visitors with their own print out tickets can queue at the fast lane. The rest of us had to join the normal queue.

Slowly we were here.

Half an hour more!!!

When we're finally here, it started to snow. Yes, snowing in spring, that's how weird the weather was when we were there. Global warming is real! The colder it got, the stronger I wish I would be in the warm museum as soon as possible.

Some snow on the ground

Just to show you the snow on our head, that's the Man's head

Finally we got in. It's nice and warm inside. Like most of the museums we went, you're required to leave your bags and/or winter jackets in the locker. Hence, if it's possible keep your things as simple as possible.

It's prohibited to take any photos of Van Gogh's work. So there will be no photos sharing.

I can't describe how it feels when we're finally standing in front of the paintings. Every single stroke was clearly seen. I was imagining Van Gogh painting crazily when he had his panic attack. We saw the  Sunflowers, Almond blossoms, Irises, Potato eaters (I don't fancy this one), and a lot more that I just can't name them. Too plenty of them.

But then, I realized there's no Starry Night. My favourite. So I went to ask the security. The answer I got was:"I am really sorry, but we do not own Starry Night. It's currently in museum in New York."

:(

Still, it's really wonderful to being able to see Van Gogh's painting so closely. To observe every stroke. If you're going to Amsterdam, and not wanting to miss Van Gogh, one important thing, book your ticket early! Don't end up in the long queue like we did.

Ticket to Hermitage Museum for Van Gogh's painting, was 15Euro per pax. Since Van Gogh Museum has reopened now, please visit the page for more updated details.

De Stadskantine

First morning in Amsterdam, we woke up early as usual. (We woke up early everyday during the trip, because we sleep very early. Very healthy lifestyle, well, for a week) However, the lodging we booked in Amsterdam was not B&B. So, we didn't get free breakfast. Therefore, our food hunt started from morning.

We went to De Stadskantine, which located at Van Woustraat, near to where we stayed. It's a nice place, but I guess nobody wake up so early in Europe. In the morning, everywhere we go seems empty. Even in this crowded city. Unbelievably peaceful.

Street view of Van Woustraat

De Stadskantine

Good thing about De Stadskantine, is that you could dine here, even you do not have cash. Because they ONLY accept credit card :P

After we placed our order, we picked a window seat to enjoy the view out there.

Our seat by the window

The food was served quite fast, and we can't help to act like crazy tourists again, snap pictures of the food.

Our breakfast

They served pretty good croissant. After a week of croissant in Europe, I wondered if I would ever want to eat croissant in Singapore anymore. We paid 13.70Euro for whatever you see on the picture above. I had a smaller set of breakfast, croissant, egg, orange juice and coffee. While YH had a bigger set, croissant, egg, ham & cheese sandwich, orange juice and coffee.

The food is nothing to shout for. But if you're at that area, it's worth to come by and have some food at the nice environment at quite reasonable price.

Address:
120 Van Woustraat

Albert Cuyp Market

When we were in Amsterdam, we stayed really close to Albert Cuyp Market. Basically, just next street from it.

Albert Cuyp Market

Albert Cuyp market is the open air market located at Albert Cuyp Street, which was highly recommended by most of the guide books. It is also very close to Heineken Experience, so if you're planning for a trip there, you could combine this into your half a day itinerary.

Influenced by my parents, I like to visit markets in different part of the world. Just to experience how the day to day life of locals. I've got to say, I really like this market.

Like markets in Penang, they sell a lot of local finger food. Sandwiches, herrings, poffertjes, fries, cheese, freshly baked breads etc.

Poffertjes, looks like mini pancake

All sorts of cheese!!!

Freshly baked bread, smell so nice!

And it's really clean, even though they're selling seafood and meat! How did they manage it? I think Penang government should really learn from them, and hopefully one day, market can be part of the tourist attractions too.

Fresh seafood!

And there are some stuffs that I've never seen before.

Do they need so many varieties of tomatoes???

Weird looking ones

And, there are a lot of flowers! Mainly tulips! People like to decorate their house with flowers. However, if I asked mom to buy some flower for home, I bet my mom will say "Siau ah?!". Lol.

Flowers

Tulips~

It's interesting how the government turned this simple day to day life thing into a tourist attraction. I hope with much effort to clean up Penang by the Penang state government, one day, when foreigners ask us where to go in Penang, we will recommend them market too! =)

Oh, by the way, please do not try to go to the market too early. I read from the guide, market open at 9am. So when we went there at 9am, they're just setting up the stalls. Go slightly later than 9am, you'll find most stalls are up and open.

Heart of Brussels B&B

Heart of Brussels B&B is one of the best accommodation during our journey. It's value for money, and it's convenient. Besides, we really like the interior of this modern looking studio!

