AMSTERDAM
My family and I just got back from our first time on an airplane since the start of the pandemic. We visited family in Germany to introduced my baby to everyone for the first time (!!!!). Strangely, the best flight options were via Amsterdam, and since we had never been there, I thought it would be a fun adventure to tack onto the family visit. It seemed like a great place for kids and family adventurers. And I was right! As soon as we drove into the city, I was in love. I.HAD.NO.IDEA. Where had this place been all my life? It’s charming. And quaint. Yet dynamic and diverse. At one point I thought we must be near a modeling agency because I kept seeing stunningly beautiful people. Nope. The Dutch are just stunningly beautiful people. And you know what? They are even nicer. Not just like courteous-to-tourists nice but like a light-shining-on-them nice while they laugh-and-sing-a-happy-song nice. Every single person.
Anyway, I don’t know what is wrong with me but I thought Amsterdam was all about the red light district and drugs with one canal that everyone photographed. I couldn’t be more wrong (and seriously, why did I think that?). The entire city feels more like Venice than Venice (the tourist guides say there are more canals than Venice). The red light district is even adorable. BIKES EVERYWHERE. Interesting architecture. Amazing design. Culture. Curiosity. Art museums galore. Gah!
I was a bit more intimidated to ride bikes in Amsterdam than I was to ride Vespas in Rome. But damn, once I got into it, I felt like a free bird.
I shot every image in this post on an iPhone. Super hard to ride a bike, dodge traffic and pedestrians,
be a mom, be in the moment … and stop to photograph everything. So I didn’t!
That’s the bitterballen on the right.
No, this isn’t the Hoxton! But I die for checkerboard. This was nearby, though.
We stayed at The Hoxton. It was pretty great. The location was perfect (in the middle of the 9 Streets), super interesting patrons, interesting decor/art/design that wasn’t snuffy or intimidating. Our room was big, comfortable and had everything we needed. Including bikes! And a balcony! Side note: super glad we didn’t do an AirBnB here. We tried so hard but couldn’t find the magic combo of affordable, good for kids, centrally located and available during our dates. So many amazing places though!
I’m not sure I can give a lot of recommendations because I feel like we barely scratched the surface. We rented our bakfiat bike at Black Bikes. They have a lot of locations & include helmets for the kids. I wish we had done a better boat tour but I hate scheduling on vacation and by the time we were up for it, all the good stuff was sold out. People say the best time to go is at dusk. Vondelpark was amazing, it was so fun to ride bikes there. We could’ve stayed all day with all there is to do including great playgrounds. And you could probably spend a week there just with museums. I wanted to do Rijksmuseum just for the library, VanGogh, and Rembrandt but we didn’t have time. We did Stedelijk and of course we did Anne Frank (book your tour before you go otherwise it will be sold out). My son was 7 at the time and he really enjoyed it. He found her so inspiring and the experience made a great impact on him.
Probably not for everyone but it checked off the boxes we us — my son loves Keith Haring and this wall mural was recently discovered when the building did reconstruction, AND it was going to take some creative exploration to find it. That’s my favorite way to travel. Getting lost and figuring it out is the best.
There’s lots of food to try. We did Pancakes Amsterdam and waited about an hour for a table but it was super yum. Apparently bitterballen are a local favorite but we ordered the vegetarian version and it was pretty terrible. Not my thing, but I bet meat-eaters will like the real deal.
We also drove south to see the flowers. So fun! We didn’t do a bus tour because we had a car and I really liked the freedom to go and see whatever we wanted. Get lost and explore is our motto! We chose not to go to Keukenhof because it looks gorgeous but too touristy for the amount of time we had. We wanted a raw experience with the flowers anyway (funny story — my baby was terrified of the flowers! lol). While we were down there, we also went to the beach. There were tons of clamshells and we loved searching for treasures. It was a lovely juxtaposition from city life.
The entire time we were there I wondered if we could live there. I’m still trying to figure out how to ride your bike with kids in the rain. Nevertheless, this place is a gem and I hope it won’t take me as long to get back there.