Tag: Travel

Manchester April 2019

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This Easter, me and my lovely mum Debbie travelled to Manchester for a long weekend theatre city break, to see ‘Ghost – The Musical’ at the Palace theatre. Whilst in Manchester, we visited many great places, including; the Coronation Street Tour, Hard Rock Cafe, Arndale shopping centre, Manchester Cathedral, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester Museum, Chinatown, Piccadilly Gardens, Treetop Adventure Golf, and an Easter Funfair at Manchester Central Convention Complex. Please continue reading / viewing to see a detailed description of our travels, with accompanying photography. Hope you enjoy.

Friday 19th April

 

We arrived in Manchester late afternoon on the Friday. Our hotel was the Britannia Sachas Hotel, located on Tib Street, very central and close by to Piccadilly Gardens.

 

A tradition of ours, whenever we go to a new UK city (if there is one there of course) we always enjoy taking a few photos in urban Chinatown.

 

SPOILERS ALERT: On the Friday evening, we went to see ‘Ghost – The Musical’ at the Palace Theatre! I can remember, ‘Ghost’ was one of the films my mum actually bought me as a Christmas present as a teenager, we have watched it together on DVD on numerous occasions over many years. It’s a great story, very much brought to life on stage. Because the 1990 film ‘Ghost’ starring the late Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg, is not actually a musical as such, the stage production delights us with new musical numbers such as; ‘Here Right Now’, ‘Three Little Words’ ‘Are You a Believer’ and so on (lyrics by Bruce Joel Rubin / music and lyrics by Glen Ballard and Dave Stewart).  The actress, Rebekah Lowings, who plays Molly was simply superb. She had an absolutely fantastic voice, especially singing her version of ‘With You’, quite frankly it took our breath away. Moreover, the Subway Ghost’s (Lovonne Richards’) Act Two spoken word deliverance of ‘Focus’ was a very clever interpretation of the original filmic scene.  Of course however, the most memorable song of Ghost is and always will be the Righteous Brothers’ classic 1965 ‘Unchained Melody’. It was really beautiful moment actually in the stage production, because the famous sensual pottery scene from the film was reincarnated with Sam (Niall Sheehy) this time serenading Molly with his acoustic guitar. As with all the musicals me and my mum have been fortunate enough to see together, Ghost certainly did not disappoint. The entire audience were up on their feet at the end demonstrating a well deserved standing ovation. Incredible.

Saturday 20th April

 

On the Saturday morning, we had a stroll around the expansive Arndale shopping centre. Outside Exchange Square was a coca-cola truck, as part of the official Premier League Trophy Tour; we took full advantage of the freebie soft drinks on such a bright and sunny day.

 

We then visited the very near by Manchester Cathedral situated on Victoria Street, and photographed its gorgeous Perpendicular Gothic style architecture.

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We afterwards rested our legs and quenched our thirst in the beer garden of a very quaint and dainty little pub establishment.

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Then, we made our way to the close by Printworks entertainment centre, for fun at Treetops Adventure golf, and food at the Hard Rock cafe.

 

We had great fun playing crazy golf, mum was comical bless her, she kept hitting the ball the wrong way! We laughed together.

 

I absolutely adore Hard Rock Cafes (we visited one in Amsterdam 2017 as well). It is brilliant seeing all the rock memorabilia adorning the walls. We enjoyed some fruit mocktails and delicious scran 😛

 

Saturday evening we popped onto Manchester metrolink to MediaCityUK, to go to a Coronation Street walking tour. Mum loved this experience so much, she is a massive Coronation Street fan and has watched the soap for decades. It was fantastic capturing selfie photographs of us on the cobbles; outside the Kabin, Preston’s Petals, Roy’s Rolls etc and of course, in front of the iconic Rovers Return Inn.

Sunday 21st April

 

On the Easter Sunday morning, we first made our way to Manchester Art Gallery where we were intrigued to see its’ vast collection of Pre-Raphaelite Fine Art paintings, among other aesthetic pleasures. Halima Cassell’s ceramic works we liked also in particular.

 

Late afternoon on Easter Sunday, me and mum leisurely walked to Manchester Museum. We were both immensely impressed by the gigantic ‘Stan’ the Tyrannosaurus Rex (T-Rex) in their downstairs fossils gallery, as well as glossy taxidermy animals on the upper floors. An extremely fascinating visit.