Foldable bed

Kitchen and dining table

Bathroom

Bathroom interior

Bathroom

Kitchen and balcony from living room

Common dining room where we have breakfast 

Common living area 

The owner Jan provided very good directions when we're communicating through email. Getting to the place wasn't super difficult (anyway we took cab). The B&B doesn't look interesting from the outside, just a normal apartment. But based on my experience in Zaragoza, I was quite confident that it will turn out well :) It did.

Breakfast was provided, every morning we came down to the common dining area where Jan provided a small spread of buffet breakfast, for only 3 guests. And he made coffee for us, every morning. Besides, he explained to use where to go, how to go with a map. Lovely.

It's walking distance to shopping street, Grand Palace, Manekan Pis, National Theatre etc. It's really convenient!

There are only 3 rooms, so book early if you'd like to go. Highly recommended :)

Atomium

Atomium wasn't in my planning initially. However, after I knew that it's built in year of 1958, I became interested in it. I didn't expect this building to be this old, even though not as old as all the other attractions which were there since a few centuries ago. However, I expect this Atomium to be fairly recent!

The Atomium

Closer look

The Atomium is a "body centered cubic", crystal structure of iron. It's built in year of 1958 for Expo. And was meant to be demolished after Expo. However, it got so popular, eventually it was kept until today.

If you purchase a ticket for entrance, you'll enter from the atom from ground, and like any other tall building in the world, you'll take a lift that goes straight up to the highest level to enjoy the view of the city.

Realize there's only a little skyscrapper in the city that stood out among the buildings

Very gloomy day, nothing much to view actually

After viewing from top, you can go back down to ground floor, and take escalator or stairs to other "atoms" for some other exhibitions. However, to our experience, that's really redundant. The exhibition was so boring and totally waste of time. We simply walked a round because we have to get to the other side to get down.

Stairs to another atom

The entrance is 11Euro per person. In my opinion that was a bit expensive because the view was just okie. Maybe the weather wasn't very good. Besides, the exhibition was very badly done. However, I wouldn't say it's not worth to visit at all, at least I admire the engineering that was done back in 1958. It's still amazing even for today's standard. (sorry, I'm a nerd)

Maybe another better way for visiting the Atomium is to make reservation for dinner at the highest level . I think it'll be great to enjoy night view while having dinner. It should be romantic. We didn't make reservation because our itinerary was not fixed entirely. It's a shame.

How to go?
With Metro, everything and everywhere is accessible. Atomium can be reached by Metro, simply alight at Heysel station, Atomium is just a few minutes away.

Musical Instruments Museum (MIM)

Musical Instruments Museum is the only museum we visited in Brussels when we were there. We spent a long time in the museum, longer than we expected, almost half a day there. And I thought, it was one of the coolest museum that I've ever been.

Building opposite the back of MIM

MIM

MIM

I took this picture in the middle of the road

MIM is easily accessible. To go to MIM, you can either take metro to Troon station. Or, you could chose to walk from Grand Palace. We chose to take metro to MIM, and walked our way back to Grand Palace.

The reason I said MIM is only of the coolest museum I've ever been, is the audio guide, the abundance of musical instruments that you've never ever heard of, and the value of the ticket.

Some certain musical instruments have had some recordings. There is an audio sign on the floor for these instruments and all the visitors have to do is just to stand in front of the instruments with a guide, the guide will play the music from that particular instruments automatically. Besides, the screen of the audio guide will show the picture of that instruments too, so that you can be sure you're listening to the correct one.

There are total 10 levels in the building, and total 4 levels with display of musical instruments. I've learned a lot of funny looking/weird/interesting instruments, i.e. Jew's harp which makes funny sound, glass harmonica which was invented by Benjamin Franklin, Bible regal which is an instrument that looks like a thick bible etc. I also learned that saxophone was invented in Brussels, by a guy called Adolphe Sax. Because there are just too many things that were not explained in the museum, I bought a book in MIM, titled "50 Unusual Instruments", featuring the most unusual and popular instruments in MIM collections.

The ticket was only 8Euro per person, with an audio guide for each. With the abundance of instruments shown, I would say this 8Euro is really worth it.

After hours spent in the levels looking at the instruments, we decided to have our lunch at the top level of MIM to enjoy the view of Brussels.

From our table

Other side of the restaurant

From the outdoor seating which nobody wants to sit as it's too cold

Interior of the restaurant, it's simply packed with tourists

The food in MIM was actually good. I ordered a MIM salad, while the Man ordered Fish of the Day. As our bags were kept in the locker, I could not change my wide angle lens with a normal kit or my 60mm, I didn't take any photo of the lunch.

After the lunch, we made our way to Brussels Central Station which was only walking distance from MIM to get our train tickets to Amsterdam. And we enjoyed the walk back to Grand Palace.

For a moment I thought it feels a bit like San Francisco

Slanted street like SF

A building opposite MIM

Just like the contrast of that van

A park near MIM

View from the park to where I was at MIM

How to go?
Nearest metro station: Troon
Or you can walk from Grand Palace

How much is the ticket?
8Euro per pax