Now it’s time to share about my trip to Amsterdam.

I’ve been thinking about what to do for our ten-year wedding anniversary. I didn’t want to treat it as an ordinary occasion, nor did I want to make it an extraordinary one.

We settled on visiting Paris to celebrate the occasion. With Eurostar, it’s logistically the easiest option. With its rich food, chic women, and the Louvre, my palate and eyes would hardly find any rest (my last visit was 15 years ago, so I needed a refresher anyway!).

Leyi put together a full 5-day itinerary and insisted that it’s probably still not enough – because I’m slow, inefficient, and love to improvise when travelling – completely opposite to my working style.

The ongoing riot and unrest put our plan to the test, and Leyi suggested Amsterdam or Vienna as alternatives. I chose the former, again, due to the ease of travelling by Eurostar. And I thought, would we really need 5 days though? Of course we need, said Leyi, feeling certain that he’d prove me wrong.

It was November, so no tulips! And I wasn’t planning to hang out in the red-light district (although tbh I was intrigued!). So it looked as if we can finish the tour in 3 days, at most!

Then I realised how little I actually knew about the city!

I had no idea that Anne Frank house was there (not in Germany or Poland). I read her diary when I was much younger, and never thought that her hiding place (the Secret Annex) would be conserved till today, with most features in its original form, including the chestnut tree (until 2010)!

I was surprised to discover that so much of Van Gogh’s early work was curated in the Van Gogh Museum. And that he was astonishingly productive – created 800 paintings, 1000 drawings in 10 years (from 1880 when he decided to become an artist at 27 years old, to 1890, when he ended his life), alongside 800 letters.

I didn’t know most of the “fashionable” paintings by dutch artists (Rembrandt, Vermeer, Frans Hals…) that the British aristocracy craved for in the 17th century were housed in Rijksmuseum. That it was home to The Milkmaid and The Night Watch.

I didn’t expect that a major Yayoi Kusama retrospective that she was planning and hoping to attend in person (before she past away this August) would be on show at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam from Sep 11 to Jan 2027, and we luckily managed to secure the final slots right before they sold out!

I know it’s the birthplace for the modern financial and financing system and the venture capital, but I didn’t know it also pioneered systematic urban planning, which influenced and inspired future cities, such as Singapore and Dubai…

I haven’t even mentioned the seafood, the canal cruise, the design, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the cute Miffy and the very tall locals. Each of these deserve a story of its own.

I found a key in Amsterdam, a key as in music, not one for a lock. It didn’t unlock anything in particular. But I came back with the key that I didn’t know I needed to reinterpret stories I already knew and reorganise my memories.

I would have stayed in Amsterdam for longer if I had more time, and it’s a place where I can see myself living. I won’t naively ask (or encourage) my Netherlands-based colleagues to relocate to London. And I won’t doubt Leyi’s itinerary next time.

Although he didn’t get a chance to buy me an extravagant gift he’d planning to (as my size wasn’t available), I feel I have come away with something I’ll cherish more.