I finally finished putting this video together from our trip to Belgium & The Netherlands in April! Highlights include: Chris wearing what looks like a Burger King birthday party hat, secrets of how those little wooden clogs are really made, and I make a cameo amongst a tulip garden.
Tag: The Netherlands
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Netherlands Snapshot
It’s (finally!) time for my superlatives round-up for The Netherlands! As usual in my Snapshot posts, I’m including a few never-seen photos and stories from our trip this past April.
Best Moment
I absolutely loved our visit to Keukenhof Gardens. I set off for Holland with a longtime dream of photographing tulips, and it was at the gardens that I officially checked off that bucket list item. Being the worrier that I am, I fretted before we left that the tulips wouldn’t be in bloom during our visit, but (obviously) it worked out perfectly and I practically skipped around the park snapping away with my camera.
I loved that while Keukenhof is mostly a huge, well-manicured park, there were also some secluded areas that felt like we were in the middle of rural Holland. It was all beautiful along each path and around every corner.
Worst Moment
Alternate category title: Museum Misfortunes. Our time in The Netherlands was actually pretty smooth, so the two worst moments weren’t even that bad, but they were both museum-related. First, the day that I was able to purchase advanced tickets online for the Anne Frank House also happened to be King’s Day, and getting from Point A to Point B through the thick crowds proved to be more difficult than we anticipated. We nearly missed our scheduled time to tour the museum because we had to wade our way through mobs like this one. We even got a bit separated from each other and I couldn’t see Chris for a few minutes, inducing a lost-child-in-a-department-store kind of panic.
Adding to the stress, we were using my iPhone to navigate and it ran out of juice before we located the museum. We did find it just in time and I’m so glad we had the opportunity to tour this historically important exhibit.
And then on the last day, we walked over to the Van Gogh Museum for their Vincent on Friday event only to realize I had not purchased tickets in advance like I thought I did. Oops! I’m usually incredibly organized when it comes to travel planning, but I goofed this time. We opted not to stand in the super long queue in favor of packing for our flight the next morning, so sadly we missed the museum. Next time, as I always say!
Best Meal
As much as I loved trying local favorites like bitterballen and poffertjes, my favorite meal was actually a burger and fries! It was the smokey flavor of local cheese that made the burger amazing, though. That, and we sat at this cool table with our own self-serve Heineken tap! Fun fact: I tried my very first Heineken while in Amsterdam.
Something We Learned
The fascinating process of how Dutch clogs are made is no longer a mystery to us thanks to the Wooden Shoe Workshop in Zaanse Schans. The machinery mesmerized us as simple blocks of wood rapidly transformed into the familiar wooden shoe shape. I was shocked at how quick it happened!
We’re Thankful We Packed
Orange accessories to wear on King’s Day! My orange t-shirt ended up beneath layers of hoodie and jacket, but it’s in there. I found the sunglasses on Amazon for $7, and I purchased the lei in one of the many shops in Amsterdam selling everything orange for the occasion. (Side note: I’m not sure what happened in the King’s Day photo below. I think my point-and-shoot might have accidentally applied some kind of filter/effect? But I think it’s kind of fun.)
We Didn’t Need To Bring
Short-sleeve tops. It was so cold for our visit in late April that we needed to wear multiple layers all day every day. Brrr! (This one is a direct cut-and-paste from my Belgium Snapshot because the same exact thing was true of both places.)
Trip Regrets
Not a thing! I would have loved to stay longer, as is true of most places, but I loved our itinerary and I don’t have any regrets.
Reasons To Go Back
We didn’t get to go to the Van Gogh Museum (see above) so this is on our list for next time! We also didn’t “get” to try pickled herring, so um…I guess I can put that on the when-we-go-back list.
Favorite Photos
Hands-down, this is my favorite photo! It’s the exact image I wanted to make on this trip.
I also love this shot Chris took of some love locks along a canal bridge.