 

Afterwards, we took the bus to Manchester Central Convention Complex for its exciting Easter funfair! Fun and food, all under one roof; the hotdogs were super yummy. We rode on the merry-go-round carousel a few times, and I won mum a little cute unicorn teddy on hook-a-duck. Good times.

 

We finished off our lovely theatre city break to Manchester capturing some sunny selfies in Piccadilly Gardens once more 🙂

Overall, an amazing trip, making wonderful memories in Manchester with mum 🙂 ‘Ghost – The Musical’ was dead good; Manchester’s well mint, we were mad fer it! Nar mither really! Top banana! 

That’s all folks, nar make us a brew? 😛

 

Further reading:

https://www.visitmanchester.com/ [Accessed 4th May 2019]

http://www.theprintworks.com/ [Accessed 4th May 2019]

https://coronationstreettour.co.uk/ [Accessed 4th May 2019]

http://manchesterartgallery.org/ [Accessed 4th May 2019]

https://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/ [Accessed 4th May 2019]

https://www.easterfunfair.co.uk/ [Accessed 4th May 2019]

 

Thank you for viewing / reading!

Watch out for a new UnicornPostbox ”Psychedelic Elephant” art (pencil drawing / oil pastels) blog post coming soon!

Much love, Lauren xx

 

(Please visit my Facebook page ‘UnicornPostbox’ to ‘like’ and ‘follow’)

© 2019 Lauren Parr / http://www.unicornpostbox.wordpress.com

 

Birmingham November 2018

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This November, Friday 9th until Monday 12th, to be precise, me and my lovely mum visited the beautiful populous city of Birmingham. On our city break we went to the Alexandra theatre to see Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story on Stage (it was incredible), Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Bullring shopping and the city centre, Cadbury World, National Sea Life centre, as well as dining at many swanky restaurants, particularly at Brindleyplace leisure, opposite from our posh 4* Jury’s Inn hotel on Broad Street… Please continue reading for more detailed descriptions of our travels, with accompanying photography 🙂

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Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story on Stage

On the Friday evening, me and mum saw Dirty Dancing at the Alexandra theatre. We were seated in the stalls, row K, right in the middle, with the best possible view of the performance. The show was absolutely fantastic. The dialogue was very similar, it included all the memorable quotes from the film;

“I carried a watermelon. I carried a watermelon?!”

“I’m scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel [dramatic pause!] when I’m with you” and the classic…

“Nobody puts baby in the corner!”

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092890/quotes 

We were very pleased about this 🙂

Kira Malou, who played Baby, really perfected the character’s mannerisms, and Michael O’Reilly, playing Johnny, projected a sexy husky voice almost double to the gorgeous late Patrick Swayze. And boy, did O’Reilly have sex appeal! There was more than a few wolf-whistles echoing around the theatre throughout the show, particularly during the scenes in which Johnny was topless, funny that! 😛 The entire performance was quite naughty and raunchy, to be expected, hehe… And the dancing and music of course was simply sensational! They did the lift too, yey! At the end of the show, there was a well deserved standing ovation, everyone got up singing and dancing; the atmosphere was electric! Brilliant, we both proper loved it. Mum purchased a t-shirt, me a Dirty Dancing hoodie official merchandise, as well as two programmes. An experience to remember most definitely 🙂

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Whilst in Birmingham, we had a walk around the Museum and Art Gallery, free to enter (always a bonus, lol). The museum has, notably, a vast collection of Pre-Raphaelites works, but also showcases Baroque art, Ancient Egyptian artefacts – there is a Greek and Roman gallery, a gallery solely dedicated to the fascinating history of the city, The Birmingham School of Art gallery and so on and so forth. The gallery which most intrigued me however was the Spiritual Life faith gallery. I was very interested to learn about the different faiths practised in such a multicultural, diverse and rich city, as my prior knowledge of such religions was rather limited. It sparked an interest for sure, and I have since researched some faiths further, particularly Hinduism, which I never knew actually resonates greatly with me and my personal philosophy of life. The museum and art gallery also showcased a great exhibition ‘Women Power Protest’. Commemorating the 100 year anniversary of women’s right to vote in the UK, the exhibition showed contemporary and modern artworks from local artists, Birmingham’s collection, and the Arts Council Collection, with explored themes including; activism, dignity and hope; illustrating the inequalities and injustices women have experienced, exploring how women’s bodies are depicted, and drawing attention to how, slowly, women’s experiences are becoming more visible in the world of art and artistic expression. Inspired by feminist activists and artists, the exhibition aims to;

