This trip was not supposed to happen like this. I had planned for us to go to Paris (and Belgium) this spring, finally! But then part of our flight got cancelled right after I realized the Olympics infrastructure would be in full swing while we were there. As we were in Las Vegas right after the F1 race, the infrastructure being taken down was disruptive and annoying at times, so I took it as a sign.
Not wanting to change up too much of the trip, I impulsively changed it to Amsterdam and Belgium, keeping the trip semi-intact. Little did I know, this would be the most incredible move because we'd be there right in the middle of tulip season! But I was angry with the flight gods so I enlisted the help of Less Lonely Road to help us plan this trip, and what a very good idea that was!
There were a lot of other nice surprises on this trip too so let's go day by day.
Day 1: King's Day in Amsterdam
Wow, we had no idea what King's Day was but we were in for a treat, our airport driver told us! He explained a little about how it's "like St. Patrick's Day in the US" but "everyone wears orange and you can drink and smoke in the streets for this one day!" Also, some sort of city-wide street side yard sale would take place, which we surely did see, and more.
We got to our hotel, Innside Amsterdam, in Zuid (south) Amsterdam, which was about 1000 meters from a Metro stop and joined a packed train full of revelers. We were going about 5 stops up, to Rokin, and so many people got on at each subsequent stop that I swear I could feel the train moving sluggishly. It was quite the entry into Dutch life but we got off the train and just started walking, taking in the sea of orange on the partially overcast day.
Amsterdam is built with many canals as the central feature, and more than just tourist boats are in them. Many canals had houseboats anchored up, and for Kings's Day, what looked like too many Dutch people in boats floated by, celebrating with booze.
We stopped for a rest in a Dutch "coffee shop" which sells more than coffee. After about 30 minutes just breathing in the air inside was enough to get me loopy so we continued on our walk to search for food. Since it was King's Day, many places were closed for regular business so I could only find poffertjes, tiny pancakes sprinkled with powdered sugar!
We ended up back at our hotel before dinnertime, hoping to just eat at the restaurant there. But annoyingly enough, despite the restaurant being early and empty, the hostess would only let us have bar snacks and drinks because we didn't have a reservation. That sucked but we cobbled together a meal from bar snacks (and didn't go back to the restaurant again). The views were incredible from 18 floors up though.
But after a long Friday of travel, not sleeping much on the plane, and an exciting first day walking the city, we went to bed early. This was one of the views from our hotel!
Day Two: 9 Straatjes, Kaasbar, Van Gogh Museum, and Not a Canal Tour
We were up extremely early thanks to going to bed early the night before. I had several things scheduled for us on this day, but the early part of the day was free. We walked towards the Anne Frank House & Museum just to see it from the outside since I was unable to secure tickets in time (you have to get them 6 weeks in advance, at the exact time they are released, it's insane). A ton of museum-goers were also out that early, but the Dutch people were sleeping off their hangovers, I presume. The streets were absolutely filled with garbage, I couldn't believe it.
Patrick guessed by Monday it would be cleaned up, and as the day went on, the trash did disappear. We got breakfast at one of the famous pancake houses in Amsterdam, and fueled up for the day. That pancake house inspired me to make these Dutch Pancakes With Floral Goat Cheese.
We then walked aimlessly until it was time to head to the thing I was most excited about, Kaasbar! It's a restaurant with a conveyor belt with cheeses! Each cloche was numbered and the number corresponded to a description on the menu. We started as recommended, left to right, and ate one of every cheese, except the last category of blue cheeses (middle photo below). I was so full and disappointed I couldn't handle this one, which I absolutely want to go back for one day.
Shortly thereafter it was our time to enter the Van Gogh museum but prior to that I got some incredible shots of tulips, and we chatted with some folks on the street. People in Amsterdam are just so nice! The museum was insanely crowded but we took in the pieces we wanted to see the most. For Patrick it was the smoking skull and for me it was the famous florals, such as Irises and Sunflowers.
Then we headed to the Heineken factory for what was supposed to be a tour and canal boat ride but they were being weird about my ticket and the instructions weren't great so we ended up not doing either (but it got resolved later!). We continued walking through some of the red light district and didn't even eat dinner that night because we were so full from cheese.
Day 3: Gouda by Train
The very first thing we learned on this day was how to pronounce Gouda. We had to ask the train station workers how to find the train to "Goo-dah" and they were like, "um what?" so we showed them the ticket we purchased. "Ohh, How-da," they said and laughed while pointing us to the correct platform. From then on out, we pronounced it How-da, very haughtily. The train ride was pleasant, and only about 25 minutes.
Once we left the station it was like being in a magical little village. It was even cuter than Amsterdam because it was more compact and smaller. But we quickly learned that Monday was not the ideal day to come to Gouda, because most things were geschloten (closed). So we weren't able to truly experience it but we still got a lot of cheese out of it. We started with a walk to the windmill, and petted a cat outside of it.
Then we just walked around the village, admiring the houses, and stopping in the few stores that were open — like the grocery store. We then went back to the main square where the old town hall was and found a few sidewalk restaurants open.
We sat and ate gouda soup, fries, and had Grolsch biers at SWING.
Then I decided it was time to see the centerpiece of this trip: Kaaswinkeltje. This place has gouda cheeses of every color and flavor you could imagine. I was so happy they were open! I bought a block of lavender-infused gouda (the color! ahh!) to take back to the hotel and eat on for the next few days. It was so good, but so rich. The lavender flavor was subtle but truly enhanced the cheese.
After buying a few souvenirs, we decided to head back to Amsterdam since so much of Gouda was just not open. If you do go to Gouda (and you should), make it a Tuesday through Saturday for the best experience.
Since we got back from Gouda earlier than expected, we ended up taking our canal ride this evening! It was cool to see the city from this vantage point, and the rides are fairly inexpensive for the enjoyment and views you get, plus the knowledge of the boat driver.
Day 4: TULIPS!
I said Kaasbar was my big excitement, but the tulip gardens of Keukenhof were actually my biggest joy on this trip. We learned a lot just on the bus ride over, which took about 30 minutes from the Centraal station. First of all, you absolutely cannot go into the tulip fields because all of the stuff we have on our shoes could infect the fields. You could see the fields from a distance though.
But that wasn't a big deal because the Keukenhof gardens has tens of thousands of tulips, planted in an array of incredible displays. Each area shows the names of the tulip variety, and they are shown in gorgeous groupings, from wild chaos, to dignified lines.
I was drawn to the orange and yellow ones the most, which is strange because I like those colors the least in everyday life! But look at them!
At that point I hadn't bought many souveniers, so I bought about 100 euros worth of bulbs to be shipped to me in the autumn. I cannot wait for them to show up, then for them to turn into a dazzling display in the spring year after year!
After we returned, we walked to Proeflokaal A. Van Wees for a Dutch meal to wrap up our time in Amsterdam.
Amsterdam was a beautiful, friendly, walkable city. I long to return there already. If you're thinking about going after reading this post, consider literally anytime in the month of April. The peakest tulip time is the second week of April, but it was still nice in the fourth week when we went. However, a week later, many of the tulips were done for the year, so a little luck is necessary to see it at it's most beautiful.
Prepare yourself for a lot of walking with these Skechers Women's Summits Quick Getaway Sneakers — they got me through 61 total miles of this trip! And the Netherlands are known for random rain showers, so take a good rain jacket with a hood.