When we landed at Schiphol I was already over excited about our 5 day trip to Holland but nothing could prepare me for the moment I set my foot on Amsterdam. It was love at first sight. At first, I was almost shocked by the beauty of this city: the buildings, the parks, the streets, the bikes, the people, everything looked so different from Athens. I was about to discover another universe!

But first we should find our way to the houseboat we had rented for our stay! I totally recommend staying at Rene's if you plan a trip to Amsterdam. The place had a lovely view, was well equiped and clean and a beautiful vase of fresh red toulips was waiting for us on the living room's table. A  selected collection of various art books and museum catalogues were also available and something I immensely appreciated. Rene, our host was a very polite and cool guy who gave us various tips and info for both the city and the neighborhood's roundabouts.

A funny fact was that every morning we woke up, I would open the window in the bedroom and ducks would quickly swim towards me and I would fool around, throw bead crumbs to them and watch them play and chase each other.

And then we were off to explore the city. We rented two bikes and after many years of non-bicycling we almost impulsively hit the streets! Having purchased two I amsterdam. city cards we had the opportunity to visit a wide range of sites and we made sure to see as much as we could.

The beauty of the city though could not even compare to museums or historical monuments. It was the positive aura you got while walking along the canals in a clean, quite european city with striking architecture and buildings dated back to the Renaissance period. The baroque style evolved and gradually the gothic and art nouveau style became major inspirations for these trully inspiring buildings.

I took many photos of buildings - here is a selection of my favorites.

We also took a boat trip around the canals and had the opportunity to shoot some images that came out with cool reflections.

Pure excitement when we discovered Amsterdam's huge and beautiful parks. We visited and explored one park a day - either by bicycle or by foot. It gave us a sense of serenity and relaxation. I was quite excited to discover a variety of sculptures in both the parks and squares of the city. Nature and art hand by hand.

Check out these totally original looking trees:

And yes, I couldn't restrain myself from shooting trees - one of my favorite subjects. If you like tree photography too, make sure to check out our recently featured themed post: "40 splendid examples of tree photography". :)

One of our museum stops was the Van Loon residence which opened to the public in 1973. Willem van Loon was one of the founders of the Dutch East India Company and his estate is rich in classic treasures. Here are some shots from the interiors.

The Tropenmuseum showcases objects from cultures all over the world and also had an ongoing exhibition in the ground floor entitled "RED".

Discovering magic Amsterdam's street art scene was also a quite exciting adventure.

From traditional graffiti to wheatpasting, stickers and urban poster art there is plenty going on in Amsterdam's diverse  street culture.

If you're into urban art in general and would love to discover more from Amsterdam, I would strongly suggest you visit AmsterdamStreetArt.com.

Here are some of the creative corners I discovered.

There are so many things to see and places to discover. The most unexpected surprise was the fact that bicycles were the majority in comparison to cars and people tended to walk or cycle rather than enter the city center with their private cars. I wish something like that could be implemented in Athens as well.

There were some funny moments during our first bicycle city exploring where I almost fell on my ass as some local cyclist would overpass me in super speed. Hmmm, I then realized that I should better stay on the right lane along with the kiddies hehe. At least for the first couple of hours!

Needless to say I vastly enjoyed window shopping (along with some less intense actual shopping) regardless the nugging of my boyfriend who actually hates the existence of the word "shopping". Oh well, I couldn't resist myself!

As we were walking around the streets of Amstedam I accidentally bumped into a United Nude store. Being one of the brands covered in our fashion section I couldn't resist from taking some shots from their vitrine.

For more info on United Nude take a peak at our posts here, here and here!

On our last day in Amsterdam we visited Madame Tussaud's museum and got some shots of some popular wax personas.

Funny fact: there was an italian young guy that made his poor girlfriend photograph him 'molesting' the wax J.Lo, Lady Gaga, Jolie and practically each and every popular or less popular female in the house. Even poor Ronaldinho didn't escape his mockery hahah!

But as they say, all good things come to an end. So did our trip to this beautiful city which I believe I will always remember and really hope will find the opportunity to visit again.

On our train journey to the airport we both had bitter sweet feelings ...