Sunday, April 8th
Barbara offered to drive us to Amsterdam instead of just to the train station in Deventer, so we were very happy to have our transportation simplified! We did not exactly pack lightly, so it was much simpler not to haul our bags through the train station and transfers. Greet and Ap came by in the morning before we left and said goodbye too.
We left Roelof’s home around 10:15am and arrived in Amsterdam about 11:15. Our AirBNB is located on the east side of Central Amsterdam and seems well connected with public transportation. The host’s sister in law met us at the apartment and showed us around. I’m very happy with the location and think it’ll be a great home base for us for three weeks.
The apartment is set in a housing development called Funenpark. There are multiple apartment and condo type buildings set with green space between and a local park for the kids to play at. We’re on the ground floor, so the kids will be able to go out and play with other kids when the weather is nice and have a little extra space to spread out.
Caden was feeling poorly this morning, so he has been resting in the bed or on the couch all day. Barbara, Kamy, and I walked to lunch at Amsterdam Roest, an interesting restaurant and bar near the water. The weather was gorgeous, so we ate our lunch at the picnic tables outside and then brought some food back for Keller (who stayed at the apartment with Caden).
After lunch, Kamy and I wandered down to the park. She played for a while and made a new friend who was from Florida! Kamy is still pretty hesitant to try speaking Dutch, but she’s picking up some phrases and I’m hoping she’ll be more confident in another week or two. In Posterenk, Gijs has very good English, so he was able to translate for most of the cousins. Here Kamy is a bit more dependent on other adults to translate for the kids. She’ll work it out though!
Next, Keller and Kamy ventured off into Amsterdam Central to see the canals and explore the city. They took a tram to Amsterdam Centraal and passed the Nationale Opera en Ballet building. They wandered through the Jordaan area, found a neat artist and musician street market, ate frites with sauce, enjoyed the city. The weather was perfect and Keller said Kamy was a great “wanderer.” For dinner the had Dutch pancakes — a savory one with mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, spinach, and cheese, and a dessert pancake with cinnamon ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate flakes and stroop (like caramel). Kamy gave it a 10/10!
Caden stayed home resting on the couch (and I am here typing this blog post!). Hopefully Caden will feel back to normal tomorrow and we’ll be able to hit the ground running in the morning.
Monday
Caden is still not feeling well, so we are going to tag team explore with Kamy today. Keller and Kamy left after breakfast to purchase museum cards for everyone and explore for a few hours. They ended up getting burgers for lunch and then went to the Body Worlds exhibition. Kamy saw it as they passed by and expressed an interest in going. Since it is probably beyond what Caden would be interested in, Keller thought it would be a reasonable opportunity to take just her. They both thought it was interesting.
After they got lunch (and dessert), Keller and Kamy came back to the apartment. Keller wasn’t feeling great, so we just spent the rest of the afternoon at the apartment. I set the kids up with a movie, Keller worked, and I walked to the grocery store. It’s a totally different experience to go grocery shopping here — you have to plan on carrying home whatever you buy! There were many times I picked up something, put it in the cart, then reconsidered because I didn’t want to haul it home. =P
Tuesday
Caden was feeling mostly better today, so all four of us were able to go out to explore together! We took the tram into central Amsterdam and decided to visit the Royal Palace. It was initially built in the 1640s as a city hall but was converted into a Palace by the Bonaparte family when Louis (Napoleon’s brother) was installed as the king of The Netherlands. Now the Palace is open to tourists most of the time, but is occasionally used by the royal family, especially for special events like State Dinners and State Visits.
The kids both really liked the Palace! There was a kids program linked to the audio guide where they could listen to their own guide and complete a quiz to earn a prize at the end. Kamy’s favorite thing in the Palace was the chandeliers. Caden’s favorite was the tribunal room. Keller loved all the classical sculpture throughout the Palace, and my favorite was the central hall with Atlas and the inlaid maps on the floor.
Kamy has decided that she is going to collect postcards from our trip. Since they usually run less than 1,50 euro, her money will go a long way!
