- Trip Length: 12 Days
- Cities visited: Paris – Brussels – Bruges – Hague – Amsterdam – Haarlam
- Flight Route:
- Madrid to Paris Beauvais, France
- Amsterdam to Madrid
- Train Routes:
- Paris to Brussels;
- Brussels to Bruges;
- Brussels to Hague;
- Hague to Amsterdam;
- Amsterdam to Haarlam
- Advanced Planning: About 2 months
- Books:
- Stuart Little by E.B. White
- Book of Marvels: The Occident by Richard Haliburton
- Hans Brinker or The Silvery Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge
- The Winged Watchman by Hilda Van Stockum
In July of 2023 we took an epic 12 day summer trip to Paris, Brussels, and the Netherlands. Twelve days, 3 countries, 6 cities, plus Disney Paris. Here is the breakdown. <<drum roll please>>
Before I get started on what we did, I want to share an important tip related to how we did it. How do I plan? After 6 years of doing this, I’ve learned a few things. This was our second longer trip in Europe, & the first carrying only book bags (& one carry in in this case because we still needed it to carry the fold up portable potty).
DON’T OVERPLAN:
I only plan for 1-3 activities per day. They may be organized by priority or location. This does not mean that we only do *these* things, but it does allow for lots of flexibilty and time cushions. There is limited pressure. We can walk or ride from point to point, and see tons of things in between.
Day 1: Flight from Madrid to Paris (Wednesday)
When we took this flight we were living in Madrid, Spain, about a 30 minute metro ride from the airport, so it was super easy to get to and from the airport. I highly recommend the city for living, if you can afford.. it is a bit expensive these days! Anyhow, to day 1, as predicted, began with our metro ride to the airport, and then a flight to Paris-Beauvais Airport, which is sadly over an hour away from the actual city of Paris.
Insert bus tickets for this bus, which took us from the airport to the bus station outside of the city. I believe you can buy the tickets in advance, so that you don’t have to worry about doing that upon arrival.
The bus itself was just fine for it’s purpose. These types of buses tend to be a bit packed, with small seats, limited leg space, and limited overhead luggage space, so you will have plan for having almost all of your belongings under the bus in that compartment that you can see in the photo. Both kids rested on the bus, and I even think the oldest one fell asleep at some point. The ride into Paris was not really that interesting, until you get the first peak of the Eiffel Tower. Of course, I had to take a picture of these hay bails, since it’s been quite a long time since I have seen any…and they remind me a lot of home. <insert automatic homesickness at this point>
Once we arrived to the bus station, things got a little sketchy and stressful. We don’t tend to plan too much transportation out in advance, so I had assumed we would be able to take a city bus or the metro from the train station, but it really wasn’t that simple. There were lots of taxi drivers out, but it wasn’t clear how things worked. The sense of order that I am used to in Spain did not exist in Paris (at all, anywhere).
We finally found a taxi, with the help of a translator, who seemed to maybe be sorting people out from the sidewalk. We had told the translator that we would be paying with card, but she evidently did not tell the driver this, so he ultimately ended up giving us a hard time about not having cash while we were in the car and on the way to the hotel. We were ultimately able to pay with card, even though he acted like he not only didn’t have a card reader, but couldn’t speak english… both of which were lies, so be careful!
During the drive to the hotel, we had an unfortunate experience with the Paris police and the taxi driver. It had me in a serious panic and extremely worried for the safety of my family. Below you can read the post I made on facebook the day it happened.
Once we arrived at the hotel, things started to smooth out a bit more, but our adrenaline was still reeling from that experience! It’s not something I will ever forget, and I have been in some questionable situations in the last six years, including being caught up in a spontaneous political protest in Honduras, that involved armed police officers and gas. This situation in Paris with the police was definitely the scariest travel situation I have been in to date.
We stayed Hotel du Bresil in a room on the top floor that had two twin beds, one full sized bed, a small bathroom, a TV, an air conditioner, and a desk. There is no elevator, but it was affordable and in a good location, just around the corner from Jardin du Luxembourg. There are many restaurants around it is in walking distance of Notre Dame. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of our room, but you can see what google has to offer here.
After check-in, we did a little sight seeing, starting with Notre Dame, Shakespeare and Company Bookstore, and a snack of fries.
