Amsterdam Family City Break Part 1

Mr A loved all the street art in Amsterdam 

So a couple of weeks ago we had the chance to go on a very exciting mini adventure, a short city break to Amsterdam right from our home base of Cardiff with KLM Fly Local campaign and I have to say flying from our local airport really does beat driving to Bristol which is where John flew from to Berlin two weeks prior to our trip. There is something very convenient about knowing exactly where to go and how long it's going to take you to get there and the whole check in was so quick and easy, I think this was helped by the fact we took the 6am early morning flight so the airport was pretty quite anyway. The lovely staff at Cardiff Airport invited us in to the executive lounge before our flight which added to the excitement of Mr A's first flight. The lounge was well stocked with various drinks and light snacks as well as a moment of calm before we boarded the KLM city hopper.

The Executive lounge at Cardiff Airport

Our KLM city hopper ready to go

The flight was only 1 hour and very smooth and we had the wonderful experience of seeing the sun rise while we flew above the clouds, unfortunately after that it became rather misty but the landing was smooth and the weather shortly improved, making our weekend a sunny and dry affair. The air stewards were fantastic when Mr A had some troubles with his ears as well as easing my slight nervous disposition when flying. Once we arrived at Schipol we took the short train to the city centre which was only around 20min. Having not put anything in the hold we where pretty much on our way very quickly.

Mr A taking it all in on our connection train from the airport to the city 

We checked into the Movenpick hotel which was about a 5-10 min pleasant canal side walk from Central Station and the staff could not have been more accommodating and being in a city that is very flat the view from the 9th floor was stunning. We had a quick nap before heading out into the city for a little walk around and a bite to eat, about 5 min from the hotel we came across a quirky art bar - Hannekes Boom, which offered a simple but delicious menu and also had a rope swing which Mr A loved.

After we had refuelled we headed towards the city centre for a stroll around the older part of the city, the outskirts of the red light district, past the Oude Kerk church and national monument in Dam Square. We also picked up some tram passes for the weekend and whizzed around on a few before heading back to the hotel and enjoying the 6pm social hour in the family friendly level 2 lounge. The next morning we tried to get up as early as possible to make the most of a full day in this vibrant city. After a fulling breakfast we headed towards the Jordaan part of the city and the 9 streets for some vintage and independent clothes shopping.

We had an action packed day which I am going to share with you in our next post. Having lived in Amsterdam before having Mr A it was particularly special to have the chance to take both John and the little man back to a city I truly love. It was a bit surreal walking the same streets I used to bicycle down in the morning and enjoying the vibrant cafe culture, it's such a special place that is often mislabelled and I really would recommend it as a great family friendly destination.

Thanks so much to KLM for letting us be apart of this