24 hours in Amsterdam

What can you do with 24 hours in Amsterdam?

Sometimes you are gifted with a few precious hours in a place you’ve never been before – given the unexpected chance to explore a new culture, meet new people, and expand your horizons. On our most recent journey to Europe, that’s exactly what happened for Sohrab and me in Amsterdam.

Our stay in the Netherlands was supposed to be a mere 3 hour layover in Schiphol Airport. Once we had gotten to know the layout rather well, we sat to wait for our city hopper plane to Frankfurt – which never arrived; weather kept it away, apparently. With no plane and no plan, we booked a last minute hotel for the night to wait out the storm. What happened next was 24 hours of sheer adventure, borrowing time from Frankfurt to see a place we didn’t think we’d get to. In short, a nightmare turned into a daydream.

International travel taught me patience. By going with the flow at Schiphol, Sohrab and I had the opportunity to see a city that wasn’t on our itinerary, and has since been added to our list of “maybe one day we could live here” places. We could have so easily ruined it for ourselves by focusing on the negative (and, admittedly, we were a bit frantic at first!). But Amsterdam welcomed us with open arms and showed us what true wanderlust could be.

For the record – if you’re going to have a long layover anywhere, make it Schiphol. It’s a maze – and a treasure trove. Find a coffee shop to love on or browse the local art and your layover will whip by.

The hotel we stumbled upon is the perfect example of good luck – we were looking for something close to the airport since we knew it wouldn’t be long before we flew away again, but the nearest we could find at that short notice was near the Olympisch Stadion about halfway between Schiphol and the city center.

Best. Luck. Ever.

TWENTY EIGHT fit the bill perfectly! Not only was it right on budget for what KLM offered us, but the vibe in the space was definitely our aesthetic, the area was great, and we could hop on trams to the city center or the airport right outside the front door. That was perfect, for obvious reasons – one being that Amsterdam graced us with a downpour the likes of which we had never seen in hot, dry Los Angeles. Of course we were ill prepared, not having our checked baggage with us, so being able to dash from door to door assured that the rain only soaked through one layer of our travel clothes.

When we weren’t unsuccessfully dodging raindrops, we snuggled over burgers in a dark pub, struggling to keep our eyes open after a long day in the air and in the airport. The next morning, we cuddled up in a cute cafe for breakfast just across the Stadionplein called Vlaamsch Broodhuys, which we discovered later is a chain (!). We chose freshly baked bread and pastries from the bakery’s ranks and sipped cappuccinos (our go-to for new-to-us places!) in the cool morning light.

A flaky pastry and a foamy cap are the perfect anecdotes to an unexpected adventure:

The rain continued as we ventured into town, just a quick hop onto the tram through beautiful streets and across picturesque canals (it is Amsterdam, after all!). We ended up in the center, right in the middle of Dam Square. We hid from the rain (this was getting to be a habit!) inside the historic Royal Palace of Amsterdam. This picture tells you all you need to know:

Although we didn’t originally have Amsterdam properly on our itinerary for this trip, we flew away from the Netherlands wishing for more time there. The small taste we got was enough to leave the city lingering in our wanderlust minds. We will definitely be back – if only to stay at TWENTY EIGHT again!