Day 2: A Surprise Trip to Disney World Paris (Thursday)
Our first full day was spent at Disney World Paris. This is as our only planned activity for the day. It was a surprise for the kids, so they had no idea we were going.
One thing you should be aware of in Paris is that the metro contains ALOT of stairs. There are supposed to be elevators, but we ha a hard time finding them, so we were toting the stroller around a lot up and down stairs.
From the hotel, we walked to the metro, paid for the ticket to the Cheesy stop, and then boarded the Metro. The kids had NO idea where we were going.
At some point my oldest started figure out what might be going on, because the train announcements right before every stop, but we were very close before he actually guessed his destination.
Ticket cost for all four us for one day to one park was $385.56 + the metro ride to the park + any food/drinks we bought. We bought fixed date tickets.
As parents, we took turns going on rides with one kid or the other, since they are different ages and sizes, they couldn’t both go on the same rides, but it worked out well. When there were rides that we could all go on, we did, but when we couldn’t all go on them, one of us took the other one to do something else.
Thunder Mountain was my oldest’s first real roller coaster, and he wasn’t a fan. Maybe next time! He held it against me for many months for taking him on this thing, but I really enjoyed it!
We made sure to do all of the special activities, since we knew this was a sweet spot age for the 3 year old and a possible “last time to enjoy it” age for the 9 year old! Here were are meeting Mickey Mouse. BOTH kids trully enjoyed this and were excited to do it. And yes, we bought the picture, and I don’t regret it! I view these overpriced tourist pictures as an opportunity for a fun family portrait, so we are good for a year!
We also met characters, in this case, it was a Star Wars character. Sorry, I am not a Star Wars fan, so I don’t even know their name!! We happened to be having a snack from one of the food trucks when the characters came by and were setting up for the pictures, so the timing was great.
We also saw the parade once or twice while we were there. The 3 year old especially LOVED the parade.
We had a great time at Disney, and one day WAS enough for us. We have one kid who really isn’t into rides, and another who wanted to do everything. We had plenty of time to have fun, sit down and eat, rest and cool off, etc. It was a good amount of time for us, and I don’t think that we would have had the stamina to do a two day pass, it’s just too overstimulating… plus we live in Europe, so ideally we can return whenever we want to ;).
Day 3: Eiffel Tower Day & Some Other SightSeeing (Friday)
As I said at the beginning, I try to box in our days with some key characteristics. I do not set a schedule, and I only mark 1-3 things to do per day, but we always end up doing so much more. Along these lines, day 3 we Eiffel Tower day. We first had a quick breakfast of crepes right around the corner from our hotel. We visited this place a few times while we were in Paris.
We then took the metro directly to the Eiffel Tower from our hotel. Make sure you always validate your metro tickets after buying them, but before you get on the metro.
After viewing the Eiffel Tower and walking around the local area, eating macaroons and taking lots of pictures from the bridge, we walked back to the metro and went back towards Notre Dam, where we had bought tickets to take a boat tour of Paris from the Seine River. I found this company to have the best ticket cost, reviews, and location for us: Vedettes Du Pont-Neuf. They were located near Notre Dam, and therefore also near our hotel.
The boat tour gave us the opportunity to see more of the city, in a fun and relaxing atmosphere. Our kids love boat tours, we take them often. They are especially good for quicker visits, and also for not spending so much time walking on foot.
For us, boats are more comfortable than hop on hop off buses, they don’t have to deal with nearly as much traffic, and they aren’t as crowded… the seats are better, the air flow is better, and sometimes there are even bathrooms on them, snacks or food for sell, etc.
This boat tour gave us yet another opportunity to see the Eiffel Tower from another perspective. It was an overcast day, so my picture is a little dark.
We were also able to get an overall view of Paris landmarks and to see the beautiful bridges up close.
We had lunch at a fun latino restaurant near Notre Dame, but on the south side of the river.
Day 4: Luxembourg Gardens, Statue of Liberty, & Musée de L’Armée (Saturday)
On Saturday we walked to Luxembourg Gardens, which was absolutely beautiful and also right next to our hotel.
