We only had two flights to get to Frankfurt, Germany on this trip. First from Denver to Dallas on United, and then Dallas to Frankfurt overnight on Lufthansa. While we were missing some of the luxuries of our last long haul flights on Starlux, Lufthansa made up for it with great service and good food. We tried to get as much rest as we could on the flight, as we had a full day ahead. Despite sleeping on the plane, we were pretty tired on arrival and after navigating Frankfurt's large airport, we rested in the Lufthansa Welcome Lounge outside of baggage claim to eat some breakfast and rest up for about an hour. After that, we picked up our rental car from Hertz which we would have for the entire trip until reaching Amsterdam. The car wasn't too expensive but we had to pay a hefty fee ($300+) to return it in a different country.

Our first day in Germany, we drove about 45 minutes to the small and scenic town of Rüdesheim am Rhein and then made our way to the town of Cochem, featuring a large castle and overlooking the Moselle River.

Rudesheim am Rhein Cable car and hike

We found the parking lot near where you can take a 2-person cable car up the hill (7 EUR per person one way). The cable car takes you over the wine fields with views of the town and Rhein river, and seemed very popular among local tourists. At the top of the hill there are many walking paths and trails that take you past a few old castles, making your way over to the next town, Assmannhausen. Yes, we did have a few laughs at this town name and a few other German language puns along the way! We ended up walking close to 4 miles throught the forest with various lookouts, stopping for a snack and wine before taking the 4 minute train back to Rudesheim. Tickets to the train were very cheap and can be purchased from the train station kiosk.

In Rudesheim, we took some time to walk through the beautiful town, stopping for our first German beers at one of the many wine and beer cafes. There were a lot of tourists about, but most seemed local to Germany. We started picking up a few German words to get by. From Rudesheim, we still had a 90 min drive to our destination in Cochem.

Cochem town

The drive took us up and over the mountain through farm lands and then back down to our scenic town, this time along the Moselle River. We checked in to our hotel at the Hotel Villa Vie, a converted castle type building with modern rooms. We noticed that a lot of people were doing river cruises on large boats leaving from Cochem. These boats take you past other river towns and you can choose between a short tour of an hour or opt for a longer several hour tour. Even though we were quite tired by this time, we enjoyed a glass of Riesling on our hotel patio while watching the sunset before making the 10-15 minute walk along the river to the heart of town. In town, we enjoyed a traditional German dinner at Zom Stüffje. We tried 2 different styles of schnitzel and agreed the one with mushroom cream sauce was the best paired with a local Riesling and some cheese and grapes.

We spent the day enjoying the sunshine and amazing views along the Moselle river. After a good European style buffet breakfast at our hotel, we packed up the car and then walked up to see the Cochem castle. After our tour of the castle and walking back through town, we made our way by car slowly past many other small towns along the river. There were many places to stop for wine, food and of course more castle views. We had chosen the Schloss Lieser Autograph Collection hotel by Mariott as our overnight based on its looks as an enormous restored castle (built in the late 1800's) along the river and it did not disappoint. Our room was comfortable and spacious, with river views. For dinner, we walked only a few blocks and shared a pizza and pasta at an Italian restaurant called Der Italiener da Peppe. Back at the hotel, we had to try out their large indoor pool area with 5 different sauna options before calling it a night.

Reichsburg Cochem Castle

After breakfast, we walked up the hill, making our way to the Reichsburg Cochem castle. Perched high above the Moselle River, Reichsburg Cochem is one of the most striking castles in Germany. Originally built around the year 1000, it was destroyed and later restored in the 19th century. You must take a guided tour for 10 EUR per person to gain access to the inside of the castle. We arrived before there were too many crowds and the next English tour wouldn't start for another hour, so we joined the German tour leaving in only a few minutes.

During the tour, you can explore the castle's ornate rooms and admire the sweeping vineyard and river views, looking down on the Moselle 300 feet below. When on the German speaking tour, they offer paper versions of the explanations in other languages. After the tour, we walked down through the town center on its cobblestone streets and also stopped on our way out of town to admire the castle and town from the other side of the river.