We went to lunch at Van Kerkwijk and had soup and sandwiches. They were unique, but nothing earth-shattering. However, we went to Keller’s new favorite sweet shop, Metropolitan for dessert. Kamy chose mango ice cream with homemade nutella sauce, I had a raspberry gelato, Caden chose vanilla ice cream, and Keller had poffertjes. They are his favorite thing he’s eaten in Amsterdam so far! They cooked the poffertjes just for him, so they were as fresh as possible. Keller tried it both the classic “Dutch” way with butter and powdered sugar, and also with nutella and white chocolate. Tasty!
From there Keller and Caden went back to the apartment for the afternoon. Caden was worn out and Keller had to work, so now it was my turn to explore with Miss Kamy. We wandered up to Centraal Station and then over to the public library and the NEMO Science museum. NEMO was amazing! It is the epitome of a hands-on museum — every exhibit gives you a chance to interact with it physically. And being Dutch, there was a water challenge too! Kamy’s favorite section was the robotic and logistics exhibit. We spent two hours at NEMO and saw maybe a third of the museum. We’ll definitely be back!
Kamy and I caught a bus back toward our apartment, went to the grocery store for a few items (I think that is going to be a recurring event) and then headed back home. We had dinner at home, the kids did some screen time, and then it was off to bed.
Wednesday
Caden was pitiful again this morning, so once more we split up. Keller and Kamy went to Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder — translated into Our Lord of the Attic. It is a Catholic church that was built inside three homes in the 17th century. The Netherlands was a Protestant country at the time, but Catholics were tolerated as long as they weren’t worshiping in public. So this church space was created by opening up three adjoining buildings. Keller said the audio guide was excellent and there was a kids version for Kamy as well.
For lunch they went to an Italian restaurant, Piccolo Mondo — and they both really liked it! Kamy had soup and pizza while Keller ordered the tenderloin in a gorgonzola sauce. They even brought an order of spinach ravioli home for me!
Kamy and I then walked to The Amsterdam Maritime History Museum — Het Scheepvaartmuseum. The Dutch pioneered many of the early shipping and transportation technologies because of the Dutch East India Company (the VOC). They really revolutionized long distance shipping and made Amsterdam a major trading capital in its own right.
The museum was quite extensive with displays of figureheads, historical atlases, navigational tools, and ship models. There’s also a kids section where they can learn about what ship life was like on board a trader.
Outside there are three very different boats you can tour. The first is the Royal Barge, which was commissioned by King Willem I and was used through the 20th century for the royal family. It was very very gold!
We then went to the big sailing ship Amsterdam. It’s a true reproduction of the East India Company boat from the 1700s. It was hard to picture how 300 people would live and work on this ship for months at a time. It’s pretty impressive! I was also blown away by the sheer height of the masts and the crows nest at the top. I couldn’t imagine climbing up there on the ropes — it made me queasy just thinking about it! We ran out of time to see the rest of the museum, but I am pretty confident we will be back with Keller and Caden in the coming weeks.
Another grocery store stop on the way home, plus ten minutes at the local playground rounded out our day.
Thursday
Caden was feeling pretty normal this morning, so we all went to the Maritime Museum in the morning. Caden really liked the Amsterdam sailing ship (recreated after it wrecked 2 weeks after launching in 1749) and Kamy liked showing him around. We also did the audio tour of the East Wing exhibitions and both kids did the board game challenge. Kamy was a bit miffed that Caden got a higher score than her, but c’est la vie!
After the museum we went to Bakers and Roasters for lunch. It’s a brunch restaurant and bakery and we were very impressed! The eggs benedict was the star of the menu though, with everyone calling it their favorite. Don’t worry — I shared. =P We also shared a piece of Mississippi mud pie and carrot cake for dessert.