Just like in the book Stuart Little by E. B. White, there was a pond with a lake and miniature boats for rent to race with sticks. The boys absolutely loved this activity, so we spent quite a bit of time running around this pond and pushing the boat with the stick. We ended up with the Germany boat. They had a boat for every country. They are rented within time limits, which I believe were by the hour.
It was a sight to behold, very classic, and a memory that will stay with me for years to come. It was totally unplanned, but that is why we build a lot of flexibility into our days, so that we aren’t stuck on a timed schedule, which gives us freedom to enjoy ourselves with a wonderful activity such as this one.
Afterwards, we walked from the pond and headed in the direction of where we knew a replica of the Statue of Liberty was at. This is marked on google maps, so we just made the walking route directions there and found our way to it.
One the way to the Statue of Liberty, we found some old fashioned playground equipment that we thought would be fun for the kids to play on. We were quite surprised when we made our way up to the gate and found out it was pay-for only, and that the swings were organized into something like a cattle barn. <<lol>> You just never know what you are going to find when you travel. Fortunately, we had some cash on us. It’s always a good idea to carry some small bills or loose change when touring a new place.
One of our kids was too big for the equipment, so only one was able to participate, in what I believe was 15 minute increments. TOOO FUNNY!
After we explored Luxembourg Gardens, we took the metro to another area of the city to visit a museum called Musee de L’Armée.
Musee de L’Armée is an Army Museum and holds the tomb of Napoleon. Richard Haliburton’s Book of Marvels is an excellent geography/history type of book to read aloud to your kids. He references Napoleon throughout where it’s appropriate, and it’s a good little way to teach your kid’s about such a large topic. I believe it is the Occident version of the book that goes into this history (book 1 of 2).
As you can probably tell by now, our travels are for our whole family and we love to use them for our own education, and also that of our children. In the 6 years that we have been traveling in the Americas and Europe, they both have learned so much more than they would have if we had just settled into one country and stayed there.
One quick suggestion I would make for walking around Paris is to always have water with you. They do not have tons of stores available at random places. We are not used that, and found ourselves quite a few times desperate for a shop for a snack or an extra drink. If we returned to Paris, we would make sure to be more prepared with snacks. It is not like Spain where there is a food store at every corner ;). The trip from the metro stop to this museum in particular left us parched and hungry, due to the longer walk and lack of shops in the area.
One the right type of day, it’s also a lovely place to have a picnic or let the kids run around, due to this large grassy area. When we were there, it was too hot to do such things.
Day 5: Travel Day from Paris to Brussels (Sunday)
In many countries in Europe, Sundays are a slow day. For this reason, it is a good travel, but not such a great day to get out and see/do things, unless you really only want to LOOK at things. If you want to be a participant, go in, shop, etc, then don’t plan for that on Sunday if possible.
I timed our exit from Paris to be on a Sunday, so that we would arrive in Brussels with enough time to check into our hostel, eat lunch/dinner, sightsee a little bit, rest, and then get to bed. Travels days are overwhelming enough, so it’s also a good day to keep generally low key…especially when you have many more days ahead of you like we did.
Side note: In this photo you can get a good view of what our travel bags look like. We have four of them, and often only use them when we travel. They fit perfectly under the seat of an airplane and don’t cost any extra fees.
We took the bus to Paris Gaud Nord, where we sent a post card to the United States, and then went into the train station to wait on our train. The time difference between check out from our hotel and the departure of the train was little long, so we had some time to just sit around and do nothing (it is what it is!). I believe we ended up helping some Spanish speakers navigate the train station while we were there. That’s the beauty of learning more than one language!
After we got off the train, we used the local tram to get to the hotel. Public transportation in new countries is overwhelming, there is no denying that, but you miss a lot of the culture of that country if you don’t use it. You also miss a very convenient and affordable method of transportation. You miss teaching your kids that we can do uncomfortable things, even if we don’t speak the language. We can wait, we can read, we can use the translator, we can ask for help…we CAN figure it out.
The tram stop from our hostel was only about a 10 minute walk. This was our first trip using family style hostels, and it wouldn’t be our last. We really like this and have continued to use them since this trip.
This particular hostel is called Meininger Hotel Brussels City Center. You can find it here. They have excellent amenities: family rooms with four beds, private bathrooms in the family rooms, laundry machines, a shared kitchen, an attached bar/restaurant, game area for kids, etc etc. They also had an art gallery immediately next door, which had a discounted rate for clients staying at the hostel.