Moselle Wine Region

The Moselle region, winding through Germany, Luxembourg, and France, is world-famous for its dramatic steep slate vineyards and exceptional Rieslings. The river's unique microclimate allows the grapes to develop slowly, and you can find a wide variety of Rieslings from dry to sweet. On our drive today, we stopped at several of the small towns along the river, each with their own charm. First, we stopped at the wine tasting room Walter J. Oster. We tried one of their dry Rieslings while sitting outside on the patio. We were hoping for a quick snack but had to move on to the next town as they didn't really have food.

After that, we stopped in the town of Ediger-Eller, where we visited the Weingut Karl Schauf. They served flatbread pizzas that seemed popular but we opted for a large cheese and grapes plate with pretzels and mustard while sampling a few of their wines. We found this entire region along the river to be even better than expected as far as its beauty and also the avilability of stops for wine tasting and food.

Vianden Castle

One of the most notable medieval fortresses in all of Luxembourg, the Vianden Castle was built between the 11-14th centuries. It was home to the noble families for many years after which it fell into disrepair. It was purchased and completely restored by Luxembourg starting in 1977 and today is one of the most visited tourist stops in the country. On arriving in Vianden, we parked at a paid lot and walked up to the castle. For 13 EUR per person, you can take a self guided tour making your way through the castle's many rooms. Some of the highlights of the castle were the large kitchen room, the chapel and the outdoor views, as well as the information about how meticulous the restoration process was including old pictures of the castle.

Nearby, you can choose to take a chair lift to the top of a hill overlooking the castle. However, if you are already at the castle, then you're more than half way there already. So instead of going back to town for the chairlift, we found the path to walk up the hill directly next to the castle. We flew the drone and took some great pictures of the castle from above.

Mullerthal Trail Region

Known as the "Little Switzerland" of Luxembourg, the Mullerthal region is home to many miles of hiking trails. We came across this from watching a few Youtube videos on things to do in Luxembourg outside of the city and decided we needed to make a stop on our way. The small town of Echternach is one of the gateways to this hiking region, so we headed there and parked the car. After a quick lunch, we headed out on the E1 trail straight from town. We used this loop from AllTrails but didn't do the top part of the loop. It quickly took us into the forest with moss covering the trees. This region is known for its towering sandstone cliffs and deep ravines which you can hike through on the trail. In several places, there are stone steps guiding you through the narrow canyon.

The hike was a little closer to the main road that we would have liked, but this region consists of 112km of hiking trails, if you have more time to explore. Some of the highlights of the E1 trail are the mossy steps in between cliff walls, the "labrynth" area and a short detour across the road (look for signs saying Perekop) to the slot canyon with very steep stairs. We stopped in the town of Berdorf just after passing through a man built cave. From there, you can catch a quick 5 minute bus ride back to your starting point, which we were appreciative of since it was already late in the day!

We had the whole day today to explore Luxembourg City. Luxembourg City is uniquely multi-national, which can be felt as you walk around the city. You can easily find a lot of international cuisines here, while it is quite difficult to find typical Luxembourgish food. It is said that up to 70% of the city's residents are from other nationalities. It is known as one of the safest and richest capital cities in the world, and is one of the 4 seats of the EU and a major banking center. The city official speaks three languages, French, Luxembourgish and German, although we mostly experienced French while here. A unique fact about Luxembourg is that all public transportation is free. Having had our apartment located in the center, we were able to reach the main tourist stops by walking, however.

We spent the day sightseeing the city and then ate at a well rated Greek restaurant, Flow Mediterranean Flavors, for dinner (reservations recommended). Being the weekend, people were out and about quite late and a lot of restaurants are also open late. We found the city to be lively and fun to walk around with many European style walking streets and big squares.

Le Chemin de la Corniche Walk

The Chemin de la Corniche is a pedestrian promenade that winds along the top of the old city's cliff edge, overlooking the deep valley of the Alzette river and the picturesque lower district of Grund below. Once used as a patrol route to serve the city's defenses, the Chemin de la Corniche is now one of the most popular tourist walking paths in the city. It was fun exploring this area and taking pictures of the old city walls with the river below. From our central location in the old city, this was an easy few blocks away to get to and definitely one of the most scenic parts that is not to be missed!

