How to Visit Amsterdam in Three Days

While Dan’s parents visited last week, we spent three days in Amsterdam. We explored several museums, toured the city on our own and with a guide, and took a bus tour to the Alkmaar Cheesemarket & to see some windmills. I think it was a good trip and with some adjustments, it could be a great one for others.

This Amsterdam trip is best suited for adults since it includes a trip to the House of Bols and a walking tour of the Red Light District. It is pretty casual so you have plenty of time to pack in more museums if you want.

Day One

When you arrive in Amsterdam, be sure to drop off all your baggage at your hotel or hostel. While most won’t allow check-in before 1 or 2 pm, they will usually hold your bags for you until later. We arrived after noon, so we were able to check-in right away, but did have less time for exploring.

On the first day, it’s nice to just walk around and get to know the city. We used a Rick Steve’s book walking tour to explore the center of Amsterdam, but you can find free and cheap self-guided tours of Amsterdam both online or at the VVV.

Along your tour, you might find the Nieuwe Kerk & the Amsterdam Historical Museum. The church isn’t very interesting unless you like to visit historical churches, but it is a good place to pick up a Museumkaart (no line). Its also located on the famous Dam square where the first Amstel Dam was built. The Historical Museum, on the other hand, is very through, has English translations, and is worth a good visit. Give yourself an hour (more if you don’t have the Museumkaart) to explore before walking down to the Bloemenmarkt.

The Bloemenmarkt is a flower street market and the best place to buy tulip bulbs in Amsterdam. Most shops will close up by 5 pm, but a few will be open a bit later. After the Bloemenmarkt, enjoy the dinner of your choice.

Day Two

Day two is museum day. The major, public museums in Amsterdam are all clustered together on the Museumplein so it is a good idea to visit several at a time. If you want more time for each or between them, many are open late on Friday. We visited the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, and House of Bols. All three were good, but for quick thoughts:
- In 2009, the Rijksmuseum is still being renovated but a significant portion is still viewable. Many exhibits include English translations.
- The Van Gogh Museum really is better if you spring for the audio guide but it can be long winded. Many exhibits include English translations.
- House of Bols requires visitors to be 18 years old and you get a cocktail & two shots of flavored Bols liquor included in your ticket. Its pretty interactive. Everything is in English as well as Dutch.

After dinner, wrap up the evening with a walking tour of the red light district. The Randy Roy’s Red Light District Tour is lead by an American woman who has been living in Amsterdam for 20 years and will run you 12,50 euros per person. It was an interesting tour, but rather awkward with the In-laws along. If this isn’t your thing try one of the museums in the evening or try visiting a café with live music.

Day Three

By day three you’ve been doing a ton of walking, so taking one of the several half-day bus tours out of the city will give your feet some time to rest and you the chance to take in some of the countryside. The Alkmaar Cheesemarket tour that we took was good (the market was smaller than I expected), but it is not available all year. You could also try a tour to Delft, a Windmill-oriented one, or (if you visit in the Spring) the Keukenhof flower show. There are several tour organizing companies in Amsterdam and you can also book some via the VVV.

After you return from your tour (bring snacks, we didn’t have time to lunch & got back around 2 pm), you can visit the Anne Frank Museum. The museum has restricted entry, so it is advisable to purchase advance tickets online through their website. Don’t try to do it through the VVV (like we did); they only have tickets available after 6 pm.

To kill time we visited the Woonboot (Houseboat) Museum. For about 3,75 euros you can tour this small private museum on an actual houseboat. It was neat, but I don’t know if I would pay for it; at least not again. They don’t take the Museumkaart, but do take the Holland Pass.

Some times during your visit, it is worth taking a canal tour. Lover’s has been recommended to me, but I haven’t tried them. Look for one with smaller boats and real tour guides to avoid getting a canned recording in six different languages.

Have you visited Amsterdam? Share your favorite attractions and activities in the comments.

How to Get Into Dutch Museums Free (Kinda)

If you like museums and live or plan on visiting the Netherlands, you should do yourself a favor and pick up a yearly Museumkaart. We finally purchased ours and I really wish we had done it sooner. I can think of several museum trips I’ve taken that would have free with this card.

The Museumkaart allows you to get into some 400 public and non-profit museums in the Netherlands (more in the North than in the South) for free and usually allows you to jump the line as well. In busy cities like Amsterdam that can really save time (the Rijksmuseum being one exception). Here in Maastricht, the Bonnefanten & Natural History museums both take the card.

The downside is that there are some significant exceptions to the card, including the Anne Frank House, the House of Bols, and the Royal Delft Factory. Most, if not all, privately owned museums do not honor the museum card or will only give you a small discount. Other cultural institutions such as zoos and national parks are not included either. We found that we quickly started to make decisions about what museums to visit based on whether we could use the card there.

