We checked into our amazing apartment in a residential neighborhood just outside busy Amsterdam. It was pretty perfect – the kids slept in a loft space with a little balcony and we had 2 floors, each with a kitchen and bathroom so we could spread out and invite Virginie to come up from Paris! Taylor identified all the Van Gogh paintings after our museum tour.
We love Amsterdam. Bikes, canals, amazing museums, parks, easy public transportation and a great energy really make for an ideal vacation for us. It took a few days to get used to the bike lanes, especially getting off the trams, and we nearly got run over a few times. But eventually we learned!
We took a ferry the first day to Amsterdam – Noord (north) to get a great view of the whole city and burn off some energy on the racetrack, then headed to the Van Gogh Museum (one of the best museums ever!!) and played at the park.
The next day we visited the Anne Frank house, which was so powerful for all of us. Then we wandered the city before Virginie had to catch the train back home. We were all very sad to see her leave.
After Virginie left, we let the kids choose what to do. They chose to head to Kinderkookkafe, where kids can make their own pizzas. The pizza was terrible but they had a great time. And it was right by a huge park, so we finally rented some bikes and went bike riding the rest of the day. The park was beautiful with lots to do. Getting there from the bike rental place, and then getting back was quite a harrowing experience. We had to drive in the bike lanes which are shared with scooters so we got a taste of what it’s really like to bike throughout the city. Not as relaxing as one might think.
The following day we to the train to the town of Zaanse Schans, where we visited the windmills, wooden shoe factory and cheese store. It was VERY windy there. We toured a working windmill that made paints and pigments and bought some we can’t wait to mix and try. The kids enjoyed watching the demonstration of how wooden shoes are made. They really wanted a pair, but we opted for the wooden shoe slippers instead (which we all wore on our plane ride home to the States). And we tasted lots of cheese! Trip chose to buy the “very old cow” cheese and Taylor chose “baby goat” cheese: I liked them both! We finished up the day at the Rembrandt Museum which we all very much enjoyed.
We spent the next morning at the Rijks museum, which was bigger than the others we had gone to, but still very manageable. We got there early enough to see Rembrandt’s The Nigh Watch and Vermeer’s the Milkmaid without any crowds which was nice. The kids were dying to go on the Pannenkoekenboot, an all-you-can-eat, top your own pancakes, sail along the canals pancake restaurant. We read about it when planning the trip and it was on the top of their list of things to do. When we finally arranged to go on the last day, it was too windy to sail. And the boat looked like an old Denny’s restaurant. And the pancakes weren’t that good. But the kids LOVED it. After pancakes, we had time for one last thing so we walked to the NEMO science museum. It was very crowded but the kids had fun. They had a very elaborate chain reaction which was super cool even though they spoke in Dutch and we couldn’t understand the 5 minute presentation beforehand.
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