The Bock Casements

The rocky cliffs of the Bock Casements are said to be the birthplace of Luxembourg, where the first castle was built by Count Siegfried in the 10th century. The large sandstone cliffs that much of the old city of Luxembourg sits upon are filled with 17 km of tunnels, built into the bare rock. Many of the tunnels served as protection and military lookouts housing troops and cannons. Today, you can visit the Bock Casements for 11 EUR per person, where you can walk through the underground tunnels. Only 1 km of the tunnels are open to the public. There are multiple levels of tunnels to visit, which have been expanded and modernized with lighting. Along the way, you can stop at many lookouts to see the river and Grund neighborhood below. In WWII, they were even used as shelters for Luxembourg's residents during bombing raids.

Timed tickets to the Bock Casements make the experience not too crowded. We were able to walk up and buy tickets to get in right away, even on a Saturday in April, but perhaps you would need to book ahead if visiting in the busier summer season.

The Grund District and Old City

Two of the most important parts of the city to make sure you walk through, you can easily cover both during a day in Luxembourg. The Grund District is the lower part of the city that sits on the River Alzette, about 40 meters below the upper portion of the city. Historically, it was more of a working discrict, for those that needed to use the power and water of the river. Today it is a popular location for tourists and nightlife, although it seemed quiet when we were there in the mid afternoon. After visiting the Bock Casements, we made our way down via walking paths, enjoyed the peacful river views and then found a late lunch at one of the outdoor cafes, La Grocerie.

The Old City of Luxembourg was once on of the most fortified cities in Europe, with three complete rings of walls and towers. It was fought over many times by numerous countries but it was declared a neutral zone in 1867 by the Treaty of London. Since then, many of its fortifications and walls have been torn down, but you can still see remnants of it today. The Old City contains the Grand Ducal Palace, which is still the official residence of the Grand Duke. There are two large squares of the town that are host to daily markets and many cafes for relaxing and eating. As you walk around, you will feel a lively and younger energy today in Luxembourg, comparable to many European cities, but with a more walkable feel and less traffic.

Today we had a bit of a drive, roughly 3.5 hours, from Luxembourg City to Bruges, Belgium. We decided to break up the drive with two stops along the way. First, the small but scenic town of Dinant, and then the city center of Brussels. Althought it made for a long-ish day, we were happy we made both of the stops as each offered something unique. We reached Bruges after 5pm, checked into our Boutique B&B, The Townhouse. Right in the middle of town, within walking distance to anything, this cute three story home has been converted into a B&B. Our room was on the top floor and was spacious and comfortable! The hosts go above and beyond and breakfast was delicious.

After checking in, despite being pretty tired, we did a long walk through Bruges, which we found to be spectacularly scenic around every corner. We took a lot of photos during the sunset hours, then got a Belgian waffle topped with dark chocolate, strawberries and whipped cream from Chez Albert waffles and enjoyed it in the popular Market Square. Afterwards, we were still feeling quite full so opted for some Belgian beer at a quaint local bar where they happened to have very entertaining live music.

Dinant

We have to admit, we happened upon this town by looking at the map and seeing pictures of it, trying to make a stop on the way to Brussels. And wow, was it more than impressive! We had such little time here, as we already had a full day, and wished that we had more. Dinant is situated on the Meuse River and has a spectacular cathadral, the Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame, built right up against the rock cliffs. We also quickly realized from all the large saxaphones crossing the bridge that this is also home to Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxaphone! We tried to visit the inside of the church but it was closed for an hour during our exact time there. If you can stop for longer, you can also visit the citadel fortress at the top of the hill either by 400+ steps or their cable car. There is also a free museum inside the home of Adolphe Sax!

Brussels City Center

We only had a few hours to spend in Brussels on our way to Bruges, so we found the closest parking garage to the famous Grand Place square. The Grand Place is not to be missed and is surrounded on all sides by ornate guilded buildings. Around the corner from the Grand Place, you can find the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert which is a glass roofed shopping street dating back to the mid 1800's. You can expect to find a lot of Belgian chocolate shops in this area! Outside of the shopping street, we found one of the many restaurants in the area to sit down and try our first Moules-Frites, or mussels and fries. We ordered 1kg of mussels each plus beer, and tried two different broths, of which we preferred the galic cream broth.

