Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn: Our apartment in Amsterdam's Old West

"You're not allowed to take any photos of this flat," NewMan told me with an invisible finger wag in our first week in Amsterdam.

"What? Why?"

"It's not our house, we can't just publish photos of it on the internet," I double checked to see his finger definitely wasn't wagging.

"Oh. Ok," That told me and for once, I can't really argue with him.

Except this has been by far one of the most beautiful places we've stayed, nay, lived. Occupying the two top floors in a grand terraced town house in Amsterdam's quiet and leafy Old West area, the flat we've lived in for the last few months was lovingly restored by its owners less than a year ago. With concrete work tops in the kitchen, restored wooden floorboards throughout and a roof terrace that catches the sun all day until the sun goes down, I've been itching to photograph and show you this place.

But NewMan is right. It's not our house though it has felt that way and every day since we moved our stuff in I have felt a rush of gratitude that we found this place and the opportunity to live here for a few months. And we found it in the most unusual way, via an estate agent. I know, this is truly a shockingly old fashioned way to find real estate these days. The owners were away on long term travel and wanted to rent out their home to cover the bills. NewMan diligently contacted a number of agents when he came out here to find us an apartment and lo and behold our paths crossed. Let this be a lesson to you all, though it solves many problems, don't think that the internet is the only solution. Sometimes picking up the phone and asking (and ultimately paying) someone to help you find what you're looking for does help.

So that's today's lesson, and here are today's photographs that were taken in our apartment in Amsterdam, but were not of our apartment in Amsterdam. If you see what I mean... And if you're wondering what that tile in the first photo means in English it's "The world is one big mad house, and this is the headquarters," . Sounds about right...

Read about the other places we've stayed on our travels around the world.