This summer, we hopped across the pond for a 3 country (Netherlands, Germany, Belgium) excursion! The 10-hour direct flight to Amsterdam went smoothly and was definitely the longest plane flight that the kids had ever been on. It was an overnight flight, but none of us slept much. We landed around 9am Dutch time, and were at the hotel well before 11. DJAW had paid for an extra night at the hotel, and so got to go up their room upon check-in, but we had to kill some time before our room would be ready. So, a little delirious and barely on Dutch cell service, we ventured just a couple of blocks away to the large city park, Vondelpark, for some fresh air and scenery.
It was a little cool, and everything was lush green and damp from recent rains. For a Sunday morning, there were a lot of people in the park, and it was a good opportunity to stretch our legs after being cramped in a plane all night. But, we were aching to put down our packs and crash in our hotel.
After a couple of hours, our room was ready! Hooray! We were able to lounge, nap, and freshen up a bit before our evening canal cruise. (We were party crashers for Aunt Jenn's sister's pre-wedding events. Side note: we tried out public transit, but the tram stop our app directed us to was closed, so we had to Uber last minute and were 10 minutes late to the cruise departure point. Luckily, the boat was late, too, so we didn't miss it!) The cruise was a fun way to see the city and enjoy some Dutch cheese, bitterballen, and Heineken on a rainy evening.
The sky cleared on our walk back to Centraal Station, where we took a tram back toward the hotel and dinner. I didn't take any pics there, but it was a standard restaurant with a menu ranging from steak to pancakes, and the kids were introduced to paying for either still or sparkling water.
The next morning we had tickets to the Rijksmuseum, the national museum of the Netherlands.
It was within easy walking distance of our hotel (just past Vondelpark), and we were hungry, so the first stop was the museum cafe. Our table had a prime view of this statue's behind. Hadley was not impressed.
After lunch, Hadley and I followed a kid's tour/scavenger hunt audio tour through the museum, while the boys did their own exploring with the museum's app. It was a pretty thorough tour that led us through most of the highlights.
The piece de resistance of the museum is Rembrandt's The Night Watch, which disappointingly was mostly blocked by workers doing restoration on the nearly 400-year old painting.
But they still hold an impressive art collection, including a few by Van Gogh (his museum is just down the street)...
and Vermeer (the app let us replace the Milkmaid with ourselves), along with numerous genres of medieval, religious, and even Asian art.
Hadley enjoyed the library, though she suspected most of the books would be in Dutch.
Our audio tour also took us through room after room of interesting collections, like the evolution of the oboe, detailed replicas of various ships from the Dutch navy and East India Company, walls of swords and pistols, suits of armor and various weapons, porcelain dishes and antique locks. We completed our mission and turned in our headphones. Sadly, the boys didn't make it to the weapons rooms and J was fending off a public nap.
On our way back to the hotel, we dined al fresco on some Dutch pancakes and poffertjes.
The boys headed back to the room to nap and veg, but Had and I decided to explore a bit more, since the day was so lovely. We walked back toward the Van Gogh museum and people-watched on the Museumplein for a while. Then we took a field trip to a Dutch grocery store for some snacks, since it was apparent that our American appetites (especially of the teen variety) were not going to be satisfied with restaurant portions.
We walked back to the hotel, enjoying the scenery, and got some dessert along the way. Bike usage in this city is no joke, and the bike parking spaces are packed! It's definitely a different way of life, and I think I could appreciate it.
The next morning we rented cars and headed southeast for an hour or so to Efteling, a fairy tale amusement park. It was still raining off and on and pretty chilly, despite H's choice of shorts, so the rain jackets were a must.Overall, we liked this park better than Disney. It was well spread out and organized, clean, and had a good variety of rides and entertainment. We rarely had to wait longer than 20 minutes for a ride, and when we did it still moved pretty quickly.We started off the morning with Will and Jenn on the bigger roller coasters.This was the only picture I got of the bride and groom, Joanna and Dirk! Pay no attention to my roller coaster face, haha.We got separated around lunchtime, but the sun did come out! We waited in a virtual line for Danse Macabre, a spinning room with a ghost story, which we liked.
On Dirk's recommendation, we did see Raveleijn, a horse stunt show with a mechanical dragon and some sword fighting. It may have been in Dutch, but we got the gist.
The attention to detail is always fun when it's done right. The fairy/troll ride was a bit like It's a Small World on acid, but we enjoyed the Flying Dutchmen (combo water ride and dark coaster).
Later in the afternoon, it got rainy again, so we stepped inside and found this elaborate train set. So intricate, and it filled a large room; this was only one side out of 4.
One of our last rides was Vogel Rok, which was completely in the dark. Check out the family photo - Owen's face cracks me up, and J is apparently just smiling perfectly in the dark the whole time. Since it was raining and nearing the end of the day, the kids were able to ride it again instantly with no wait. Unfortunately, it started raining too much to really enjoy the Fairy Tale forest (life-sized Fairy Tale vignettes) on our way out. Maybe next time!
This is where we separated from the wedding party and had to drive to our next hotel. Hello Europe (Den Bosch, NL)! This is the street we had to turn down. Yes, I said street, although it looks like a sidewalk. We didn't believe it, but we had to circle around and come back to it. A little claustrophobic, no?
Our hotel was like a B&B. Check in was at the restaurant in the brown building first floor. Our room was on the 3rd floor in the grey building across the street. We blocked the street in between them while we were checking in and unloading, until they could park our car in their garage somewhere. I wish I had taken a picture of the stairs - ridiculously narrow and steep with tiny triangles to pivot 180 degrees! Glad I didn't have to carry the big bag... Our room was very nice though, with 2 kings and a large bathroom. We only had 3 power converters, so we broke out our power strip (internet travel tip) to charge everything overnight, but as soon as it hit the plug, our TV turned off! Oops! Turns out that circuit was also connected to the water heater, but no one answered the phone across the street, so the rest of us (Hadley had already had a hot shower) had cold showers that night!
Breakfast the next morning was our most filling meal to date with eggs to order, as well as pancakes, and buffet items, like meats, cheeses, fresh bread, fruit, and yogurt. Yum! After our delicious breakfast, we went exploring around 's-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch, for short). As a medieval city, they still have some old city walls and fortifications in the shape of a pentagon jutting out into the river, so we walked around those.
Then we walked into the city center and saw St. John's Cathedral, the kids' first Cathedral! Unfortunately, the outside was having some work done, but the inside was still beautiful.
Alas, we could not linger. We had to collect our car and get on the road. On to Germany!