The hostel was well organized into different areas for all sorts of people, from children to workers. Here is a work station with computers and internet.
Here is the play area for little kids, and right below it I will show the play area for bigger kids, with arcade type of activities, multiple tables to sit at eat or hangout, and various other resources.
Here is the shared laundry and kitchen area. The laundry is right behind the wooden door that is through the window. If you look through the circular window of the wooden door, you will see the top of the washing machine. There were frequently people in the kitchen, so I did not go inside to take pictures. It was fun to people watch and see how different couples or small groups would go in there and cook or warm up their food. Someone was in there making pasta, which I found so interesting. Like I said, this was our first time staying in a hostel, so I was a little timid to try the kitchen. We are staying at another hostel from Meininger on our next trip, so maybe I will be a little more braver then!
Another view of the kitchen from a different angle. Here you can see some of the other resources and the couple making pasta.
Near the hotel were various different types of shops and restaurants. It really was a nice location to stay in and with it being a hostel, the cost is reduced from what it would be in a traditional hotel. We went out to eat at a little restaurant that was both open (even on Sunday) and very good. It was called Captain John’s Fish and Chips.
& because I am sure you want me to make you hungry for fish & chips:
Like I said, it was absolutely delicious, with very adequate customer care (but not over the top, because it is still Europe by the way, and they do let you hang out and eat your food without rushing over here). Unfortunately, it appears they have gone out of business, so I can not share a link with you! So sad!
Since this was a travel day, and we like to keep it chill on these days, we passed some time after eating by going to the neighboring art museum, which was right in front of the hostel & had a discount for clients staying there. I have already written about the benefit and reason for visiting various types of museums with our kids during travel. It’s a life benefit for all involved.
Chocolate is a big thing in this area of Europe. There was actually a store near the hostel that sold chocolate and other items by weight.
The sign outside of the store, if you want to look for it. It’s called The Food Hub.
Day 6: Brussels Toot Bus & Sightseeing (Monday)
Since we only had one day to see Brussels (we did a day trip to Bruges for our second day there), we decided to try a “hop on hop off” bus for the first time. There was just too much to see there, so we knew this would probably be our best option for getting a lot of area covered at once. The benefits of it were getting us to places- you can get off and get back on, but have to do that on their schedule and at their stops. The negative was that at some places they would stop for a long time, up to 45 minutes, so you were stuck there even if you didn’t want to be. Under similar circumstances, I would recommend it and do it again, but all in all, I didn’t enjoy it too much & wouldn’t add this expense to our travel budget in the future, with some exceptions.
As usual, the audio tours are useful. They did give us a set of headphones to use with them. We were able to see most of the landmarks, and got off the bus a couple of times to visit an area more closely. Afterwards, we just went to their nearest bus stop and got back on the bus.
One of the places we got off the bus at was near the Royal Palace. We visited Jardin du Mont des Arts. From the Jardin, we walked around the immediate area and saw the palace, among other spots. It was a nice place to get off and walk around and see things a bit closer up.
We had lunch at Chateau Moderne, which was good for the AC, bathrooms, and view, but not so good at service or price of food…as you can probably gather from their reviews. It might be a nice place to have a coffee, but I wouldn’t spend money again on food there.
When in Europe, you should always carry change. You never know when you will need a bathroom, and they often charge between 50 cents to 1 euro for use.
After the bus ride, we walked around some more. We found a Handicraft Market and walked to Grand Place Plaza, which was absolutely remarkable!
Day 7: Day Trip from Brussels to Bruges, Belgium (Tuesday)
This is called a “must do day trip when visiting Brussels” in all the travel groups! Everyone says it should be a priority and we have to agree whole-heartedly that it absolutely is a fantastically beautiful city and I would choose to visit it again over going to Brussels, just because it is such an absolute marvel of a city.
We took the train from Brussels to Bruges, which was just about one hour in length. At these ages, we typically keep day trips to 1-1.5 hrs of travel time. From the train station we walked towards the city.