Feeling full, we headed to our last stop in Brussels, the Delirium Brewery Cafe. Founded in the early 1900's and family-owned, Delirium is known for its famous pink elephant logo. Their most popular and well distributed is Delirium Tremens, a higher ABV golden ale known for its drinkability. It doesn't taste as strong as it is. We opted for the 10-beer tasting, to share, with generous portions for 34 EUR, so we could try more than just one. While we definitely had our favorites and least favorites, the tasting was a fun way to sample Delirium beer.

Today we had a full day to explore Bruges, well worth a full day visit. A lot of people seem to come here on a day trip and the town is more crowded during the middle of the day but we found it to be exceptional in the off hours and since we were here during the less busy season, even in the middle of the day it seemed not too crazy. We started off the day walking past the 4 Bruges windmills, then headed back into the middle of town for lunch at De Koetse, a place recommended by our B&B for the best mussels in town. They were indeed superior to the mussels we had yesterday and we enjoyed them with some fresh asparagus soup, homemade bread, and wine. After our stop there, we went on the popular canal boat tour, spent some time at the local De Halve Maan (Half Moon) brewery, then arriving at our prebooked Belfrey tower tickets before having an excellent dinner at Bistro Cristophe, another recommendation from our B&B where we had the beef stew, a fresh Dover sole fish and another spring white asparagus dish.

Bruges Windmills

In the past, there used to be 29 windmills surrounding the town of Bruges, along the ring road circling the city. However, today only 4 remain. We walked over from our B&B to the edge of the main town where you will find a wide walking and biking path that will take you past the 4 windmills. The windmills were once used for things such as grinding grains, spices, and pumping water. We found the walk along the windmills to be worth it, with another peaceful stroll along the river and scenic views of the town.

Bruges Canal Boat Tour

Sometimes called the "Venice of the North", the canals of Bruges wind through the city center and offer a unique perspective on sightseeing in the city. There are a number of points where you can catch the canal boat tour throughout the city but they all end up doing the same route, so just catch whichever one you are nearest to at the time! Tickets cost about 12 EUR per person and once on the boat, you will get to see the sights of Bruges from the water. We recommend doing this tour, which lasts about 30 minutes, and passes by many of the places that we had already walked by but was fun to see them from the boat. Along the way, you will pass under some of the many super low bridges and get to hear about some of the history of the bridges and the city from the boat captain.

Bruges Belfrort

Situated right above the Markt, the central market square, the Belfort tower is not to be missed. We bought our tickets from the kiosk (15 EUR per person) earlier in the day and decided to time it where we would go up almost at sunset, the 2nd to last tickets of the day from 6:40pm-7pm. Once there, you can really stay as long as you would like, making your way up the 300+ steps. There are a few stops along the way to see some small exhibits, which our favorite was the "player piano" style cylinder drum that operates as the mechanism to ring the bells. There is also a large clock that you can see ticking by the seconds.

Once we were at the top, there were excellent views of the city below from all sides. We only had to wait about 7 minutes before the bells began playing for the 7'o'clock hour. It was special to be up there during the hour to see the bells playing the full songs, although loud! There are 47 bells in all, ranging from small to very very large. You can see the wires being pulled by the drum below and the hammers hitting the bells. Definitely ideal to time your tickets with seeing the top of the hour!

After having another delicious breakfast at our B&B, we got in the car for a fairly long drive of about 2 hr 20 min. Our first stop on our way to The Hague, Netherlands, was a small but famous area called Kinderdijk, where you can find a high concentration of windmills along a small river. There are plenty of biking and walking paths to explore the area. We were already behind schedule by the time we stopped for a quick lunch on our bikes, and met a couple who suggested a small town called Schoonhoven, also known as The Silver City. They recommended we stop there, and it sounded interesting, so we stopped on our way and then continued on the The Hague.

