A midweek break in Amsterdam, part 3

[ part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4 ]

Thursday was our last full day in Amsterdam! How do these things go by so fast?

Today was a bit more of a relaxing day as we spent the time trying to see parts of the city we'd missed before. We also ate  a lot of food today! One Amsterdam delicacy I really wanted to try was bitterballen! I'd heard about these little Dutch meatballs online and desperately wanted to try them! We actually searched high and low for a traditional place that actually served them (have I mentioned lately how Amsterdam is full of pancake and burger joints?). In the end, we found this adorable cafe that had all sorts of interesting things on the menu, and I finally got my bitterballen!

Afterwards, we were still peckish. I'd heard about this really awesome place called Foodhallen which was, if you couldn't guess, a giant food hall, and we decided to check it out. There were so many varieties of food on offer. In the end, Moose settled on a loaded hot dog and I had a plate full of sushi. Like I said in my first post, Amsterdam seemed to be nuts on sushi, so I felt like I had to finally try some out. It was great!

Afterwards, we took another canal trip, this time not a pizza dinner cruise, but purely a sightseeing tour.  We were given earphones and were guided as we sailed around the city. It was a lovely way to see Amsterdam and we got to see a few areas we'd missed in our wandering.

We also finally found the infamous Red Light District. Isn't that crazy? It's not that we'd been trying to find it, but I'd been lead to believe that you just plain couldn't miss it the moment you stepped foot in Amsterdam. We strolled through during the day so we didn't see any of the, uh, sights, but it mostly surprised me that we'd not stumbled across it earlier.

---

One of the Amsterdam cuisines I definitely did not try!

By now it was starting to get late, and we had reservations at Moeders, a restaurant I'd seen online and really wanted to check out. It was a place I knew I'd finally get some real Dutch food, but what I loved about it was that it was dedicated to mothers, which is what the name means, and it pays tribute to them in such a unique way. The walls are absolutely covered in photographs that people have brought in of their mothers. They are everywhere, floor to ceiling, on the doors, behind the bar. It was incredible.

We shared a starter called 'Mama's Happas' which was a plate of five different appetizers. I don't actually remember what any of them were now but I remember they were delicious, especially the shell fish that I think was filled with a cheesy garlic sauce. For my main, I had the 'Hotchpotch', which I appreciate doesn't look very appetizing at all, but I guarantee it was delicious! It was a bed of mashed potatoes (with spinach, I think, which is why it's green!), served with bacon, a meat ball and a giant sausage. It was so delicious and rich, I couldn't finish it all! Moose had the steak and that looked lovely, too!

Below are some shots I took while we wandered around Amsterdam at night, from before we went to Moeders. We actually found a nice (Australian!) bar to get a drink in before the restaurant, too. It was our last night there, so I wanted to make the most of it.

I absolutely love cities at night time, I think that's when they come to life. I'm a sucker for twinkly lights and starry skies.

And after that... it was time to go back to our hotel and enjoy our last night in Amsterdam. We still had a few things left to do the next morning before we flew out, so we wanted to get a good night sleep to be ready.

[ part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4 ]