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Zaanse Schans: A Dutch Fairytale
If there is one scene that comes to my mind at the mention of The Netherlands (besides tulips), it’s a Dutch countryside setting featuring windmills. So when I planned our trip with a healthy dose of Amsterdam city life and a day trip to the tulip fields, I knew I also wanted to work windmills in there somewhere for a perfectly balanced overview of Nederland. Enter Zaanse Schans, the super quaint neighborhood in Zaandam with several well-preserved, historic windmills.
Zaanse Schans is just a short 30(ish)-minute trip from Amsterdam, so Chris and I hopped on the train from Amsterdam Centraal to Koog-Zaandijk. After a short walk from the train station, we crossed the bridge over river Zaan and I surveyed the scene straight out of a fairytale: windmills dotting the shore along water, sweet picturesque homes, and wooden foot bridges connecting winding pathways. Zaanse Schans certainly rounded out our quest for a quintessential Dutch experience.
Not only did we enjoy seeing and photographing the windmills from the outside, we even had the opportunity to tour the inside of a windmill, De Kat, as it was working. We had fun climbing the steep steps and taking in the view up top while the floorboards shook beneath us from the power of the gears.
And as the cherry on top of our Dutch day, we were treated to a (free!) demonstration on how to make wooden shoes at the Klompenmakerij. I couldn’t believe my eyes at seeing how quickly plain blocks of wood were transformed into a perfect clog shape.
In addition to the windmills and wooden clogs, you can also get your fill of local cheeses at the Cheese Farm De Catherinahoeve, rent a bike for a scenic ride in Dutch country, and pop into all of the cute shops and cafes. I can’t recommend Zaanse Schans enough as a fun, easy, and fascinating day trip from Amsterdam.
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Tiptoeing Through the Tulips in Holland
As our flight descended into Amsterdam, I gasped, “LOOK AT THE TULIPS!” to Chris…and to all of the passengers within several rows. I snapped a quick (and fairly terrible) iPhone shot through the dirty, scuffed-up airplane window, and spent the rest of the time gawking at the birds-eye sight of The Netherlands, exactly as I had imagined it.
So technically, teeeccchnically I could have crossed off my longtime bucket list goal of photographing tulips in Holland right then and there. But I had high hopes for doing a little better than a blurry iPhone snapshot. And then when we checked into our Oud-West neighborhood Airbnb apartment, a fresh bouquet of tulips awaited us. The next day we found them throughout the city, too, and thus plenty of tulips ended up in front of my lens. So again, I suppose I could have checked the box on being in Holland and taking pictures of tulips.
But I had dreamed of photographing the tulip fields specifically, the rows upon rows of perfectly placed bulbs, blooming in bright springtime colors. With time and convenience in mind, my trip research pointed me to Keukenhof Gardens, where I’d be able to spot as many tulips as possible within a 30-minute bus ride from Schiphol.
We purchased the combi tickets online before our trip, which allowed us to simply hop onto the 197 bus to the airport from the Leidseplein/Museumplein area of Amsterdam and then the 858 Arriva bus (big green bus covered in tulips – you can’t miss it) to and from the gardens. I liked that the combi tickets weren’t tied to a specific date, so we were able to play it by ear and pick the best weather day. I briefly considered a tour group simply for transportation purposes, but it would have taken up the whole day with no flexibility for the weather. I’m glad we went on our own schedule.
Keukenhof dazzled me from the moment we stepped through the gates (admission is included in the combi ticket), and I ran around photographing as many bulbs as possible before I wore myself out. Plenty of other people had the same idea that day, but despite the crowds it was still completely possible to find pockets of the park to ourselves, and to take pictures without people in them. I originally wanted to rent a bike and ride through the fields, but as was the theme of our trip, it was just too cold. I was happy to have a rain-free afternoon to see and photograph the flowers, so I’m not complaining! (Tip: flowers don’t always photograph as well in bright, direct sunlight, so don’t be discouraged by an overcast day!)