“raise awareness, provoke debate and ask just how much has changed for women?” http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/bmag 

A very positive step in the right direction, in my opinion 🙂

Bullring shopping and the city centre

Whilst in Birmingham, me and mum obviously went into the heart of city centre, where the ginormous Bullring shopping centre is. The glistening decorations hanging inside the Bullring were simply stunning. It was really lovely because outside the Bullring, near St Martin’s Church, there was a Christmas themed Snow House globe which served alcoholic beverages, and what we opted for, delicious frothy hot chocolates, yum yum 🙂 – as well as a few small Christmas food stalls, selling German sausages, and Belgium waffles, yum yum again, hehe 🙂 Really puts you in the festive spirit! 😀 We also had a nice stroll around the Chinese Quarter, not far from the Bullring!

Cadbury World

On the Sunday morning, me and mum travelled from Birmingham New Street train station to Bournville, to visit the highly anticipated Cadbury World (me and mum both love chocolate!) We learnt of the origins of the cocoa beans, and how cocoa trees were central to Aztec culture, were told of how entrepreneur Quaker John Cadbury first began his chocolate business all those years ago in Victorian Bull Street, enjoyed a cinema experience with special effect – a visual presentation showing how Cadbury chocolate is made in the factory, we had a play with liquid chocolate, writing our names “ ❤ Debbie and Lauren ❤ ” on the demonstration table,  we stepped onto the magical ‘beanmobile’ and enjoyed a gentle chocolate wonderland Cadabra ride, with many familiar enchanting chocolate characters (mum absolutely loved this!), watched chocolatiers demonstrate their impressive chocolate making techniques, sampled some warm Dairy Milk liquid chocolate with a choice of scrumptious toppings, and had great fun having our photo taken with the Green Screen experience, as well as posing for pictures with the Cadbury characters! Ace!

National Sea Life centre

On our last morning in Birmingham, me and mum ventured to the National Sea Life centre, situated on the Water’s Edge of Brindleyplace complex, within very easy walking distance from Jury’s Inn. We were very excited to see all the magnificent sea creatures, me and mum are both massive animal lovers! It certainly did not disappoint. We sauntered leisurely around the sea life centre, mesmerised by all the delightful creatures; octopuses, seahorses, sea turtles, sharks and stingrays (arghhh, haha!), jellyfish and so on. Our personal favourites however were the playful pretty penguins! They’re so cute and adorable with their little waddle, lovely animals!  Great visit!

Brindleyplace leisure

During our time in Birmingham, me and mum dined out at quite a few deluxe restaurants, cafés and bars, especially at Brindleyplace leisure complex; including Café Rouge, Zizzi’s and The Slug and Lettuce, as well as eating at Ed’s Easy Diner, on the waterfront overlooking the tranquil canal. We are both big foodies, and regularly go out for meals when back home in Yorkshire, so obviously it was not going to be any different on our little Birmingham city break! Very delicious and yummy food Birmingham has to offer!

Conclusion   

Overall, me and mum had an absolutely amazing time visiting Birmingham! I would actually say, it was my favourite city break / holiday away with mum, and we have gone on quite a fair few trips together, including; Liverpool, London and Newcastle in the UK and Amsterdam and Paphos abroad. It was so good because it was not at all what we were expecting. Before we went away, a few people told us Birmingham was not a nice place to visit at all, that is was a bit rundown, slightly squalid and unpleasant. I almost cancelled our trip. We found it to be the total opposite – a very aesthetically pleasing, vibrant and exciting cosmopolitan city. Every Brummie we met was so so friendly too… In a nutshell…

Saw babby in Dirty Dancing!

Brum was bostin!  

Tara-a-bit!   😀

Bibliography

https://dirtydancingontour.com/ [Accessed 21st November 2018]

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092890/quotes [Accessed 21st November 2018]

http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/bmag [Accessed 21st November 2018]

https://www.cadburyworld.co.uk/en [Accessed 21st November 2018]

https://www.visitsealife.com/birmingham/ [Accessed 21st November 2018]

https://www.brindleyplace.com/leisure/ [Accessed 21st November 2018]

 

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© 2018 Lauren Parr / http://www.unicornpostbox.wordpress.com

 

London May 2018

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At the end of May this year, me and my mum Debbie visited London for three days, to go and see ‘Bat Out of Hell; The Musical’ at the Dominion Theatre. We booked our trip with Superbreak, and we were very satisfied customers. First class train travel to the capital city, with complimentary food and drink; never travelling first class before we really appreciated this luxury!

