Planning

So… our kids said, “Dad, Mom, you take us everywhere you go… it’s been a long time since you really got an alone vacation… why don’t the two of you take a break, and we will let our aunt and grandma take care of us.” We resisted, but they insisted. So… we thought, well why not! It would be a good experience for all of us. Going off peak made most sense, since the crowds would be less. Should we go to Greece-Turkey, should we go to Paris London? Finally settled on Amsterdam. We would stay in Amsterdam, and make day trips out of there to see the region. Made reservations on Hotels and Viator and booked our flights on United.

Day 0: Houston to Amsterdam

At the airport, I used my Global Entry and got thru security without any fuss. Butter chicken and pasta for dinner on the flight.

Watched a Spiderman and also used the “included” wifi to chat with the kids. Plane landed very nicely at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Bit of a wait at customs, but went through smoothly. Grabbed our baggage. We had decided to use public transportation. Went to the kiosk and purchased train tickets.

Came out of the airport through the green channel door since we had nothing to declare. Looking for the platforms for the trains. Each pair of platforms had their own escalator going down. We initially went down platforms 5/6 realized that was wrong. One came back up. Found the escalator for platform 1/2 and went down that one. As we came down, we saw a train waiting, took help from the a staff member on the platform, he pointed as in the right direction, got on the train and headed to Amsterdam Centraal. 

Got off the train and the train station looks really nice. Bit of a wait at the elevator, so we carried our luggage and walked down the stairs and walked out of the station. We had to use our tickets to get the doors to open and once we were out, we used the GPS to walk up to Monet Garden. Oh yes, I made sure our phone (Verizon) had the international travel plan enabled before we headed out, it was $10/day.

A bit of a hike, pretty toasty out here! We reached the hotel without any problems, spoke to Sebastian and Ying, real nice hospitality staff at the hotel a check in our luggage and we have a few hours before they will have the rooms ready for us. Check-in is at 3 o’clock. We took a brief rest with a fresh drink in the lobby. We are going to explore the area.

We stepped out of the Monet and walked around cris- crossing through the various streets. Lots of beautiful stores and food places that we can visit over the following week took pictures made mental notes, picked up some tooth paste and tweezers from a Kruidvat and then came back to the hotel by 2:15PM. We were checked in and were in our room by 2:30ish and now just freshening up a change of clothes before we head out again. Showered, got into fresh pair of clothes and headed out to find a restaurant for dinner. Found a Mediterranean restaurant (Olijfje) was close to the hotel. I ordered some grilled chicken, misses had soup and appetizers for dinner. It was really good food.

Came home spoke to the kids and then we’re in bed by 6:30PM. Didnt sleep too well, woke up by 2AM! Darn jet-lag. Might have got a second round of sleep between 5-6AM… dont know.

Day 1: Jordaan Street Food tour

We walked from Monet to our meeting point. It was a 45 min walk. Amsterdam is beautiful. We are enjoying walking thru the streets… We met Maja, our tour guide, cheerful young lady, and our fellow tourists.

Stop 1: Cafe Hegeraad: Apple pie and ice tea

Maja gave us a nice history of the cafe and we are going to have apple pie and whipped cream with delicious lemon iced tea with sparking water. It was perfect… not too sweet or sour for a nice warm day.

Step 2: Lekkernijen Delli: Cheese tasting with paired wine

We then walked to the Lekkernijen Delli for some chese paired with wine. Starting with fresh cow Gouda cheese. Next fresh goat Gouda cheese. Wine. Candied ginger. Old Gouda cheese and top it off with Fig bread. Amazing!

Stop 3: cafe T Smalle

Next we went to the Cafe T-Smalle and had veg Bitterballen with a side of Hoppe. Bitterballen is a Dutch specialty, usually made with meat stew, but for us, they made a veg version with eggplant and mushrooms, that was equally impressive.

Stop 4: Jupiter Bocas

On next to Jupiter where we had Kapsalon with Rosa wine. It is a Portuguese derived food, basically means hairdresser food! Mine was a spicy chicken covered with French fries. Amazing!

Stop 5: Swieti Sranang

Our next stop was Swieti Sarang is an Indonesian fusion restaurant. We had Samosas and Chicken Satay.

Stop 6: Blauwe Pan

Our final stop of the day was at Blauwe Pan where we enjoyed some delicious Poffertjes, Stroopwaffels with bubbling grape soda. Poffertjes are like mini pancakes and really light and tasty. 

After the tour was done, we walked back to our hotel, took a quick break and headed out to locate the starting point for the tour tomorrow which is the T&T office on the east side of the train station. We found the location with a bit of searching… this area is beautiful. Very nice and shiny. Talking to the tour lady looks like they have a tour to Giethoorn on Friday and also have availability. Giethoorn is also called the Venice of the Netherlands. So even though we were planning to have a “do nothing” day on Friday, we changed plans and booked the tour to Giethoorn. Tickets were €79 each.