We use google maps to navigate walking and public transportation. If possible, we walk because we are able to see more, though sometimes it’s better to take the bus to your desired location. It just depends on the circumstances. This time we chose to walk and were able to see quite a bit of beautiful things on our way to the city center.
This city is a quintessential European city, I mean just look at it! It is amazing from start to finish- full of culture and amazing architecture.
Upon arrival to the city center, we were just stunned by it’s beauty. It was still earlier in the day, so many of the restaurants were closed, though that changed within a couple of hours, as things started to open up and people filled up the tables of the restaurant terraces.
A notable thing to see in the city is this tower.
Within the tower is a courtyard, where there is a bathroom open to the public, for 50 cents.
During the walk from the train station to the city center, we stopped at a museum called The Torture Museum. It was very interesting and a little scary. The youngest had to leave the museum (he was 3), and the oldest actually got a little freaked out while walking through it. He finished it, but talked about it for a while, as he found it very disturbing. We have since read some Mark Twain books where the medieval punishments are mentioned within the storyline, and he’s been able to recall these tools from the museum, so for that purpose I still think it was worth it in the long run.
They did both enjoy testing out this device though…
An absolute must do is to take a boat tour. I knew that we would be able to do this, if we could find a place, but I didn’t have anything planned out beyond that. We went and asked a few places about cost and whether kids could join. We landed on this family friendly boat tour.
They even had stroller parking, so we were able to leave our stroller here while we went on the boat ride, without worrying about a thing.
I would say this activity was 100% family friendly, & we all enjoyed it thoroughly. The captain of the boat was also incredible. He was a local and told us stories of his own childhood growing up ice skating on the water, along with some other little factoids about life in Bruges.
Here are what the seats looked like. I liked these seats because they allowed us to face forwards, rather than to be seating along the side of the boat, and then having to “turn left or right” to see anything….which hurts after a while.
After the boat ride and sightseeing, we went to find something light to eat. Along with chocolate, the Belgians love their fries, so it’s a definite must eat while you’re there.
Not to be outdone by some french fries, these the Belgian waffles should also be added to your list!! Here is a Belgian waffle on a stick, covered with chocolate and marshmallows!
Day 8: Travel Day, Headed Towards Amsterdam, but With a Pitstop in Hague (Wednesday)
On the 8th day we once again boarded a train with the final destination being Amsterdam, however we had decided to make a pitstop to see some friends who were living in the Hague, plus, we never give up an opportunity to visit a new city or county! This was a fast trip. Essentially, we took the fast train there, checked in at our airbnb, went to see some sights, meet them for food, saw more sights with them, went to sleep, woke up, checked out of our airbnb, had the host hold our luggage, walked around to some other areas of the city, and then eventually grabbed our luggage and took a 45 minute train ride to Amsterdam. That was the TLDR version, now here are the details, for those who like them :).
Breakfast in Brussels, before leaving:
I can’t recommend this restaurant to breakfast. It was very overpriced in my opinion, but it was open and we needed breakfast, however I don’t think we would go back. They were short staffed as well, and although we are fairly adapted to the European restaurant culture, this was a whole new level added onto that.
Train ride activities for the kids. Over this particular summer, I had my oldest working on some basic grade level spanish “bridge” books. These are basically books that kids can do over the summer to keep their skills fresh. I chose this particular book because I felt that it was simple, it was at his level wise, it contained some spanish language review that he needed, and every few pages were in english.
The books are small and lightweight, so they pack well, and don’t take up a lot of space on the tray table of either an airplane or a train.
I mean, what is this life they have anyway? (insert me with two hands on each check with mouth dropped open)
We had a couple of stops on this train ride to the Hague. One was in Belgium, right at the boarder with the Netherlands, called Antwerp. I would love to go back and visit this city.
Views from the train, going into Holland.
& because I am thankful, for so many reasons, that our children get to live this life right now:
Arriving at the Hague, we were met with this welcome sign 🙂
Our airbnb was down this alleyway, above a small restaurant, and up a steep set of stairs, which isn’t too unusual for this region.
NARROW & steep!
The place where we had lunch, which was right near our airbnb:
A few things I love to visit when we go somewhere: bookstores, bookstores, and used bookstores. In short, I love a good bookstore.
& I love to see this: my son slowing down to admire beauty.