From lunch, Keller took the kids home and I went on by myself. I went to the Our Lord in the Attic museum Catholic house church. It was an excellent museum and really remarkable that the Catholics were able to build a house of worship that the government turned a blind eye to, despite officially being a protestant city. It started raining lightly in the afternoon, but since I was wearing my rain coat it wasn’t too bad. I wandered over to the Jordaan area. Keller found a place that might have the perfume I wear, so I hiked to the store. Unfortunately, they didn’t carry that particular perfume, but it was still a nice walk. I then walked through the area, ended up by the Bloemenmarkt (permanent flower and tourist knicknack shops on barges), and then took the tram back home from Rembrantsplein.
Keller wrapped up work after dark and then went to a movie. The movie was in English with Dutch subtitles.
Friday
Friday morning we trekked down to the Rijksmuseum. We have pretty much settled on the importance of arriving at a museum or attraction first thing in the morning — the lines are much shorter and things are just generally less chaotic. It’s easier for me to keep track of the kids and they can have a little more freedom moving around.
The Rijksmuseum had a kids scavenger hunt type program, where they followed a video guide through the museum to look at several different items in the collection. The most famous of the paintings at the Rijks is The Night Watch by Rembrandt. We also saw The Milkmaid by Vermeer, another famous Dutch painter.
After turning in the kids program, we used the audio guide to look at a few more pieces more closely, though Caden’s attention span was a bit shorter than the rest of us.
From the Rijksmuseum, we walked across town to Bird Thais for lunch. The food was pretty good, but it could definitely use more heat. Apparently our American accent meant they left it all out.
For dessert, Keller took us to the Pancake Bakery — a return to their wonderful pancakes that he and Kamy had earlier this week. We ordered the Dutch and the banana with nutella pancakes. They were both very tasty!
Daddy then took the tram back to the apartment while the three of us went to the NEMO Science museum. Kamy was happy to show Caden the cool exhibits that we’d explored a few days prior and we also explored another floor of the museum.
Before heading back, the kids wanted to go up to the top of the NEMO building. There’s a great view from the roof, as well as a fountain and tulips.
Another quick grocery stop on the way home, and then we spent the evening recovering and putting the kids to bed at a reasonable hour. I trekked back out to the library just before closing in order to print some tickets we needed for Saturday! By the end of the day my FitBit showed more than 20,000 steps for the day — a new record for me!
Saturday
First thing in the morning we took the NS train down to Den Haag (The Hague). This was our first time on the trains and we were impressed by how smooth and quick the journey was. Once in Den Haag, we went to Madurodam. Madurodam is a WWII memorial, dedicated to George Maduro, who was active in the military and the Dutch resistance during WWII. His family financed Madurodam as a memorial and a way to show pride in The Netherlands. There are dozens of very intricate, scale replica models of famous buildings and landmarks in The Netherlands. My favorite was the Kinderdijk area and Caden really liked the airport.
For lunch we walked to Yon Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner where we shared soup, sandwiches, and a burger. Then we went to the Escher in the Palace art exhibit. I hadn’t realized that Escher was Dutch, so it makes sense that there would be a museum here! Many of his famous prints were there, including the reflecting ball, hands drawing hands, and the tessellations. Kamy’s favorite part was the various chandeliers throughout the palace — they were created as part of a design competition for local modern artists after the museum opened.
We found a little playground for the kids to play at before going to the Panorama Mesdag, a massive 360* painting depicting a Dutch seaside town in the 1880s. It was very convincing and hard to imagine the time and work that went into designing it. We also watched a video explaining the painstaking process of repairing and restoring the canvas after it fell into disrepair.
Dinner was a fabulous Italian restaurant called Ristorante Pizzeria La Lanterna. We were there early enough that there was no wait and our waitress was wonderful. Dinner was delicious (though for the record, four cheese pizza in Europe tends to include blue cheese, which is NOT the kids’ favorite).
Dessert was across town at Sweet Mirrie’s — an ice cream shop where they create custom flavors in front of you on a freezing plate and then roll the ice cream. It was a neat concept, though I didn’t think the process created a magical new food.
From there we hopped the train back to Amsterdam and all returned home happy but tired.