I spent an extensive amount of time planning a multi country trip to Europe with my husband, Billy to visit our daughter, Harli and her boyfriend, Cory. Harli has been stationed in Landstuhl since early 2023 and we wanted to visit during her birthday in July. I planned a day by day itinerary, to include 4 countries, must see/do sites, tours and attractions, lunch & dinner reservations, and each leg of transportation necessary ranging from planes, trains, and automobiles.
Netherlands was the first country we stayed in. We opted to travel to Amsterdam via train from Frankfurt. While hopping on a train 2hrs after our 10+hr flight was not ideal, it was definitely the most cost effective. It made sense to book our round trip flight in and out of Frankfurt rather than booking two one way flights for a couple of reasons, first it was much cheaper and next it was a short trip for Harli and Cory to meet us from Landstuhl so we could all travel to Amsterdam together. We arrived around 6am local time and grabbed breakfast and located our gate for our 8am train. The train systems in Europe truly are a phenomenon. It makes travel so much easier and very affordable. When riding the train station you will definitely want to pay attention to rules and regulations. You must keep your ticket if you have a paper ticket and some of the main trains in higher demand do require a seat reservation. I booked the tickets in advanced and reserved a quad with a table for the four of us, it was quite comfortable. The train had wifi and we were able to grab a drink and a snack from the bar a few carts down. We arrived at Amsterdam Centraal Station around 12:30 and caught a cab to our hotel about 20 mins away. We were booked at The Aflred Hotel which is a super cute boutique hotel. Normal check-in is at 2pm but they were able to accommodate us right when we arrived. The rooms are a nice size, we had a small balcony with a great view. The staff was, friendly, attentive and knowledgable. The best piece of advice I received was to NOT take a nap and power through the drowsiness to avoid jet lag. I highly recommend this hotel!
Next on the itinerary was to get freshened up and head out to find a snack before our 2:45pm tickets to The Van Gogh Museum. I booked our hotel based on the neighborhood we would be spending the most time in. The Van Gogh Museum is about a 10 minute walk from The Alfred, we did a little exploring along the way. The museum took us about an hour to get through. I highly recommend purchasing tickets in advance as it was sold out when we arrived. I've always enjoyed Van Gogh's work, a true impressionist. We were able to see The Sunflowers, The Bedroom in Arles(or as my husband would say, a page from the Berenstain Bears), Self-portraits and even found my doppelgänger. Unfortunately The Starry Night is at The Museum of Modern Art in NY at the moment. Another trip added to the bucket list. I've always found that viewing famous art in person to be a true, enlightening experience. Half way through the museum you can stop for a quick bite or a glass of wine at the cafe or restaurant.
From there we walked a couple blocks over through the Rijksmuseum to our canal tour with Flagship Amsterdam at 4:30. The canal tour was fun, it was scheduled for an hour and half and had drinks for purchase. Our skipper, Stijn G and host Arti were friendly and talked about interesting facts and basically played a game of trivia. Did you know 12k to 15k bikes are fished out of the Amstel river each year? You'll notice thousands of bikes chained up everywhere. It should not go unmentioned that you should always check before opening a car door as bicyclists are always zooming by. It did start to rain about halfway through and they had enough umbrellas on board for each patron. I loved the tour, it was the perfect amount of time, a great way to see things that we wouldn't have had time to see otherwise and at a great price. Definitely a good time! There are other tour options with dinner and what not but we already had dinner reservations at a traditional restaurant. Book your canal tour here!
When we finished the canal tour we walked around the Centrum neighborhood for a bit. First stop was a pub called The Saloon. I loved the laidback atmosphere, we stayed for a drink but I would have been completely content staying for a couple more. Next, we stumbled upon a small casino where I won $100 on a couple games of Roulette. Then off to our 7:30 dinner reservation at a traditional Dutch restaurant called The Pantry. We definitely wanted to make our dinner choice count since we only had one night in Amsterdam and The Pantry did not disappoint. For starters, we of course went with the salted herring, smoked eel and shrimp cocktail. For centuries fishing for and exporting salted herring has been a staple in the dutch economy. What better place to try salted herring than Amsterdam? There were 4 dinner menu options and we decided to each get a different one so we could all try a little bit of everything. I personally went with the sea bass but my favorite was menu #1, a combination of hutspot, boerenkoolstamppot and zuurkoolstamppot served with a smoked sausage and a meatball. True, homestyle comfort food! I ended dinner with a digestif of sambucca. We were all completely stuffed!
After dinner we walked around a little more. I couldn't say I came to Amsterdam and didn't see the red light district, so of course we had to do the touristy thing and walk through it. Then back to The Alfred for a much needed night of sleep!
First thing in the morning I walked a block down to Joe & the Juice for a turmeric shot and a nice iced coffee. It was so quiet that early in the morning, it seems the town doesn't wake up before 10am! Last but certainly not least, The Anne Frank House. Tickets for this are on sale 6 weeks in advance and sell out almost immediately. This was a must see for us so we purchased the tickets as soon as they were available. You'll walk through at your exact tour time with a personal audio guide. There are no pictures allowed to be taken. Being in the house was such a somber experience, truly a heartbreaking story. It's hard to accept the thought of such an evil and hateful world. Today, Amsterdam is a place where people are free to be themselves, regardless of religion, ethnicity, race, age, gender, sexual orientation, etc. One of the first things I noticed was the abundance of pride flags. Near the Van Gogh Museum you will see 67 flags of countries that still criminalize homosexuality. These flags are apart of the Zero Flags Project:
"Homosexuality is in the criminal code in 70 countries*. A quarter of the world’s population, around 2 billion people, live in a country where homosexuality is punishable by law. In 11 of these countries the penalty for homosexuality is death and in 2 countries the death penalty has recently been carried out. The Zero Flags Project is a countdown to zero flags. In this we work together with organizations such as Pride Amsterdam, ILGA, the UNHCR, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Equal Rights Coalition. We will continue our countdown until the only flag remaining is the rainbow flag and the whole world lives in sexual- and gender freedom. *The Zero Flags Project follows the ILGA World State-Sponsored Homophobia report which is a fundamental resource for those interested in accessing the core information on legislation affecting people on the basis of their sexual orientation. You can download the 2020 report here"
The diversity, culture and love runs deep in Amsterdam and I cannot wait to visit again someday. Next stop, Paris.
Timeshifter App to avoid jet lag.
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