The Museumkaart is 35 euros for adults 25 years+ and 17,50 for anyone younger. The cards are per person. The first time you purchase one you’ll have to pay an additional administrative fee of 4,95 euros, but afterward you simply can renew your existing card. They can be purchased online or at many of the participating museums. One guidebook we have recommends clearly explaining that you want the yearly card since “kaart” in Dutch also translates to “ticket”.

Is It Worth It for Visitors?
I’d say probably, if you like museums. My in-laws purchased the cards and at least broke even during their 2-week trip. Even if you don’t, the woman we purchased our cards from recommended trying to resell them. Just don’t write in your name and information.

Visiting the Rhine? Take a Bike.

Two days on the Rhine were somehow how too much and not enough time for me. On one hand the area we visited between Koblenz and Bacharach is absolutely gorgeous and has villages that are the definition of quaint (in a good way). On the other, we discovered that we can’t stand driving vacations anymore.

Unfortunately I’ve been trying to type this blog post for two days now, but despite the trip’s obvious charms and my desire to camp/bike in the area, I can’t come up with something appropriately poetic. Instead, here are my Do & Don’t takeaway impressions from the trip.

Don’t drive! That means you Americans. Yes you might get their faster (if you can navigate the roads) and a car may seem like a sensible way to get around (beware narrow “two way” streets and pedestrians), but there are very few bridges over the river and most of the towns and roads are not made for automobiles. Some still have their medieval walls. Spare yourself the headache and use the train to get to your destination. There’s a line running down both sides of the river.

Do seek out English language tours, if you want to visit some of the many many castles built along the river (we saw at least 14 between Kolbenz and Bacharach alone). In the region we visited, most castles only offer tours in German, unless an English bus tour comes through. We saw one castle and it was interesting but not being able to understand the guide makes tours much less engaging. If you’re really into castles, a bus tour might be the way to go actually.

Do try the wine. Dan doesn’t like wine but he was all over the sweet Reislings they make.

Do try the Peach Brandy as well; it’s a lesser known product of the region and very rich.

Don’t buy too much junk. The quaint villages are full of tourist traps. Keep your purchases to a minimum and try only to buy things you can’t get anywhere else.

Do some biking. The area we were in was easier to bike than Maastricht, fun, and it didn’t take long to cover a significant stretch of land. I’m inspired to spend a lot more time in the Rhine region biking. The towns will be very accessible although the castles are mostly too high up the steep mountains to bike to. You can approach most of the public castles by hiking or taking a special bus.

Do try a boat ride, but unless you really, really love cruising Don’t make this the main focus of your time. We took a three hour ride and I fell asleep (ok, so the wine might have had something to do with it). I can’t imagine how boring a week long cruise on the river would be. At least by bike or train or (shutter) car, you can stop whenever you want.

Camping? You could. We saw lots of campers along the river. Most even had TV dishes and are located near the towns.

Do take lots of photos. You know you want to.

Have you been to the Rhine (any part of it)? Share your thoughts below in the comments section.

A Visit from the Potters

My parents visited back in August so it is only fair that Dan’s parents, Sue & Gary, came to the Netherlands for a two week vacation of their own. Last week they arrived in Amsterdam and then took the train down here to Maastricht to join us for Preuvenemint and the (now regular) visit to a marl cave. We visited Zonneburg, the one we’ve been to three times now, and the tour was good as always. We did have the same tour guide so we learned that the tours don’t really change from visit to visit. Even the delivery of his jokes were the same.

After a short introduction to Maastricht, we rented a car and spent a couple of days in Germany biking, driving, and cruising on the Rhine River. Next we went back up to Amsterdam for a few days to see some museums and generally do the tourist thing. We rounded out our travel with a trip to Delft where we caught a weekend street fair and visited the Royal Delft factory.

Sue & Gary have another week to go in Europe which they are splitting between the Netherlands and Belgium. I hope they enjoy themselves.

Unlike in the past, I’m planning on talking about this trip in several articles over the next couple of weeks. Of course we’ll also have the podcast this weekend so stay tuned.

A Comics Pilgrimage to Brussels

In celebration of our 5th year anniversary, Dan & I decided to make a special, comics-themed, trip to Brussels, Belgium. This year Belgium is having a series of comics related events, many of which are located in Brussels, but we didn’t expect to see as much as we did. It turns out that Brussels is something of a European comics mecca. They call comics the 9th Art here. Finally some recognition.

We visited a comics museum, a special exhibit on the Grote Markt, discovered about half of the comic murals, and visited a couple of the many comic shops that dot the city. The city was fun and interesting, but somewhat confusing to get around in and the public transportation map was the most complex one I’ve ever seen.

