Last week, my parents came to visit! They scheduled their trip so they could see two weekends of soccer games. In between the games, we decided it would be a great opportunity to explore a new place in Europe!
Amsterdam was on my bucket list of European cities and it was a place I had wanted to experience with others rather than travel alone. And my dad had never been to the Netherlands either so we thought it would be a fun place to visit!
We went spent three days in Amsterdam. When we arrived, we were a bit jet-lagged and tired from waking up so early in the morning for our flight. So day one’s itinerary was pretty relaxed. (Early flights are definitely a struggle, but worth it for tickets under 100 euro). Our first stop was the Van Gogh Museum located in Museumplein–the square of the main museums in Amsterdam.
After the museum, we decided to walk along the canals and get familiar with our surroundings. On our walk, we passed the Hard Rock Cafe. This was a significant landmark for our trip to Amsterdam because it was the place my mother had met her dealer to buy weed back when she backpacked through Europe. Dad and I thought it was pretty funny.
We had lunch in the 9 Streets and did some window shopping in the little boutiques. It was such a cute area to hang out in. Dad went back to the hotel to relax before dinner while mom and I carried on exploring. We went to the Amsterdam Tulip Museum and the Amsterdam Cheese Museum. I can’t say that I learned much about cheese in there, but I can say that I tried every single sample of dutch cheese in the building. It was delicious. We also stopped in a restaurant called Winkel. We tried their famous apple pie and the fresh mint tea. Both were delish as well.
That night we went to The Pantry for traditional dutch food. Living in Ireland for the past few months, I can’t say that I was excited that Dutch cuisine consists heavily of potatoes. Nonetheless, we were glad we tried it and learned about Dutch culture. Following dinner, went to a famous cocktail bar called The Flying Dutchman. It was definitely too sophisticated for our alcohol palates. I ordered a drink made by the guest bartender and it came with a 1000 year old egg in it. My parents had a laugh when the bartender asked me if I enjoyed the drink while I was trying to hold back spitting out the egg drink.
Day two was our busy sightseeing day. We started the morning at the Rijksmuseum which is the National Museum of the Netherlands. While we did appreciate the famous Rembrandt paintings in the museum, we found these toy figures to be more entertaining. Since Emma was not on our trip, we posed with these figures in place of her.
We also went to the Anne Frank House, Heineken Experience and did a canal tour through the city. They all felt a bit touristy but worthwhile to learn about the history and culture of Amsterdam. Overall, a great day!
On our final day, we got out of the city to explore the Dutch countryside on a tour called: The Charm of Holland. We were all very impressed with how much we were able to see and learn in one day. We went to four small towns: Edam, Volendam, Marken, and Zaanse. We toured a cheese factory, saw a stroopwafel demonstration, learned how wooden clogs were made, toured a traditional dutch home and went inside of these windmills to see how they helped provide for the local communities.
Overall, Amsterdam was a really cool city to visit. Even though we didn’t hit every single attraction, I think we maximized our three days. Amsterdam was very clean and quiet which I liked and there were lots of trendy shops and restaurants. We got lucky with nice weather which was a lovely bonus too.
I was really happy to have experienced Amsterdam with my parents. It made this trip very memorable. Thanks Mom and Dad for an awesome trip! Love you guys.
And, thank you for reading!
-McKenna