How did you spend Koningsdag?

This is my first Koningsdag outside because the last one was a Woningsdag, and we put the music of the balcony party organized by the neighbors. We went for a walk & drink as we had done when terraces were closed and talked in the past because they reopen today!

The walk & drink selected was Apestroll that sends you a map with the names of 5 bars with special prices for Aperol Spritz and some bites on the way.  So the adventure from Hugo de Grootplein towards the center started. 

Our first stop was at La Piccola Barraca at Hugo de Grootplein for our first Aperol Spritz, and suddenly while walking towards the center, we started to feel the crowdedness. We were expecting the streets busier than normal, and I actually enjoy feeling for the first time in so long in a party environment. We crossed a busy  Westerstraat with the first three restaurants with a big crowd in front of them. We walked fast, take out the camera from the backpack, and turned into Tweede Anjeliersdwarsstraat, which is one of my favorites streets to walk in as it ends with a spectacular view of Westerkerk.

Our second stop was at La Trattoria de Donna Sofia in Anjelierstraat 300, and these are the pictures of the fantastic  Campari Spritz we bought from them. Just in case I took all pictures of the drinks from the street, the restaurants could not let customers in, not even for the bathroom, and this is due to the rules.

On our way to the third point, we realized it would be a bit hard to do a route that long, but we were still determined to go to the center. I guess we were still a bit naive about existing crowds, and we didn't learn the lesson after Westerstraat, so we found the biggest and only unavoidable crowd when we arrived at Prinsengracht.

I took this picture when we finished crossing the bridge, and for you to have an idea, the crowd started next to the building covered in blue through the entire corner. Now in this place, we are across the street to Anne Frank's House and Westerkerk.

This is the exact moment my boyfriend asked me two things, are you sure we will be able to do the entire route? Or do you want to go to a specific place? And, are you hungry? I usually only eat fries while drinking, and I wanted to go to Flying Dutchmen Cocktails, as I thought about asking for drinks on their Surprise Cocktail Package and forgot the deadline.  So first fries, then more cocktails.

I found these messages on the streets quite funny and took some pictures of them while walking on the Jordaan before. Here my boyfriend with his Koningsdag T-shirt. 

You might be thinking why going into the big avenues if there are many streets where it is possible to avoid the parties, but some of those little streets also had interesting things, like this Tol that we had to pay for with a dance. For real!

This is along the Singel, the first canal, and while walking to the third and last bar of the day.

Flying Dutchmen Cocktails had three cocktails as the selection for the day Abrikoning, Passion Fruit Fix, and Bloody Mary. We asked for the first two, and this chair was the perfect one for making the picture before we received our cocktails. Arun mentioned to the staff I asked for some drinks before, and they said that I should have already tried the Abrikoning then, I didn't remember, but as soon as I saw it - not even tasted it - I knew I had it on my birthday. Pretty sure this was in a November 2020 Surprise Cocktail Package.

I hope you had an amazing Koningsdag 2021. We drink a lot to the health and prosperity of Willem-Alexander, we must always remember that this is because of his birthday, and we had fun walking on the streets and exploring. 

I left you with some extra images of the day, how we saw people running from Leidseplein towards Herengracht and the end of the walk at Museumplein. I must say the hardest part of walking in Amsterdam with restaurants closed is not finding a bathroom anywhere, and well, at the end of this post, I showed you the solution we found on the street.

Have a great day!

Joanna, your Amsterdam photographer

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