We saw lots of cool things in the Hague. Here is the entrance to their china town.
We only stayed one night in the Hague, because I have already mentioned, it was more about seeing friends than seeing the city. We wanted most of our remaining time to be spent in and around Amsterdam, so we will now move on to..
Day 9: Travel Day to Amsterdam & Zaans Schans Windmills (Thursday)
WOW! What an epic trip! Here we are at day 9, and we are down to our last two cities (ok, technically 3, but we will call it two). Amsterdam is a 45 minute train ride to the Hague, with many trips offered per day, so there is no real need to buy the tickets in advance. It’s also something to keep in mind that you can visit Amsterdam and take a day trip to the Hague, easily.
After our quick train ride from the Hague to Amsterdam, we made our way to our hotel in Zaandam. It is a town just north of Amsterdam, and because of this, the cost was lower than similar places within the city- much lower. The hotel was another hostel called B&B Hotel. As I mentioned earlier, back in Belgium, this was our first trip utilizing hostels. Although this hotel has group style rooms, and so is a hostel, they also have family rooms, and in all other aspects were very much like a traditional hotel. They had a paid-for buffet breakfast, and no extra amenities like the previous hostel we stayed at. They have good customer service and everything we need in a discount hotel, so we have continued to stay with them whenever they are available in the cities we are going to.
We had some food and made our way to the windmills for the rest of then day. These are similar to pancakes in the United States, except they are also have a filling inside of them. They are absolutely delicious, and we had them one more time before leaving to head back to Spain, where we live.
Ok, so on to the most charming place I have ever been in my life: the windmills at Zans Schaans. PLEASE make sure you give yourself plenty of time to walk around and enjoy this place. It is amazingly beautiful and you do not want to rush through it! It comes highly recommended in all of the travel groups online and for good reason! I mean, JUST LOOK AT IT:
The only thing I wish we had done differently about this place was to have arrived a little bit earlier. The stores there close somewhat early so we were only able to do one walk around in a tourist shop for souvenirs, before everything else was closed :(. We could still see the sights, but I would have loved to be able to go into all of the shops.
Above is the cute bridge you will walk across to enter into the initial area where the wooden shoe is a other shops. From here, you walk around and admire the beauty of the land and the windmills.
Don’t forget to fill up your water bottles before you start! I love the free public clean water access we have found throughout our European travels.
On almost every trip, we buy a postcard and send it to my mom. This is the card we sent from Amsterdam. We bought it in the tourist shop by that bridge I mentioned earlier. We bought a stamp there too, so we were able to mail it at the first opportunity.
This place was just amazing, and I should warn you that it also smells like chocolate due to the chocolate factory located just nearby. If you take the bus, you will see it across from the bus stop right outside of the museum, along with some cows :).
People live here! I mean, it is just amazing to look at it. Very quaint, quiet, and charming.
Day 10: The Jewish Quarter, Tony’s Chocolate, Boat Tour, & Anne Frank’s House & Sightseeing (Friday)
On Friday we took the bus from our hotel into the city. Other than coming off the train the day prior, we hadn’t really seen the city yet. As usual, I had my list of 1-2 things that we wanted to do that day. Everything else just happened with the built in flexibility that we have in our travel routine.
Our first task was the head to The Jewish Quarter. This area is located on the more south eastern part of the city, so I felt it was a good starting point. From there, we would go west and north, which would eventually land us back at our hotel that same day. With the help of a few trams and a lot of walking, we made it to the Jewish Museum. This museum was an excellent learning opportunity and great for exposure to other cultures, as well as a reminder of some revolting history.
They had a challah bread making workshop, a music room, and many thought provoking activities for kids and adults alike. This was one of my more memorable stops of the trip, due to the challah bread workshop. We not only learned how to make it, but we chatted with the lady about our differences in faith, and we even took the bread with us when we left. It was really a great time and I strongly encourage everyone to go and experience it.
It is an active exhibit to encourage kindness & thoughtfulness.
& yes, we took the seed pack home. Depending on where you are traveling back to, you may not be able to do this part, but since our home is within the EU, we had no trouble taking seeds across borders.
After leaving The Jewish Quarter, we made our way to Tony’s Chocolate with the intention of designing our own chocolate bar. Unfortunately, the machines were down, so we wouldn’t make our own. We did buy a few bars though!