The Hague is the third largest city in the Netherlands and has a charming city center that is also home to the Dutch government and the royal family. Another very international city, similar to Luxembourg, you will find people from almost every nationality in the world here. We checked into our hotel t'Goude Hooft, a popular restaurant with a small hotel, right in the heart of the city. There are so many restaurants here, it was hard to choose but we ended up going to a Spanich tapas restaurant called Tapisco. It was perfect, in walking distance, and we shared a variety of tapas before heading back to the hotel.

Kinderdijk Windmills

The Kinderdijk windmills are among the popular tourist stops in southern Netherlands. We learned that 19 windmills were built around this area were mostly in order to pump water out of the two rivers so that the land wouldn't flood. These windmills would pump water out into a reservoir in order to preserve the land and then would put water back into the rivers if it became too low. Today, people still live and function these windmills, and you can see that they have small homes and buildings set up outside the windmills.

To visit this area, you can either walk or rent bikes and see the windmills from the walking / biking paths. Alternatively, you can pay the museum tickets for ~20 EUR per person which includes a boat ride past the windmill and entrance to 1 or 2 of the insides of the mills. We opted for renting bikes which probably cost around the same amount and may have added to our delay in our daily itinerary. Looking back, we feel that paying for the museum ticket, taking the boat out and then walking back may have been enough. Either way, we were glad to have stopped to see these historic windmills along the river.

Schoonhoven "Silver City"

We decided to stop here on a whim from a recommendation of some locals, but ended up being pleased with this small town of Schoonhoven. Known for its silver and gold smiths since the 1600's, this small town is home to a Silver Museum and also the International Silver School. We came in search of a few small bracelets or other keepsakes, and while it was late in the day, we found a few shops that were selling a wide variety of silver jewelery. If we had more time, we had wanted to check out the Silver Museum, but it was already almost their closing time. We learned from the shop that people come here from all around to study and learn about silversmithing, goldsmithing, and watch / clock making. We would recommend Schoonhoven as a quick 2 hour stop if you are driving through the area.

We have to admit, a lot of the reason that we booked this journey at this exact time of year in mid-April was to experience to once in a lifetime tulip and flower fields in full bloom. Well, we are happy to report that they did not dissapoint! Today, our day was fully devoted to seeing the fields, which you can get more details about below. After the fields, we couldn't help but stop by the famous beach area of The Hague, since we were returning to the city anyway. After a quick stop at the beach, (it was a bit windy and off season), we had a very enjoyable dinner at the Blue Blood restaurant in central Hague. The restaurant has a blend of Peruvian and Japanese influcence and we especially enjoyed the ceviche and fresh salmon nigiri. Our last night in The Hague, we prepared for another busy day tomorrow, where we would see a few more small towns on our way to Amsterdam.

Lisse Area - Flower Season

To fully explore the tulips and flower region today, we had prepurchased our tickets at the Keukenhof Gardens, the most famous place to view the flowers, and also pre-rented full day bikes with Rent & Roll. The nice thing about Rent and Roll is that you can park you car there easily on a side street, get your bikes from the small and friendly shop owner, and then be on your way. This avoids the crowds and trying to park and then rent bikes at the gardens. Also, the gardens only offered a 3 hour bike rental, while we were able to get a full day by going to Rent & Roll. We paid 42 EUR for two people for full day bike rentals plus helmets (which we quickly discovered people in the Netherlands don't wear).

 
Keukenhof Garndens is not to be missed if you are visiting the Netherlands during peak flower season - mid-April being the best. Tickets were 21 EUR per person which we booked online in advance for a morning time slot of 9:30am to avoid the most crowds. The flowers were in full bloom and everywhere we looked there were displays of the flowers, making you think about how difficult the planning and cultivation of this garden must be! There is an inside part where you can see a lot of different rare tulips and other flowers that you never would have imagined!

The bike shop provided us with a recommended route and we did almost the whole thing amounting to about 15 miles on the bike. Along the way, you will encounter endless fields of tulips, daffodils, and hyacinth flowers (the best smelling!) where you will feel like this is an unreal scenery. It was hard to capture the immensity of the fields and their beauty with flowers planted in different colors as the rows go on and on.