Our hotel was great as well, the 3* Royal National Hotel, London, conveniently only a few minute walk away from Russell Square tube station. It was massive size wise. Obviously our room wasn’t incredible being only a 3* hotel, but it did the job very nicely indeed; friendly helpful staff, clean, tidy, lovely places to eat – we were happy.

Monday 21st May

Our first stop on the underground was Piccadilly Circus, where we enjoyed a gorgeous banana and caramel milkshake each at ‘Five Guys’ restaurant, we also got some fab photos with the ace street performers surrounding the statue known as the statue of Eros (mum’s favourite thing to do, pics with street performers, hehe)

We walked to Leicester Square next, and Trafalgar Square shortly afterwards and took the opportunity to capture some nice touristy photos; of the famous William Shakespeare statue in Leicester Square, The National Gallery in Trafalgar, Nelson’s column, the four lions, etc

We finished off the day with a nice stroll around the Apple Market in Covent Garden, relaxing for a while, enjoying refreshing pineapple & apple and apple juice smoothies

Tuesday 22nd May

Tuesday we hopped on the tube and headed to my favourite place in London, Camden Town! (My suggestion, not mum’s, lol) We walked leisurely around the market, checking out all the cool alternative style clothing, and quirky bits and bobs. We drank a few dark fruit ciders in a beer garden overlooking the beautiful canal, soaking up the gorgeous sunshine

Later that day, we continued to enjoy the sunshine and people watched in Russell Square garden, only a few minute walk away from our hotel, the Royal National. The water feature in the middle of the park is particularly pretty I thought

Somewhere I was really excited to visit was The British Museum. Unfortunately we arrived later on in the day, when it was close to closing, so we did not experience all exhibitions and galleries on offer – such as regrettably not seeing any Ancient Greece and Rome exhibitions – however we still saw some amazing Asia, Ancient Egypt and Africa artefacts and art, and learnt a little about the history and the traditions of these cultures

Tuesday evening we journeyed on the underground to Tottenham Court Road tube station, to go see ‘Bat Out of Hell; The Musical’ at the Dominion Theatre! I have seen a fair few West End shows, including ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, ‘Lion King’ twice, ‘Othello’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Blood Brothers’ three times, as well as ‘’Mary Poppins’ in Manchester, ‘Mamma Mia!’ in Newcastle, and very recently ‘Wicked!’ in Liverpool, and so on… Bat Out of Hell is one of the best, up there in the top three, absolutely amazing! I have grown up listening to Meatloaf’s music, my mum has always loved him. It was such a magical moment glancing at her during the performance, seeing her beaming with happiness, miming along to all the songs. We had excellent seats in the stalls, only seven rows back, with such a spectacular view of all the action. The musical showcases the epic rock n’ roll love story between Strat and Raven, set in the post-apocalyptic city, Obsidian. It very loosely depicts the romance of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and Wendy; Strat and his rebellious friends ‘The Lost’ cannot grow up you see. The tyrannical leader of Obsidian, his daughter Raven is Strat’s love interest! – so an interesting narrative soon unfolds. The entire production was just astonishing, I could not fault it. There was a motorcycle revving up (with no place to go) on stage, bats (out of hell) flying out into the audience, fireworks (they took the words right out of my mouth), the whole sh’bam! There was a well deserved standing ovation at the end, everybody up singing and dancing, the atmosphere was paradise (by the dashboard light). We even bought two (out of three) t-shirts, hehe. I want to see it again, I need to see it again! – For crying out loud, we absolutely loved it! 😀

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Wednesday 23rd May

On our last day in London, we decided to to travel on the underground to Westminster, to go see the wonderful sights there such as the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament. We captured some nice photos of Westminster Bridge and the palace taken from across the River Thames, as well as photographing the London Eye, from Westminster Bridge.

After spending a couple of hours sightseeing here, we were knackered, so we paid to be cycled to Buckingham Palace in a fab little pedicab!   

