Rediscovering Amsterdam

Almost a year and half ago, my husband of one month and I were patiently waiting for our flight at the business class lounge of KLM in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport with a mounting excitement at the pit of our stomach. We had our oversized and overweight luggage mostly filled by winter jackets and thick sweaters in preparation for the frosty season that is about to welcome us in Amsterdam, the new place that we will soon be calling our home.

Although we have lived here for quite some time now, I can’t truly say that I have explored the many beautiful and popular spots that abound Amsterdam. Yes, I have been to Madurodam in The Hague which is also known as the Little Holland and I have passed by the Red Light District dozens of times, I have also been inside the Madame Tussauds but I hear a lot of people talking about a lot of different wonderful and interesting places that anyone in Amsterdam has to visit. I guess the reason why we never really took time to visit all of these fantastic places is because of the thought that we live here and we can always drop by anytime until we end up not going at all.

Well all of that was remedied upon the much awaited visit of Mama Lits, my ever sweet and cool mother in law. Her visit has been delayed by the uber long processing of her Schengen visa, and to think she applied for her visa in Dubai where she is currently staying – hmm, I wonder how much longer it would take to process it from Manila then, anyway I digress. At any rate, all’s well that ends well, she finally arrived here in Schipol Airport on the dawn of February 6. Honey and I know that she is an absolute sucker for any kind of flowers so although we were already late in picking her up from the airport, we had to drop by one of the Bloemen (Flower) shops to grab a bouquet. She absolutely loved it!

Immediately after arriving home, we dumped her bags into her room, we parted ways since I had to go to the office and Junfer took Mama Lits on a stroll around our neighborhood. I never realized that our vicinity had so many nice areas and fascinating spots. Mama Lits enjoyed the stroll immensely, she was so fascinated with the blocks and blocks of cheese that she saw at the nearby cheese house, she described the cheeses as “parang gulong ng hopper ni Jenny (my sister in law)” haha. She couldn’t stop gawking at the hundreds, even thousands, of bicycles parked everywhere near the train station and she couldn’t get enough of the multitudes of flowers that were available in every corner, hey it wouldn’t be Holland if there are no flower shops in every bend.

The following day, it was my turn to tour her around. Since she works for one of the biggest retail clothing shops in Dubai, I thought she would be interested in seeing the shopping areas here in Amsterdam. She was so excited to see brands that she was familiar with and asked to have her picture taken in front of the shops. We also dropped by the cheese house that they have visited the day before and bought half a kilo of the cheese that she liked a lot. She is definitely going to take some of that cheese back to Dubai.


Came Friday, all three of us went to Amsterdam Centraal and toured Mama Lits around. We showed her the street which is similar to Chinatown in Manila. We also explored the dodgy streets of the red light district. I couldn’t stop giggling when I saw Mama Lits reaction to the half naked ladies posing inside the big glass windows trying to lure clients inside. She was so embarrassed, her entire face was red.

Our next stop was the Dam rock, it’s where the old Royal Palace is located and other very old houses and buildings. When we first got here, the hotel that we stayed at was actually very close to this area but I never really realized how beautiful the architecture was. There were even street artists, all were imitating different effigy – one was posing as the angel of death and the other was posing as St. Peter and still the other was imitating a statue of Archangel Gabriel – very similar to the ones we saw in Barcelona.


Although I have mentioned it time and time again that Amsterdam is, hands down, one of the most beautiful cities that I have ever been to, I am now realizing that I haven’t even seen half of its beauty. Guess Amsterdam has much more surprises in store for us as we schedule other tours for Mama Lits over the next couple of days. Having someone with a fresh perspective really gives a perfect chance to rediscover a familiar territory.