Belgium + The Netherlands: Days 9 & 10 -- Amsterdam

Well those three months flew by. I was doing so well getting our summer vacation posts out and then, well, life. I've even had all of the photos edited, but just couldn't get around to writing it up. But seeing as I'm now working on our plans for next summer, I figured it was time to get this trip wrapped up before I forget!

I'd left our last Friday in Amsterdam purposefully open. We'd toyed with the idea of heading to Haarlem or the beach in Zandvoort for a day, but I didn't want to commit to that ahead of time. Kane was sort of chomping at the bit for some WWII history, so I looked up a guide on the fly and was able to book Al Walet for an afternoon tour (I'd wanted to book Amsterdamsel, but she was unavailable). So we did something unusual for this trip and slept in first! We had brunch at our hotel and then Al met us there.

Al was armed with maps and tons of historical knowledge. He gave us an overview of the war first and then we set out for a tour of the bulk of the city. We did a trail through the Amsterdam City Archives (a really neat destination in and of itself), Thorbecke Square, Rembrandt Square, Dutch National Opera and Ballet over the Amstel river, the Portuguese Synagogue, through the flea market to the Spinoza Monument.

We rounded out our walk by heading across the Skinny Bridge (where lovers leave locks) and ending in the Flower Market. All the while Al was able to give us a great perspective of the city during WWII. He also knew a ton about architecture, water management, and just pretty much any and all random subjects. Kane would have liked a little more WWII-focused tour, I think, but it was a great way to get the lay of land (and we probably should have done it towards the front of our stay there).

After taking photos all day on our tour, I intentionally left my camera at the hotel when we went back out for dinner. We were getting a chance to makeup our planned visit to Indonesian Restaurant Blauw. We had a little bit of a tense ride there as Joel tried to manuever moving money around (remember, my wallet was stolen the day before and we'd canceled all our joint credit cards!) to make sure we could actually pay for dinner. After a frantic search for an ATM, we were set. We knew we wanted to try all the Rijsftaffel (read up on the cuisine here) they offered, so we just let the waitress pick a wide variety for us. I thought everything was amazing and it was such a fun way to try so many different flavors.

After dinner, we were all totally stuffed. So we decided to take the long walk back to our hotel. We were basically at the top of Vondelpark, the largest park in Amsterdam, so we decided to walk down through that towards our hotel. It was one of the best decisions we made in Amsterdam. Right away we walked into a kids playground that was adjacent to a beer garden (Vondel Tuin). So Joel grabbed us some cold brews and the kids got to get their after dinner energy out. The park was buzzing on Friday night -- full of families and younger groups. We walked along the edge of a lake that had enormous mansions on the other side, all lit up with Friday night parties. I had to know where we were, and after a quick google search, discovered that we were looking at the back of one of the most affluent neighborhoods of the city -- Willemspark. It was really spectacular. We wandered our way through beer gardens and groups of kids partying until we made it back to our favorite ice cream stop by our hotel. Such a great end to a busy day!

No rest for the weary, though. We were up bright and early the next morning to meet our guide for our Eating Europe Food Tour! If there is one thing this crew will get up early for, it's more eating.

We met our group and very energetic guide Marjolein at Cafe de Spiegel for the traditional sort-of-pancake-like and totally delicious poffertjes. We got an overview of where we'd be going for the day and got to know the group a bit. Then we headed out for the rest of our tour.

In what will forever be known as the Amsterdam Pickled Herring Incident, our adventurous eaters followed through on their promise to at least try everything. Kane was particularly excited to check out the Seafood Bar Shop because he loves seafood. Against all our better judgments he took a bite of pickled herring and I knew it was instantly a mistake -- he is a die-hard foodie but also has an incredilby sensitive sense of smell and trigger-happy tummy with certain things. He didn't even get his mouth closed and I knew everything was coming back up. Joel pretty surreptiously scooted him outside and he yakked off to the side like a champ. Then everyone came outside to enjoy oysters and I tried to scoot the vomit away without anyone noticing -- seemed to do the trick. Cami went back in for several humorous photo ops with the leftover herring.

Kane seemed to have rallied by the time we got to Patisserie Holtkamp and tried out a bunch of yummy sweets. Then we ate outside at Bar Bitterbal, which was delicious, before moving on to Glandorf & Thijs for a wine tasting. Marjolein kindly left the adults to try wine and took our kids on a little adventure to pick up some charcuterie (critically, the kids remembered where the meat and cheese shops were becuse we looped back there later!)

After biterbals, we all hopped on a super cute canal boat for a tour around the city while drinking the wine and cheese we brought on board -- a perfect end to the tour!

But given that we are Greens, everyone was still hungry after the canal ride. So we went back in search of cheese and charcuterie (and more wine!) from the handful of shops the kids had visited earlier -- Slagerij De Leeuw for charcuterie and Kaashuis Tromp for cheese and bread. We set up a picnic in Amstelveld Square and the kids eyed up the locals playing a game of soccer. Kane tried repeatedly to work himself into the mix, but reported that the kids were not very welcoming. So then both of our kids, again being Greens, plotted revenge until the locals took off.

We walked back to our hotel and happened upon the cutest neighborhood playspace -- De Leidse Dwarstuin. The kids got to play a bit longer before and we all followed the rules.

As he'd been doing the entire trip, Kane tried to hop/walk over all the pedestrian protecting pillars back to the hotel. And continued to give me a heart attack as bikes and cars zoomed by him. It was time to go home. We had dinner at the hotel bar that night, took one last stroll around Amsterdam the next morning, and then we were off! Such an amazing trip. I included my other Amsterdam recs below as I did with the other cities. On to the next one!

Other things on my list!

Activities + Sights:

- Clara Maria Cheese & Clog Farm 

- Stedelijk Museum

- Rijksmuseum

- Jewish Historical Museum

- Jewish Heritage Tour with Larae Malooly

- Rembrandt House Museum 

- Museum of Bags 

- NEMO Science Museum 

- National Maritime Museum 

- Houseboat Museum

Food + Bars:

- Foodhallen (annoyed that we didn't get here!) 

- Ben Cohen Tel-Aviv Street Food

- Tempo Doeloe

- House of Bols Cocktail Experience 

- Reypenaer Cheese Tasting Room

- Brasserie Nel