We laid back and relaxed for a while on the grass area adjacent to the palace before taking some pretty photos of the palace itself and the Victoria Memorial monument; we finished off our day with a pleasant stroll through gorgeous Green Park.

… And that was our rock n’ roll and brew trip to London! Some amazing memories to look back on with mum and cherish always 😀

We would do anything to see ‘Bat Out of Hell; The Musical’ once more in the future, maybe rock and roll dreams will come true!

Thank you for reading / viewing!

Much love, Lauren x    

 

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© 2018 Lauren Parr / http://www.unicornpostbox.wordpress.com

Liverpool March 2018

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This year at the end of March, me and my mum Debbie visited Liverpool to celebrate my 27th birthday. We booked up, at a very reasonable price, with National Holidays (have you declared your national holiday yet? Lol) for an overnight trip to Liverpool, with the massive highlight of seeing the matinee performance of ‘Wicked!’ at the Liverpool Empire theatre.  

Saturday 31st March 2018

We arrived by coach into Liverpool city centre in the early afternoon of Saturday 31st. We had an hour or so to kill before the matinee performance of Wicked!, so we walked leisurely around the nearby shopping centre, city centre streets, and grabbed a lovely caffè latte. Mum really enjoyed the street performers!

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Making our way to the Empire theatre, we were both super excited.  Being a big fan of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ film, I have always fancied going and longed to see the stage musical ‘Wicked!’; for years I have said “Mum, we must go see that one!” It has always been top of my list… and it certainly did not disappoint! ‘Wicked!’ was just as magical, marvellous and mesmerising as I had hoped… SPOILER ALERT: I think the whole concept of the musical, based on Gregory Maguire’s revision of the tale, transforming the ‘evil’ Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum’s original ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’, to Elphaba, the heroine of the story, is great and obviously a very successful idea too… The only little gripe I have will National Holidays, is that I specifically asked not to be seated high up in the theatre, as mum is really afraid of heights. They take personal requests into consideration, but cannot promise them – we were seated high up in the Grand Circle, with a restricted bleeding view! Never mind, we still had a wonderful time 😀 We purchased some small merchandise afterwards, to put in mum’s memory box (she unfortunately has neurological difficulties). We have some lovely little keepsakes to remember the experience always 🙂

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Later on that evening after the performance, we were taken to our chosen hotel on the outskirts of Liverpool. After checking in, we spent the evening eating nice grub in the restaurant, and at a steady pace, drinking ‘Wicked Lady’ (how apt) rose wine in the hotel bar.

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Sunday 1st April 2018

On the Sunday, our final day, we took full advantage of exploring all Liverpool has to offer. We visited the famous Cavern Club on Matthew Street, home to the Beatles. There was a great musician on stage performing classic Beatles songs. We got a couple of fruit ciders from the bar, admired the terrific music memorabilia adorning the walls, and listened to some top-notch music in a really relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. My dad was very jealous when I told him where we’d been, he’s a massive Beatles fan!

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Next we got a quick taxi ride to Cains brewery village, to go have a cheeky gin and tonic in the new Peaky Blinders bar. We were so looking forward to it, as me and my mum are both huge Peaky Blinders fans. There was a vast collection of Peaky Blinders canvases on the wall (as photographed), but I hoped it to be quite a glam and luxurious and sophisticated establishment, like some of the high class swanky bars shown in the series. However, it very much resembled the Garrison.. a bit drab and dingy! So we were a tad disappointed, haha.

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Afterwards, we grabbed delicious street food at Baltic market, a mozzarella pizza for mum, and a burger for me with so many layers I dread to think how many calories I consumed! (I am trying to lose weight, and failing miserably!) There was also a guy playing guitar and some cute craft stalls, so that was really nice.

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We journeyed immediately afterwards in another taxi,, to finish off the day nicely with a little stroll around Albert Dock. As you can see, I took the opportunity to capture some pretty photos:

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And that was our celebratory trip to Liverpool! Slightly imperfect in places, but overall a fantastic city break 😀 Bitta scran, and a bitta bevvy, bitta…theatre, (lol)… proper boss! 😀

We are becoming right little getabouts because we have only recently come home from London! We went to see ‘Bat out of Hell; the musical’! So please look out for a London blog post, coming very soon!