Several resources in my research advised to plan a half-day or even a full day at the park. I suppose it depends on what you hope to accomplish, but we were there a little over two hours and saw everything we wanted to see. If you include a mealtime there, plus moments to just sit and take it all in, and/or are visiting with kids and plan to play on the playground and spend time at the little petting farm, then yes, you can probably fill the day.
We didn’t eat a meal at the park, but we did find very tasty waffles and poffertjes (mini pancakes) at a stand near the playground. We also did a boat tour around the fields, but I found it to be a bit slow and some of the fields had already been harvested so we were often gazing at empty plots of land. I think it took about thirty minutes.
And now…copious amounts of tulip photos.
This photo of the field is the exact shot I was hoping to get! Rows and rows and rows…
It was so fun to cross this one off! Up next: an afternoon in the quaint neighborhood of Zaanse Schans.
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Koningsdag 2016 in Amsterdam
On April 27th of this year, Chris and I found ourselves celebrating King’s Day in Amsterdam completely by accident! Since my main goal for visiting The Netherlands was to photograph the tulips, I only took tulip season into consideration when booking the dates for our trip. I selected the week right in the middle of blooming season, which happened to overlap with Koningsdag 2016, a huge festival to celebrate King Willem Alexander’s birthday. Lang zal hij leven! (Long may he live!)
Up until three years ago, the Dutch celebrated the birthday of queen mother Beatrix, but she has since abdicated the throne. We didn’t know anything about a day for the queen or king until after I booked the flights and accommodations. And now that I think about it, if I had known about the nationwide all-day party that draws millions of people out into the streets at once, I might have scheduled different dates since I’m not usually a fan of huge crowds.
But with everything set in stone, I decided to go with the flow and I even packed a shirt in the official royal family color orange. We ended up having a really cold and sometimes quite rainy day, so my orange shirt ended up buried under several layers, but it’s in there. And I bought a $7 pair of orange sunglasses before we left even though I wasn’t sure I’d need them. We did get a bit of sun, so I briefly put them to good use.
Locals and tourists alike donned orange outfits and accessories (and then covered them up with coats and scarves). The city gets dressed up, too, with orange accents.
After I found out about King’s Day being in the middle of our trip, I looked into the best ways to spend our time celebrating. Thousands of merrymakers choose to spend most of the day on the canals in the party boats. That option sounded like a ton of fun, but we didn’t want to restrict so much of our first full day in the city to a specific schedule. We decided to simply enjoy wandering the streets to partake in the various food and drink stalls, the vrijmarkt (basically a city-wide flea market/swap), and watching the boats from the bridges. Being on foot also gave us the added bonus of being able to duck inside when it started to rain.
Despite the chilly and occasionally wet weather, we found ourselves in crowds so thick it was nearly impossible to navigate through the streets. We shimmied and danced our way around, combining sightseeing with the festivities.
During one of the gray and rainy moments, we stopped by the Heineken Experience for a self-guided tour of the original Heineken brewery. Most things are closed on King’s Day, but several of the museums and major attractions do have open hours. (We also fit the Anne Frank House into King’s Day evening since that was the only date we were able to get tickets online.)
The Heineken Experience was the perfect way to spend some time staying dry and I got to try Heineken for the first time (gasp). Dare I say I actually enjoyed this tour more than our time at the Guinness Storehouse last year (gasp again!). I liked the layout, the interactive stations, and the multiple beer samples. While the view of Amsterdam perhaps wasn’t quite as spectacular as the Storehouse’s 360 view of Dublin, Heineken’s rooftop bar had plenty of room for seating, standing, and dancing. And plus they gave us hats!
We heard from a few locals that this year’s Koningsdag was pretty tame compared to years in the past. The weather probably contributed a bit, and some new regulations restricted the party to certain areas, but I still felt the crazy energy and loved the people-watching opportunities. What’s more fun than walking around with beers and seeing a city on a day where everyone is in a great mood?
Happy Koningsdag! Proost!