Another summer benefit, the Brussels International is offering a really good deal. When you reserve your hotel via their website, you get a voucher that you can turn in for a 24 hour Brussels Card. While the voucher technically says you only get one card, we were given two at the tourist office. The card gets you into a number of museums for free, gives you included public transportation for two days, and a bunch of coupons (none of which what expiration dates).

Willy Vandersteen Special Exhibit

Tucked next to the tourism office on the opulent Grote Markt, a special exhibit of original pages by Willy Vandersteen is on display until September 27th. Vandersteen, a Belgian artist, is known for his Suske & Wiske series and this exhibit was dedicated mostly to images from his 8 “Blue Books”. The art was fun to look at, but since this was our first encounter with the work, we didn’t have much context to appreciate it.

Belgian Centre of Comic Strip Art

The central museum of our trip, the Comic Strip Center lived up to its reputation as on of the best comics museums in Europe and provided a great introduction to many European artists and writers we’d never encountered before in the spandex-clad American comics market. Sure, we knew Tintin, Asterix, and the Smurfs, but placing those comics in the full context of their peers was exciting. The museum also discussed the changes in comic creation and focus in the 1970s and 80s, and the story telling focus almost never strayed to superheros. Of course there were many beautifully inked and hand-painted pages too. While most of the displays were only in French & Dutch, the museum does provide a free book with English translations that made the museum very accessible.

We were a little disappointed that the museum did not address modern comics creation (such as digital methods) or webcomics. I expect that will come in time. The only comics they were selling in English were Tintin, which frankly I’ve read, so you probably won’t want to buy comics at the Center unless you can read French.

Brussels Comics 2009 Series

In honor of their celebration of the 9th Art this summer, Brussels has had several comic murals created throughout the central ring of the city. I found a map of the mural locations online and we set out with the intent to photograph them all. We found about half (and some of the areas were a bit sketchy) but it was a unique way to see the city. Before we left the city we discovered a book called De Strip in de Stad (Comics in the City) which is a more detailed guide to these murals and more murals and statues throughout Brussels. We’ll use it on a future trip to finish photographing the murals.

Expect to see more about these murals. In the mean time you can see my photos here.

Food in Brussels

A break from our comics pilgrimage, we had a lot of good food in Brussels. The best was the traditional Mussels & Fries at an old fashioned looking restaurant with a very modern name, H20. For a snack while mural hunting, we bought escargot from a street vendor. They were spicy and tender. We also bought some Godiva chocolate to bring home for much less than we could get it in the USA.

Sunday
It rained on Sunday, keeping us away from the murals, so we took in some more traditional forms of culture instead. First we visited the extensive Museum & Archaeology site of the Coudenberg Palace. Located underneath the modern day Palace Royale, Coudenberg was one of the main residences of Charles the Fifth. The site was preserved after a devastating fire by new construction. Construction techniques of the day required that the new palace be built on a flat surface. Since Coudenburg was on an incline, a lot of the lower part of the structure was preserved.

Following a little archaeology (and the 45 minute wait in line) we visited the brand new Magritte Museum. Magritte was a well-known surrealist artist and the museum is dedicated mostly to his paintings but also included a few statues and films. I was a little disappointed that this new museum did not include much English language signage (newer museums usually do these days). It was worth seeing but not deeply informative and I don’t know anything about surrealism.

The Comic Strip House
After a late lunch (pizza), but before we left, we investigated the Comic Strip House, a museum and comic shop near the Central Station in Brussels. We decided to save the museum for another day, but we did take some time to browse the store (mostly in French) and this is where we found De Strips in de Stad. I believe that this book will be a great tool when we go back to finish photographing the murals.

Comics to Read
We came away from this trip with a few comics we’d like to find in English (or Dutch in a pinch).
- Lanfeust of Troy & its accompanying series: This is a long running French series that simply looks beautiful. They are “manga-izing” it for the new generation of comics readers which I think is really sad.
- Blacksad: A noir anthropomorphic comic published by a French company (but created by a Spanish artist). The art is simply beautiful.
- Suske & Wiske: A Belgian comic contemporary to Tintin. I’m just curious and think if we picked this up in Dutch it could help us with reading comprehension.
- XX* Ciel: I’ve only seen the mural for this comic, but the art style appeals to me.
- Odilon Verjus: Another one we discovered from a mural. Frankly, I want to know what would bring a monk and a woman with a pet cheetah together in the same image.

This trip was so rich, you can expect to see more from me about it. In pariicuarly I hope to create a slideshow and maybe a map of the murals to share with you the experience. Click here for photos of our Brussels visit.

« Previous Entries Next Entries »