Travelling, sightseeing, exploring new places… it’s great isn’t it? Whoever said “There’s  no place like home” surely had no clue whatsoever what they were talking about… lol 😛

 

Thank you so much for reading. Hope you’re having a ‘wicked’ weekend. Much love, Lauren x 

 

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© 2018 Lauren Parr / http://www.unicornpostbox.wordpress.com

Amsterdam December 2017

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Today I returned from a 4 night magical trip to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. We travelled overnight on Monday 18th December aboard P&O ferries (from Hull), enjoyed a two night stay at the 4* luxurious Novotel Hotel, before returning home on the ferry.

When we first arrived into the center of Amsterdam, I must admit I was a bit bewildered by it all. Centraal Station and its surroundings overwhelmed me; it appeared vast and chaotic. I felt like a little bittle fish in a very big pond. However, once I got my head around transportation, which tram to get here, which tram to go where etc, and gathered my bearings, I felt so much more at ease and could begin to enjoy all the beauty Amsterdam has to offer…

Tuesday 19th December  

Me and my mum went to Dam Square first of all. We took some pretty photos of the palace, the beautifully lit Christmas tree, and we were entertained by the amazing street performers. Afterwards, we walked to the infamous Red Light District. We went inside an Erotic Museum, as I thought it would be a good laugh, but mum wasn’t overly impressed, she was acting a bit of a prude bless her so we soon left, haha. In the evening we drifted along the canal on a special Amsterdam Light Festival canal cruise, capturing some lovely photographs of the fluorescent illuminated art. It was truly breathtaking.

Wednesday 20th December   

Wednesday we visited the Stedelijk Museum, and Van Gogh Museum at the Museum Quarter. Our intention was to also go to the Anne Frank Museum, but disappointingly no tickets could be purchased in the city; people book them online weeks in advance, and Thomas Cook travel agents didn’t make us aware of this when we booked the holiday, which was quite unfortunate for us. Nevertheless, we had a wonderful time at the other aforementioned museums. Stedelijk is contemporary and modern art, very much my cup of tea…and Van Gogh, it wasn’t even top of our list but wow, incredible! It was amazing getting up close to many of Van Gogh’s famous works and masterpieces. I feel inspired to practise painting with oils in my art studio!  Painting has never been my strong suit, but admiring Van Gogh’s paintings has really spurred me on to give it a good go. There was also a quaint Christmas market at Museum Quarter, and the pond across from the Rijksmuseum was transformed into a gorgeous ice skating rink for Winter! A wonderful winter-y atmosphere. Later that evening, we ate grub and drank cocktails at the fantastic Hard Rock cafe, playing great rock music and adorning rock memorabilia on all the walls, definitely my sort of place.

Thursday 21st December        

On our last day in Amsterdam before we embarked on our voyage back across the North Sea, we went to the ‘coolest’ bar in Amsterdam, Amsterdam Ice Bar! Here, we were given a token for a cocktail each in the welcome bar, a Heineken in the Ice Bar itself, and a delicious frothy hot chocolate on the way out. We were given a thermal coat and gloves in the Ice Bar, everything is made out of ice; the ceilings, walls, sculptures, even the drink glasses, so yes as expected it was bloody freezing in there, haha. Afterwards, we grabbed a cheeseburger from the many stalls and purchased a few souvenirs in the popular area of Rembrandtplein (Rembrandt Square).  

A couple of insights and musings on my trip…

  1. I have never seen so many bicycles! Reminded me of the Queen song ‘Bicycle Race’.. “I want to ride my bicycle, bicycle” haha. The dutch must be very fit and healthy, and it’s super great for the environment. All countries should adopt this environmentally friendly approach to transport, in my honest opinion.
  2. We smelt the strong aroma of marijuana from the many coffee shops throughout the city, but ours was definitely a cultural trip, as opposed to a drug trip lol
  3. All the dutch people we spoke to were so polite and friendly, especially the staff in our hotel, they couldn’t have made us feel more welcome 🙂

This city break deal was an early Christmas present from myself to my mum, as she really did deserve a nice little getaway for a few days. Life has been pretty stressful for her lately, so I’m just so pleased and over the moon that we have both had such a fabulous time in the Netherlands. I would definitely go again, it was truly spectacular. I will cherish the memories of our holiday together for a very long time.

 

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© 2017 Lauren Parr / http://www.unicornpostbox.wordpress.com