A midweek break in Amsterdam, part 2

[ part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4 ]

Welcome to part two of my little and very overdue rundown of our trip to Amsterdam last year! In my previous post I talked about our first day exploring the city, which brings us to Wednesday already (mid week breaks seem to go so fast!).

On Wednesday we had some concrete plans. I wanted to check out ARTIS, Amsterdam's zoo. I'd heard really good things about it, though I have to say I think some of the enclosures looked a little small, which is I suppose the problem with city zoos. Two things really set ARTIS apart from other zoos I've been to, however. One is an area called Micropia, which is a 'zoo' dedicated to microbes. It sounds a bit strange, but it was really interesting and they had so many fun ways of teaching us about microbes - plus, I'm sorry, but tardigrades are cute okay?

They also had an area called the 'Forest House' and honestly? This part was worth the price of admission alone. It was only a small area but it was absolutely amazing. It was an enclosed building that had a humid forest atmosphere inside. What was thoroughly wonderful though was how the animals were just free to roam around inside, and there were so many different species to enjoy. There was absolutely nothing between you and them, so you had little dik-dik deer trotting along the floor in front of you, and if you turned around to take a photo of the sloth slowly climbing over head, you might find yourself face to face with a lizard just happily perched on a branch in front of you. It was wonderful. I could have happily spent hours there (and they even provided benches so that you could do exactly that!)

Apologies for the blurry photo - it's pretty difficult taking a photo of a skittering dik-dik as it dashes across the path in front of you!

After the zoo, we had another short wander around Amsterdam before heading to our destination for the afternoon.

We had tickets to visit the Anne Frank house, which is the actual building Anne Frank hid in during the war and the place she wrote most of her now-famous diary. I'd wanted to visit forever, and while I can't say it was a particularly nice or fun experience, it was incredibly memorable and definitely something worth seeing. I obviously didn't take any photos, out of respect, but it's an experience I won't forget for a long time even without them.

In the evening, we had dinner plans with some friends of mine! I know Daphne and Alex from UK Ponycon and when they heard I'd be in town they suggested we meet up! We went to a lovely restaurant and spent a good few hours just catching up, discussing everything from My Little Pony to League of Legends and, of course, Disney (they're Disney nuts, too!) It's always lovely having a chance to catch up with friends you only usually see at conventions! Especially when they live in a foreign country!

After dinner, we were exhausted, and finally toddled back to our hotel to get ready for our last full day in Amsterdam on Thursday, which I'll cover in my next post!

[ part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4 ]