Walking around here we found a nice restaurant called de volkslust. We decided to have our dinner here. We took a caprice sandwich and a vegetarian salad with some cookies. These almond cookies are the best.

Day 2: The Hague, Delft and Rotterdam

Didn’t sleep well again! Looks like our Jet-lag isn’t done yet… maybe got a couple of hours of sleep towards the morning between 2 to 6AM. Got ready had our complementary breakfast downstairs at the Monet and walked over to Amsterdam Centraal T&T office to check-in. Got our passes and waited a bit, and went with our guide to the bus, it’s a double decker bus.

It’s 9:25AM we are boarded on the bus, sitting at the top rear right window. Today’s plan is to visit The Hague, Delft, Rotterdam and be back ion Amsterdam by 7:30PM

We are driving thru some beautiful countryside and learning lots of interesting history from our tour guide. 

First visit of the day is at Madurodam it is miniature village with buildings representing  the various regions in Holland. We spend an hour or so at Madurodam. We bought a few gifts for the  kids and family. Now we are headed to the International Court of Justice in The Hague , a quick five minute stop to take photographs headed back on the bus and now we are headed to Delft. 

At Delft our first stop is at the Royal Delft Museum. Fascinating history. We walked thru the various work stations. It was wonderful seeing the various artists working on the pottery. 

Then we went to Delft “downtown” picked up some ceramic coffee mugs and then had lunch at the Bagels and Beens store. After that we went to the Henri Willig cheese store. Picked up cheese and a cheese grater/slicer and then back on the bus. Now we are headed to Rotterdam. 

William, our bus driver, is doing a wonderful job driving and Ian is an outstanding tour guide. 

At Rotterdam. On the cruise boat. Having some apple pie and beer. It’s a one hour cruise, and we are enjoying the beautiful sights of the city. Towards the end he if the crew. It has started raining really hard. Luckily we are in a covered boat, so all good!

Got off the boat and back into the bus. Next stop was downtown Rotterdam. Got off the bus and walked to the mall grabbed fries with spicy mayonnaise, for dinner walked to and took photographs of the cube houses, back into the bus and back to Amsterdam. Went to the hotel, dropped our bags off and then went to Albert Heijn a local grocery store close by and grab a few things to eat and came back to the hotel room. Got the PadThai microwaved and then I had some Mediterranean salad. Took a quick shower and went to bed. long day and tired. Hopefully we sleep fine.

Day 3: Bruges

Up in the morning by six got a good night’s rest. Got ready grabbed a few bars to eat and are headed to Aloha Bowling where we are going meet up to get on the bus for our trip to Bruges. Reached Aloha by 7:20am and now waiting to board the bus. Looking forward to today’s trip… On the bus at 7:50am.

Plan for today: we drive for 90 min, stop at the border of Netherlands and Belgium for 30 min, and will reaches Bruges at 12. Walking tour is from 12pm to 2:45pm and then free time till 4:30pm, bus leaves at 5pm reach back Amsterdam Centraal at 8pm. While at Bruges, we will stop at the a chocolatier and taste chocolate. It is a 100 year old store. 

We started driving at 8:10 am. Stopped at a truckstop on the border of Netherlands and Belgium for a quick restroom break and get a bite to eat. We had a chocolate croissant and headed back to the bus. Oh we almost got on the wrong bus LOL! Reached Bruges at 12:15PM. We will now split up into 2 groups, one for Spanish, one for English. Walking tour around the city. 

The tour guide gave us a wonderful tour of Bruges, along with the history on the background of the city how it changed hands, the Spanish rule, the world war… and how do you have these historic buildings are maintained.

Once the tour was done, we had our free time. First we went to the waffle store Chef Albert. I had an amazing waffle with whipped cream, strawberries, chocolate, Belgian chocolate, and ice cream. Once we finished with the waffle, we walked around the Square and explored Bruges. It is a beautiful town.

Went to the Zoe brewery on the way out, picked up a couple of bottles of beer and a beer glass as a memento. Back on the bus. And now we are headed back to Amsterdam. Will be a three hour trip.

For dinner, we had pizza and beer… oh we have to talk about the pizza. We were in a pizza mood, and found this restaurant called ll Sogn. While ordering we noticed another pizza with this amazing looking ball of cheese. So of course we had to order it too. It looks like mozzarella. but when you cur into it goodness flows out of it. Found out later that they are called Burrata cheese. I can never have any other type of pizza now. Of course the rest of the pizza was pretty awesome too. Very home made taste. Loved it! Great way to end the day.

Day 4: Zaans Schans, Edam, Simonehoeve, Volendam, Amsterdam canal tour

Had a good nights rest. Up in the morning and back at Centraal, where we get on the bus. Our tour guide for today is Richard and our driver is Henry.

