Ed. note: I meant to post this last week but ran into a little trouble with my hard drive. Things are back up and running now—thanks for your patience!
The last time I was in Amsterdam—nearly 20 years ago—I caught a very bad virus by the second day and spent the rest of the trip stuck in bed at the hotel. This time, I was determined to see as much of the city as possible, and I think we did a pretty good job. We spent three days in Amsterdam in early October, and after a week in Paris with unseasonably warm temperatures, Amsterdam was rainy one minute, sunny the next, and chilly for all of it—but in a very autumn-appropriate way. Packing for both legs of the trip was definitely a challenge, but it thankfully worked out for the best. Here's everything I wore in Amsterdam.
The kind of amazing thing about Amsterdam is that especially in the central city, not a lot changes—as our tour boat captain said, if someone from the 1600s was transplanted to the current-day city, they'd be able to find their way home without too much of a problem. We spent our first day wandering around Jordaan and the nine streets neighborhood, admiring the architecture, dodging bicyclists, and hopping into historic pubs for a drink and a snack.
Day 2: Museum hopping
Amsterdam has many great museums—I had been to the Anne Frank house and the Van Gogh museum previously—but the Stedelijk contemporary art museum really blew me away on this trip. Highly recommend, especially if you can get tickets to the Kusama retrospective currently on exhibit!
Day 3: boat tour and souvenir shopping
We did a canal tour with the Those Dam Boat Guys and even though it was intermittently downpouring, I could have stayed on the boat all day—I was having that good of a time. Highly recommend! We spent the rest of the day wandering around Jordaan again, scooping up some souvenirs, and having a bunch of lovely conversations with locals—I found the Dutch people to be incredibly open-minded and a little quirky, in the best possible way!
As far as packing MVPs go, it's a tie between my Uniqlo puffer vest and Clarks Wallabees. Neither is the sexiest thing I own, but the former kept me incredibly warm in a widely varying range of indoor and outdoor temperatures. And while I've always known the shoes were ideal for high step-count vacations (the wide toe box is really clutch when your feet start to swell), I was amazed by how water-resistant they were. Count me as a Clarks fan for life!
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