A week in Amsterdam
2026-05-17
In May 2026 my son and I took the Eurostar from London to Amsterdam for a week. Like on the train to Sintra, I had a story ready for the way. The tunnel, the canals, the paintings and Anne’s house are real; the rest is a little bit of imagination.
Get ready, because this adventure is taking us across the sea, on a train that runs faster than a falcon and even dives under the waves. Before we get there, we need to know where we’re going, because Amsterdam isn’t just any city. It’s a place where the land and the water always go hand in hand, almost as if they were dancing to a very old tune.
The train that dives under the sea
Look out the window and watch the fields rush past. Soon the world will go dark, because we’re going into a giant tunnel under the sea. We’re crossing the English Channel! It’s as if we were undersea explorers, but instead of a submarine we’re riding a super-modern iron horse. When we come out the other side we’ll be on the European mainland, on our way to a country so flat it looks like a snooker table: the Netherlands.
The city born from the water
Did you know Amsterdam is a miracle of engineering? Hundreds of years ago, it was all marsh and water. But the Dutch are stubborn and very clever. They decided to “steal” land from the sea. They built dykes and canals to move the water, and so the houses wouldn’t sink into the mud, they drove thousands of tree trunks into the ground as piles.
So when we’re walking along the canals, have a good look at the houses. Some of them look a bit tipsy, leaning forwards or to the side. They’re alive! Because they stand on old wood, time and water make them move. And have you noticed those beams with hooks at the top of each house? The stairs inside are very narrow, so people used the hooks to hoist furniture and goods up through the windows. Amsterdam is a city of merchants, who came from all over the world with ships full of spices, silk and treasure.
The master of light and the painter of the stars
Amsterdam is also home to some of the greatest geniuses who ever picked up a brush. We’ll visit the Rijksmuseum, which is like a temple of art. Living inside it is Rembrandt’s Night Watch. He was the master of light and shadow. If you look closely at his paintings, the people seem about to step out of the frame and talk to us.
And then there’s Van Gogh. You know his colours, don’t you? The yellow of the sunflowers and the blue of the starry nights. He didn’t just paint what he saw; he painted what he felt. In May the light in Amsterdam is special, everything seems to shine a little brighter, and we’ll see why these painters were so taken with this city.
Anne Frank’s secret hiding place
We’ve been reading Anne Frank’s story, and you already know she was a very brave girl. In Amsterdam we’ll see the house where she and her family hid, beside the Prinsengracht canal. Imagine the silence they had to keep while the world outside was at war.
Anne looked out of the window at a chestnut tree and wrote everything she dreamed of in her diary, in letters to Kitty, the friend she imagined. Visiting that place isn’t about feeling sad, but about remembering how powerful her words were. She showed that even in the dark we can find light, if we have imagination and hope. It’s a lesson Manela likes to remember too: courage comes from inside, however small we are.
Bicycles and tulips in May
In May, Amsterdam is at its best. We’ll see thousands of bikes go past us: there are more bikes than cars! It’s a city that moves to the rhythm of pedalling. And although tulip season is coming to an end, the city will still be full of flowers, and parks like the Vondelpark will be at their greenest.
Amsterdam is like a maze of bridges and water. Every canal tells a story of sailors, artists and brave people. We’re nearly at the tunnel, so enjoy the rest of the ride, because what’s waiting for us on the other side is a world of colours and canals you’ll never forget.