STOP 1: Zaans Schans: wind mills…

Zaans Schans is a cute village around a lake. Many historic windmills have been relocated here. We walked the streets and a store. Took a lot of pictures. Back on the bus at 9:27 AM.

Stop 2: North Holland: Edam

Next stop was Edam. It is another historic and really pretty town. We walked thru the town and boarded the bus at the other end of town. Edam cheese competes with Gouda cheese. The have Freejen Hostine cows. Netherlands produces 900 million kilos of cheese every year!

Stop 3: Simonehoeve cheese Farm 

We next drove to Simonehoeve, near the town of Windmolen. Watched the cheese making presentation. Brief history of clogs. Was quite interesting. Tasted a lot of cheese and also bought Edam cheese, a bag and clogs for the kids. 

Stop 4: Volendam

Lunch and free time. Volendam is a fishing village. We walked from the parking lot to the top of the dyke and looked around for a place to eat our linch. Finally we settled on a fish and chips store. I had fish (cod) and misses had the chips. We walked up and down the really picturesque shore. Took pictures. Enjoying the beautiful Netherlands countryside. 

Stop 5: Marken

We walked thru the village. It was previously connected to the mainland but in the early 1900s because of the flood it got disconnected from the main land, but then the government spent quite a bit of money to create a big dyke to protect it, and slowly the water inside, turn from saltwater to freshwater. Quick walk thru and then back on the bus and made our way back to the north shore of Amsterdam. 

Stop 6: Amsterdam Canal Tour

From here we took a boat cruise, an hour long thru the canals. Learnt about the rich history of Amsterdam. We have an excellent captain. Made it really fun. Back on land. Walked around a bit and went back to il Sogno for dinner and a drink. Had some gelato next and then made our way back to the room. Spoke to gullu and then went to bed. 

Day 5: : Dyke, Giethoorn 

Got a good nights rest. Up in the morning … took our time. Had breakfast n the room and walked thru the IJ tunnel to T&T. Yeah we sound like pros now! On the bus at 9:55. Ready to start our final day of sight seeing. Plan is to be back by 6PM. Our driver is Patrick, guide is Ian

Stop 1: Enclosing dyke

We got time to take in some beautiful panoramic views of the ocean and the lake sides of the dyke. A few meters difference between the two sides. Dutch comes from the word Deutsch. The hard khh in the language comes from Hebrew. 

Now driving on to Giethoorn. 

Stop 2: Giethoorn, boat ride plus free time. 

The name Giethoorn comes from Goat horn. When they were building, they found lots of goat horns in the area. The size of this area is 8km by 2 km. We are going to have lunch first and then get on the boat at 2:30. We sat down to eat at the De Grachthof. I ordered Texels beer to go with 12 Uurtje, which is Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon veg croquette Tuscan tomato soup and bread. Misses ordered Duo Groente Kroketten which is Veg croquettes with bread. After lunch we rdered a cappuccino with whipped crème and sugar on the side. Just as we finished lunch, the boat docks and it is time for us to start our ride. 

On the boat. It is a wonderful tour of the town. Lots of cute homes. Looks like our timing was great! No rain, and no crazy tourists😁! We go to a lake and then back to the town. After the boat tour we walked around town. Definitely a place where you could spend a few days of P&Q. 

Tour done. Now we head back to Amsterdam. 1.5 he drive. I’m using the Apple AirPod pros max and listening to songs…  misses is reading her kindle. Plan is to go back, pack up and be ready for the travel tomorrow. 

Back at our room, and misses is not yet ready to go back she wanted to do some more looking around… we walk back to Hegeraad, hang out there for a while, order some apple pie with cream , ginger beer and lemon tea. Back to the room. Packed up our luggage. Spoke to the kids and went to bed.

Day 6: Flight back to Houston

I got a message that our plane is delayed. Kind of worked out in our favor. Means we can sleep in a little bit and don’t have to rush to the airport. As we woke up in the morning, we got another notification that the plane was delayed for couple more hours. Total of four hours. Took our time got ready finished up the packing, finished the leftover food that we had. Took our suitcases and walked to the central station.

What are tickets to the airport. The train was leaving from platform number four, we walked down the hallway, up the stairs and into the train. It was a sprinter. It was not intercity train. Train was really neat and clean and sparkly. Amazing that they maintain it this way. Couple of stops and then we got down at schipol. Dropped off our luggage. Went through security and immigration and we are now at the terminal.

Since the flight is delayed as for you, launch United providers with lunch coupons works €17 each that can be spend that any of the eating places. Boarded the plane and made our way back home. Yup, I used my Global Entry and breezed thru immigration and customs.

This has been an outstanding vacation. We were very impressed by Netherlands. Made some excellent memories!