An afternoon in Amsterdam

Today I spent a lovely afternoon in Amsterdam with two women from my expat womens' online forum - yep, a blind date!! I met up with Sarah and Helen in a funky little cafe close to the Jordaan area at about 1.00pm for a coffee or two, before heading off to visit the many "secret gardens" of the canal houses.

Once a year, during the third weekend of June, the public has the unique opportunity to discover Amsterdam’s hidden green side. Some thirty gardens of various private homes and institutions are open for a period of three days, for viewing by gardening enthusiasts and other interested people.

Behind the stately, imposing facades of the canal houses, the gardens usually form an indivisible link between the architecture of the house and the appearance of it’s interior, so the inhabitants often commissioned well known (at least here in NL!) garden designers who transformed the plots into true pleasure grounds. Most of the gardens we saw were very zen like and quite formal, yet very beautiful. Lots of water features, sculptures, and little paved paths weaving their way through masses of hydrangeas, lavender, foxgloves, herbs etc etc It's a side I never imagined existed in the sometimes tacky, touristy heart of Amsterdam. Well worth the walk in the drizzling rain!

Hope you enjoy the photos :-))

Alli xxx