Neighbourhood Tour!

We moved in to our permanent place in Amsterdam in July. We were 100% settled by early August...by 100% I mean we had all necessary furniture to be comfortable. We still have quite a bit to get as we need more lighting, tables, and stuff to put on the walls...but we are comfortable and are enjoying our new home.

We have gotten the opportunity to tour our neighborhood a number of times whether it be through running or biking so I thought I would share that with y'all....

This is the view from our backyard...if you follow me on instagram you've seen this (if you aren't follow me now and holla so I can follow you back)...but this happened on Wednesday, and I couldn't resist taking a photo! The park back there is always full of kids playing, people taking a walk, pets mulling around it is quite a nice area to have right behind us.

Now, let's hop on my bike and we can see the rest ;)

If you bike directly across the street and park your bike, you cross a bridge and come to this! I would never have expected to see this behind the bridge....we are so lucky!

As you wind your way through the trails you come back on to pavement and will find this gorgeous garden:

Lots of lovely flowers and well groomed bushes....

Then we have this area near the water with a small bridge and lots of lovely flowers that are highly water dependent (I assume) since they grow in the water! haha

As you keep wandering there are several places that have animals in them:

In this pen there are kangaroo's....

In this one, there is a, well, a cow...he didn't look very happy to see me...

In fact, he looked slightly frazzled...I wonder if some tourists were getting to him? 

Eventually you wind your way around to an open field...

This is a fantastic area with lots of trees for a picnic....

Now, in the park on select Sunday's we have the Pure Market:

You can get all sorts of delicious things but some of our favorites are the rotisserie chicken on this open flame cooker...how awesome is that?! I've never seen anything like it!

There are guys using a wood smoker and serving up fresh food....

Here are some other things you can get....

Fresh juices, pepperoni, butter whipped with edible flowers, dried cherries, and dried mango, and the Nanaimo bar ;)

Now, if you ride your bike behind the park and go toward a town called Amstelveen you will come to this:

I love this windmill! It is a huge tourist attraction too. I took a picture from the "ugly" side because there were too many people around it the day I tried to photograph it. But, it is a gorgeous piece. It has dates on it from 1600 something to 1960 something. I'm curious to know exactly what the dates mean. I do believe someone lives in the windmill also, it is very well groomed and there is always the same car out front.

If you keep going down this road you come to these:

Behind these gates there is a little play area for families...then a little farther down...

You can meet Rembrandt. He's always looking very stoic. 

Now we will hop back on our bikes and ride over to the train station:

This is just a five minute bike ride from our house, a brisk 10 minute walk or a slow 15-20 minute walk. The station allows us quick and easy access to a number of buses, trams, metro's, and trains. We can get all over the city here or all over Holland! We are lucky to have it so close to our house between this and our bikes we really have no need for a car (which I hate driving so I am so glad!).

If you take the metro down one stop and get out...you'll find this sign outside the Amsterdam Zuid Station:

Does this mean it is just a kiss for one ride?! How far is the ride? Is it the same kind of ride I'm thinking of? It doesn't help that the literal translation of "alleen halen en brengen" is "just give and take" haha....

Seriously, I think it means that is where you can pick people up or drop people off...possibly could be where you hail a cab but those are usually marked with a giant blue "T" much like the universal blue "P" for parking...but still pretty funny translation. This gave us a good chuckle when we were making our way home one night!

Well, I hope you enjoyed the little tour of my neighborhood! We are really loving our area, there is so much to see and do...we really lucked out!