Wish you were here - Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Ahead of departing for my Year Abroad, I've been contemplating making a few changes to my blog. I'm hoping, at least, that the next twelve months or so will give me a huge amount of material to write about - if all goes to plan, I should have lots of interesting things to cover. Heck, if it all goes spectacularly awry, that'll be even more exciting, right?! In any case, I'm pleased to say that there are a few ideas in the pipeline, the first of which is to write a regular series on my blog to keep you updated on my travels.

You might already have seen my first Five Free Things post about our recent trip to London, but I've been thinking about a series in which I could tell you a bit about my more general whereabouts and share with you some of my favourite photos and just a few short captions - like postcards, if you will. That's the idea behind my Wish You Were Here posts, the first of which comes to you from Amsterdam.

Wanting to get away for a short break before the new term begins in earnest, we spent a few days there at the end of August after getting lucky on lastminute.com. We stayed at the gorgeous NH Barbizon Palace, whose staff were absolutely wonderful throughout, even giving us a free continental breakfast when we checked out at the ungodly hour of 5am! The hotel is directly opposite Centraal Station and just a short tram-ride from Amsterdam's main attractions, of which we took full advantage; over the course of our four-day stay, I'd hazard a guess that we averaged around ten museums, two canal cruises, and a generous glug of Heineken.

Top: A passenger ferry crosses the IJ in front of Amsterdam's futuristic EYE Film Institute, with A'DAM Toren in the background.

Above: Passing beneath Magere Brug on a canal cruise on the first day of our visit. City legend has it that the original bridge, built in 1691, was constructed for two wealthy sisters who lived on opposite sides of the Amstel. But the origins of the bridge's name are disputed; according to one story, it is derived from the sisters' surname, Mager. In another version, the sisters, though rich, could only afford to build a very narrow structure - hence its name, meaning 'Skinny Bridge'.

Top: Dancing houses at the Damrak. These beautiful buildings were on our route into the city each day. The Damrak runs from Centraal Station in the north to Dam Square in the south, and, along the way, is home to the famous De Bijenkorf department store.

Above: Wandering in Vondelpark. It's the largest park in the city and probably the nation's most famous, just a stone's throw from three of our favourite attractions at Museumsplein: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, a museum of modern and contemporary art; the Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands' national museum; and the Van Gogh Museum. Though at one point we got caught out in a thundery downpour, our Vondelpark walkabout was one of the highlights of our trip - the green parakeets, who live wild in the park, and the art installation of singing swings were my personal favourites.

Top: Gazing up at the Royal Palace, or even Koninklijk Paleis op de Dam, if you fancy having a go at pronouncing that. Set on Dam Square at the heart of the city, the palace is right in the thick of it - it's not often you'll find an official royal residence opposite Madame Tussaud's on one side and a shopping mall on the other! If, like me, you're a bit of a geek and have a thing for European royalty, you'll love 'Journey in Time', an exhibition on six hundred years of Dutch history, including the story of the House of Orange at De Nieuwe Kerk, where reigning monarchs King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima tied the knot in 2002.

Above: We visited Amsterdam's Hortus Botanicus, which, at three-hundred-and-seventy-five years old, is one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world. It's one of a number of attractions we could access for free - yes, free - with the I amsterdam City Card. But more on that later...!

Above: A view over the city from Skylounge Amsterdam - a wonderful way to spend our final evening and round off our visit. The bar perches atop a hotel just a couple of minutes from the station, and it's the perfect place to relax with a glass of wine or a hot chocolate (or, indeed, both) while taking in breathtaking panoramic views across the city. You'd be forgiven for thinking it an expensive place to visit, what with it being attached to a Hilton, but we were treated to complementary nibbles, and even a second cup of chocolate at no extra cost. 

And, of course, the views are worth every cent.

Back to Saltram - and it's jazz time!

About twenty minutes after arriving at home after our visit to West Bay/Broadchurch on Saturday, I was rushing out of the door again to meet up with the bf. after his long day at work. Our destination: Plymouth's annual summer jazz picnic.

It was held on the lawns in front of Saltram House, a part of the estate that I hadn't been able to see on my last visit, in brilliant evening sunshine.

Once we'd arrived and paid our (very generously reduced) entrance fees, we settled down on the lawn among the picnic-ers with our own tea, just in time for the first band, the Sussex Jazz Kings, to begin performing their second set.

Picnic-wise, there was stiff competition - many people had brought tables and chairs with them and there were olives, brie and bottles of wine as far as the eye could see. (A certain young man commented on Plympton being the home of the middle classes and made a UKIP joke, which I shan't transcribe here)

That said, we were in good company in the audience, spotting a couple of our former school teachers in the crowd. The atmosphere was somewhat informal, very relaxed and many people got up to dance - although the number of dancers seemed to increase as time went on and full advantage was taken of the (again, v reasonably priced) licenced bar at the side of the stage!

During the next interval, we were treated to an 'umbrella parade' - we were unfortunately unprepared for this, but many jazz-goers, young and old, had brought decorated parasols and umbrellas and proceeded to march around the lawns in the procession.

For the rest of the interval, we took the opportunity to explore the gardens a little further. As I said, I couldn't go into this part of the estate on my last visit to Saltram, as it's only open to visitors who pay to go into the house as well, but our jazz festival tickets enabled us to have a proper walk around.

Despite the late hour, the sun still shone through the trees as we made our way up towards the 'folly' - essentially a 'pretend' castle which might have been build under the pretence of making the estate older than it was, or just because Lord and Lady Parker decided that they bloomin' well wanted a toy castle.

From this end of the garden, there are views out towards Plymouth Hoe and the city centre, with the big wheel glinting in the sunlight, and across the parkland where I had walked the previous week with Miriam.

Inside the little folly was beautiful in a peculiar antique-grunge-chic kind of way - I hope I'm not being rude and that that was the designers' intention, because it was certainly striking in a spookily lovely way.

Beneath the folly is also a little dungeon, where Oli threatened to put me if I continued snapping millions of photos (I think my few Instagram followers would have welcomed that, actually, given the amount of spamming I do as soon as I have a wifi connection...)

Once past the folly, we turned back towards the house, trekking intrepidly through the foliage and past beautiful garden ornaments and plants. Oli even found a potential entry for his surely bestselling debut book, in the form of a garden bench (but I won't give away too much about what could be his magnum opus). 

Our return to the lawns outside the main house for the second half of the concert took us past the ornate orangery, which was almost empty on this occasion, as all of the orange and other citrus trees had been moved outside, presumably due to the hot weather. There was, though, this rather dapper young chap to be found inside on his plinth.

And I found this one outside too. 

The remaining half of the show passed with yet more enthusiastic dancing to the dulcet tones of the  famed 'voice of Cornwall' and the music of John Shillito's Select Six as the sun set.

It was a fantastic way to spend an evening supporting local musicians and artists - as we left just before 11 o'clock, an almost-full moon shone down over the Saltram estate and Plymptonians were thankful for the joys of jazz, portable picnic tables and the Sainsbury's Taste the Difference range which graced them.

(: xx