It is springtime in Canada, and I am inspired to write about our spring experience in Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg back in April 2023. For this blog, I will focus on Netherlands where we explored the cities of Amsterdam, Hague and Gouda. One of the highlights was the day trip to Keukenhof Gardens, witnessing a sea of colourful tulips with side trips to Zaanse Schans Windmills/Village and a cheese farm. We timed the whole trip to the 3 countries in April for pleasant weather and perfect for those blooms. Best time to witness tulips would be mid April until early May. One thing to remember is that April 27 is King’s Day in Amsterdam so whether you like the crowd and the festivities, you can time your trip around that. For us, we are not fond of too much crowd so we opted to be a few days earlier.
In Netherlands, we made Amsterdam as our base. Our practice whenever we travel to Europe, we take an evening flight from Toronto and arrive in our first destination by late morning to noon. We arrived on a Saturday, checked in at The Alfred Hotel – which is conveniently located near the tram stations and the museum district. We booked a quadruple room. We purchased a GVB group day ticket via the app (this ticket is good for up to 5 people unlimited day trip with any GVB tram/bus for E$25 - affordable package when traveling in groups). We were famished and had late lunch. My first time to try a Dutch meat-based snack, bitterbaulen. Since we are in Amsterdam, we go for their own Heineken beer, and we got the non-alcoholic one. Energized, we took a stroll to the museum district. First stop was the Van Gogh Museum which you must reserve tickets weeks in advance. Since the end of pandemic, there has been an influx of tourists, hence the demand. We peeked inside this glass building and saw the digital display of his famous works – his self portrait and the sunflower. A few steps further is the Rijksmuseum. In front of it was this huge fountain all decked with beautiful, colourful and huge tulips. After taking a lot of selfies and groupies, we rode the tram and explored the various bridges of the city’s canals. We were in awe of the Dutch ingenuity in designing, developing and preserving these canal rings. In the bridges, you will see the bikes and flowers alongside it. With these plus the canals as background make a picturesque scenery. We then explored the Dam Square and walked towards the Centraal Station. In this area, you will enjoy the preserved architecture of the surrounding buildings including the canal houses. We saw it come even more alive in the evening as its lights reflect through the waters. To replenish our strength from all the walking, we had the Dutch fries which has thicker cuts compared to the American fries. We had the waffles too! Time to head back to the hotel. We can say we had a productive first afternoon/evening considering we just landed around noon. Before heading to the hotel, we passed by Albert Hejin (local grocery chain) – where we would be regular customers buying our breakfast and other snacks.
The next day, after breakfast in the room, we rode the tram again to the Bloemenmarkt, the world’s only floating market. We enjoyed the vibrant colours of flowers and other goods in this market. You can see a lot of flower bulbs and tulip paraphernalia sold here. You can see those creatively designed clog shoes too. We had lunch at Omelegg and we were quite satisfied. Since it was during the day, we opted to visit the vicinity of the Centraal station down to Dam Square to see the canals and canal houses during the day. It is equally beautiful especially with patches of lovely tulips all around. We then ate our early dinner at Pancakes Amsterdam – the Dutch pancakes are flat almost crepe like. Our coffee had this mini stroopwafel on the side. Since it drizzled that day, we decided to go to Heineken Experience. They had all these simulation rooms, big tanks, and cool holograms. There's even kiosks where you can ride stationery bikes and it will add the digital background as if you are riding around Amsterdam. We kept these as e-souvenirs. We then called it a night considering we will be early the next day for our day trip to Keukenhof and other attractions along the way.
We bought a day trip package via Viator for about CA$120 which included half day in Keukenhof, then Zaanse Schans Windmills/Village and a side trip to a cheese farm. Oh it did not disappoint! Along the way, we passed by Lisse where you will see a lot of tulip farms. The Keukenhof Garden alone is so huge that half day is not enough. You will be in awe of the amount of care, creativity of making the various tulips even more spectacular. There are also other flowers like daffodils, hyacinths, etc that the gardeners mix and match. Next stop was a cheese farm where we all feasted with a lot of free cheese tastings served by ladies in their Holland costumes with the hat, dress and clogs. We saw stacks of cheese wheels aging on the shelves. Last stop was Zaanse Schans Windmills and Village. We were once again in admiration of the Dutch ingenuity. We saw a demonstration of how the wooden clogs are made. Once we returned to Amsterdam, we had dinner at Dabka Lebanese restaurant and had a delicious meal. In the evening, we checked out the Red Light District. Wow, we did not expect the narrow streets to be full packed with tourists. Taking photos and videos are not allowed. We saw ladies/trans on the windows – it was mixed feeling of admiring how gorgeous they are (aided by the thick make-up and lighting) and sad why they had to resort to this kind of living.
The next day was our Hague and Gouda trips which we arranged on our own. These cities are very accessible from Amsterdam via Intercity train. From Amsterdam to Hague takes less than an hour. The Hague is known as the seat of government, the home of the royal family, and the International City of Peace and Justice. We explored the Binnenhof (Dutch Parliament), The Plein, Peace Palace and Scheveningen beach. At the beach, we can just imagine it swarming with tourists during the summer months. From Hague is another hour train ride to Gouda where we feasted our stomach with variety of cheeses. We walked from the station to the Gouda Town Hall and you will admire the Gothic architecture. If you happen to go on a Thursday between 10am-12nn you will witness the vibrant scene of the cheese market. This is a centuries old tradition that have become a tourist attraction. We got our fill of cheese plus getting these to take back home at this store, 't Kaaswinkeltje.
Our last morning in Amsterdam, we still had the opportunity to go to Albert Cuyp Market – it is Amsterdam’s street market where I had the courage to taste pickled herring. I can say once is enough. But, the others stroopwafel made in front of you was a delight. It is a wafer cookie made of two thin layers of stiff dough pressed in a hot waffle iron. We bought ready made ones in these lovely cans as souvenirs. Another is poffertjes which are tiny pancakes. Seeing them made quick and fast by these vendors is evident how this business has been passed on from generation to generation.
We checked out the hotel to take our second leg of the trip to Belgium (Brussels, Brugges, Ghent and Antwerp) which I will cover in another blog. By the way, instead of the canal boat tour in Amsterdam we opted to have it in Brugges which was amazing.
Enjoy traveling and keep your curiosity alive!
Comments