First, we entered through this narrow set of stairs:
This is how the door looks from the street. It’s kind of inconspicuous.
Upon entering, you walk down the stairs, then turn right and find a very interesting wall of chocolate bars.
There are many premade bars of various flavors to choose from- really, they have anything you could think of!
If you are able to design your own flavor of chocolate bar, you will get these choices:
You leave the same way you came..
After Tony’s Chocolate Factory, we really didn’t have any plans. We noticed there were a lot of boats available for rides, so we inquired about prices and wait times, and ended up on a boat doing a water tour of Amsterdam.
It was a little rainy, so the covered boat was a great option to get us out of the rain, but also allowed us to still get some sightseeing done.
Once again, the boat had an audio tour. It wasn’t that great, due to the fact that you needed your phone for it to work, and the volume wasn’t quite high enough for the ambient noice factor. At any rate, here is a picture of the map, as it was connected to my phone and I had to download their app to get this much info. As you can see at the bottom of the photo, there are language options.
Even though it was an overcast day, it was still amazing to see! The culture and differences that we experience when traveling are unmatched.
Our last stop of the day was to head to Anne Frank’s House. If I’m being honest, we may have done this before the boat ride, but that’s not important at this point. Look at the view of our walk though:
Anne Frank’s House
You must get tickets in advance. I did not, so I regret that we were not able to enter. By the time I knew I would need tickets in advance, they were sold out. They sell out at least six weeks in advance, so make sure you check that out. I do believe they have a virtual tour of the house, which we did later on during our trip when we were back at the hotel room.
Ok guys, so that is it for day 10. Tomorrow is day 11, and we are taking a day trip to Harlaam! After that, we will come back to the hotel, then go to the Van Gogh Museum, and then finally go home & recover. LOL
Day 11: Day Trip to Haarlem (Saturday)
Harlaam was somewhere we wanted to go because we heard it was a cool city to visit. I didn’t realize until we were actually make plans on the trip that it is also where Corrie Ten Boom‘s family lived. The history in this country is amazing. They have really preserved so many things.
We visited the oldest museum in the Netherlands. Who cares what’s inside, we are going simply because of that fact! haha
That had some cool exhibits, and it was something to do and see, but I can’t say that it was a repeatable or recommend activity, unless you are like us and like to do things just to do them ;).
Afterwards we walked towards Corrie Ten Booms House.
Similar to Ann Frank’s House, you need tickets in advance to go into Corrie Ten Boom’s House. I am not great at getting tickets in advance. I don’t like to lock us into things…but sometimes I wish I was more on top of that for certain cities.
After leaving her house, we happened upon a market, so we walked around and looked at their things. It was, once again, getting rainy and windy, so the shopkeepers were trying to keep their tents up against the large gust of wind that kept coming through.
Day 12: Van Gogh Museum, Diamond Museum, & Nemo (Children’s) Science Museum
So finally, we are on our last full day of this epic trip and also FINALLY I have managed to get tickets so a museum in advance. To be honest, I only got the tickets a couple of days in advance. This method would not have worked for the other places, but it did work for this museum. Once we arrived, they had a sign up that all tickets were sold out, so I was definitely glad I hadn’t dropped this ball on this one!
Once again, we utilized the audio guide. These helped to keep the kids engaged and really added to the experience.
They had a screen system so we could follow the numbers (every print/exhibit was numbered), or we could select the number manually that we wanted to hear about. The audio guide gave a lot of background information about Van Gogh’s life and family.
Because Van Gogh suffered from mental illness, they had an exhibit to that effect, as well as some positive thinking activities that were kid friendly.
This museum will take a couple of hours, but it is a must do experience.
After the Van Gogh Museum, we went to the Diamond Museum. As part of the museum, you can go next door and see the workers shaping diamonds.
Finally, as our last activity of our trip, we spent our remaining time at the NEMO Science Museum. It is an awesome children’s museum with an amazing ROOFTOP play area. Here is a picture of it from the bus, where you can see the top as “little people” on it.
This is how you enter, across the bridge & on to the front door.
They have many interactive activities.
Recap & Review
All in all, we had a great trip. To summarize the highs and low: