Touring, eating and cycling
A journey through Amsterdam from the comfort of your room
We’ve all spent the last year tucked away at home, and most of us haven’t been anywhere more exciting than our local grocery store, or maybe an outdoor restaurant. But let’s be honest, the world can still feel a bit scary, and travelling the exact same route for your daily walk is getting a bit repetitive.
Even though almost all non-essential travel is still off the table, why should that stop you from exploring the world beyond your own front door? Take a break from lounging around, baking more banana bread and trying to convince yourself you actually like yoga, and take a trip to Amsterdam with me instead. I’ve got the whole day planned out.
Maybe it’s time for you to face your fears of travelling solo — don’t worry, there’s no one to judge you for eating/drinking/exploring alone when you’re in your own home. Or maybe you want to grab a friend — over video chat if necessary — and finally have the vacation that COVID’s put off for a year. Either way, it’s time to get going. Laten we gaan!
Touring … with Drive & Listen
OK, so bear with me because we’re starting off kind of weird here. Drive & Listen is a website that lets you, you guessed it, drive and listen. Starting at the Rijksmuseum, the video stream takes you around the city, with a camera that has filmed a POV tour of Amsterdam from the front of a car. It’s the perfect way to immediately immerse yourself in the city, especially since you wouldn’t normally be able to see much more than a laptop screen of a view from inside your car anyway.
There are several radio options to choose from, though I prefer to just listen to the street noise. If that’s not your cup of tea, you can also have all sound off entirely. There are over fifty countries to choose from, but today we’re going to Amsterdam, so get ready to hear some Top 40 pop from Radio 10 or some speedy Dutch on Radio 100% NL.
Enjoy the striking blue skies, gaggles of people cycling alongside you and pristine side streets along the canal: You are officially in Amsterdam.
Watching … vlogs and videos galore
Now that you’ve got your bearings, it’s time to get a more official tour. If you want to continue the more immersive experience with something that feels live — or actually is — head over to Follow My Travels on YouTube where there are often live streams and over 100 walking tours of the city to choose from.
I particularly like the tour of Keukenhof tulips for a peaceful look at rows upon rows of colorful spring flowers, and I would also recommend a walk around Bloesempark. The combination of ambient noise and the expansive forest of cherry blossoms makes you feel like you’re under a peaceful soft, white canopy.
Switching gears, Lost LeBlanc gives a more personal guide to the city, walking and cycling and visiting everything from Anne Frank’s house to the Red-Light District, with a more in-depth view of some of the places, like Rijksmuseum, that feature on Drive & Listen. You’ll also get a sneak peek at a few of Amsterdam’s most popular bars, restaurants and coffee shops, all while getting to skip the long lines outside.
Eating … food, glorious food
After watching all those videos, it’s time for a break from the screen to try and get a taste of some of the food we’ve just seen. Now, I don’t know about you, but there aren’t many local restaurants near me that serve authentic Dutch cuisine. If there are, I’m very jealous, and please feel free to go ahead and ignore the following advice and order whatever sounds good off the menu.
For the rest of us, my first recommendation is to cook something. If that’s not your forte or simply isn’t an option for you, don’t panic, because I’ve got plenty of snacks and foods you can buy instead.
But if you want to go the extra mile (or kilometer) then here are some great recipe options for some Dutch classics, including Hollandse nieuwe haring (Scoused herrings), Bitterballen (Dutch meatballs) and some Poffertjes (Dutch mini pancakes) to finish. If you’re not cooking, you can throw some chocolate sprinkles on toast to make Hafelslag (think of it as a donut but with bread instead of fried dough), a playful Dutch breakfast.
But the easiest option is to just buy some traditional Speculaas, or Stroopwafel, which you might even find on the shelves of your local supermarket. If not, don’t worry, because they’re both available on Amazon. Overall, this may be a bit pricier than your normal lunch, but just remember all that money you saved on plane tickets.
And finally, even if you ordered in or cooked, you’re going to want to stock up on the previously mentioned snacks for our trip around the museum next. Because snacks just make everything better.
Wandering … around a virtual museum
I hope you’ve grabbed yourself a cup of tea or coffee to go with your Stroopwafel — top tip, rest the delicious syrup waffle on top of your mug so that the caramel melts a bit. It is *chef’s kiss*. We’ve got two museums lined up, and the first is the Van Gogh Museum. You can click on specific images, and there are sections devoted to Post-Impressionism, Modern Art and Oil Paint among others, but you can also move yourself through the actual gallery.
The website is through Google Arts & Culture, so it’s kind of similar to looking at houses on street view in Google Maps. You can move through the museum as if you’re actually there – that’s if, in real life, you were able to jump up stairs and through walls. It’s a little stilted, but it gives you the chance to see not just individual pieces of art, but how they were curated in the room.
You can use the bar at the bottom to scroll through to specific works of art, click through for more information and a better view and use your cursor to spin around the room. Be sure to check out Self-portrait with grey felt hat and the classic Sunflowers while you’re there.
Finally, we’re heading back to our favorite recurring Rijksmuseum, but this time we’re getting a look around the inside at everything from Vemeer to Rembrandt to Mondrian. The website operates in the same way, and while there are usually around 8,000 objects across 80 galleries to view in person, online you can see over 100,000 of the museums’ works of art. I recommend you look for Rembrandt van Rijn’s The Night Watch, which has its own online exhibit, and Handrick Avercamp’s Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters, one of my personal favorites.
You’ll be an expert at navigating virtual museum visits by this point, and, since there’s no one to rush you through the exhibitions, take your time, take in the art, have a bite of your melted Stroopwafel and maybe even open up Drive & Listen in another tab for some background music.