The Hague

We loved the Hague, it was a big city with a smaller town feel. Very clean and safe and walkable, the Hague also boasts a seaside portion. Our hotel was located in the center part of the city and we could reach so many restaurants and shops within only a 5-10 minute walk. We also stopped at its famous Scheveningen, which is the beach portion of the city. It was a bit of a colder and windy day so we walked out on the pier and admired the beach, imagining it as a major destination for warmer days. All in all, we were happy with our choice to stay for 2 nights in The Hague as our base for exploration.

Today was all about making our way from The Hauge to Amsterdam. In the general area, there is a lot to see and with this being our final day with car, we decided upon Gouda and then the Castle de Haar. If we had extra tine, which we didn't, we would have explored Amersfoort town and more windmills in the north. We had purchased tickets to the Gouda Cheese Experience and happened to be there on a Thursday when they also host their weekly market. After spending our morning in Gouda, we moved on the Castle de Haar, well worth a visit. We spent a few hours exploring the castle interior and its gardens. After that we made our way through traffic to drop off the car at Amsterdam airport. It was quite easy to take the train back into the city from there especially with modern day you can just tap in and out through the gates with your smartphone to pay.

After a short walk from central station, we arrived at the Renaissanice hotel where we would spend our final nights of the trip in Amsterdam. For dinner, we found a great seafood restaurant called The Seafood Bar. We had to wait quite a while for a table but were able to walk around while waiting and see some of the city at night.

Gouda

Gouda turned out to be a really cute and fun place to visit, although tourist on a Thursday when they host their weekly market. We purchased tickets for the Gouda Cheese Experience for 16 EUR per person and it was quite a fun and interactive self guided tour. On the tour, you can complete a quiz which helps you learn about the cows and how cheese is made. Along the way you will learn how many liters of milk a cow produces, how much cheese and milk a typical Dutch person consumes, and how much Gouda cheese is exported around the world! The experience ends with a cheese tasting and helped us figure out which ones we liked better.

The Thursday market was filled with cheese vendors as well as other Dutch food stalls such as the popular stroopwaffles and Dutch pancakes, both of which we had to try. Since we had missed breakfast at our hotel for this early start, the market and cheese tasting filled us up. You can also see many of the large gouda cheese wheels for sale in the market with a touristy display of how they weigh them and carry them off by horse and carriage. We walked around the market and then stopped at one of the many restaurants where we ordered a cheese tasting and beer for our lunch.

Castle de Haar

The original Castle de Haar dates back to the late 14th century, however passed hands and then was destroyed by fire, passed through mutliple owners and then fell into ruins again. The castle you can see today is widely known for its complete restoration in the late 1800's to early 1900's when Etienne Gustave married the wealthy Helene Rothschild. For 20 years, they restored the castle and made it into a highly desirable invitation only September vacation place for the elite and famous.

The interior of the castle is fully furnished from their collections from around the world, now today a museum. We spent a full hour exploring the interior of the castle and then walked around the gardens with its grand canal, wooded area and deer park. Entrance was 21 EUR per person for both the gardens and the castle, and although it seemed pricey, the interior was probably the highlight, and recommended.

We had a super busy day today with several planned museum visits as well as a 2 Star Michelin dinner! We got up early, had a quick breakfast at our hotel lounge and then headed out on a long walk to the Van Gogh Museum. It was pretty far from our hotel, about a 40 min walk, but it allowed us to see more of the city and we had left enough time for it. We spent several hours at the Van Gogh Museum and then headed back on our walk toward the Anne Frank Museum. We grabbed a small snack nearby, which is all we had time for before our ticket reservations. Both museums were super well done and impressive, definitely worth a stop and the planning ahead for timed tickets.

Afterward, we stopped for a quick late lunch at Pizza Beppe which had excellent Neopolitan style pizzas. While we were at lunch we decided to squeeze in a canal boat tour and booked tickets for a 1 hour cruise with drinks and cheese tasting included. After the tour, we returned to the hotel to get ready for our 8pm dinner at Vinkeles, a 2 Star Michelin restaurant. We enjoyed the dinner and wine pairing, but have to admit it was not our favorite and we weren't as impressed as we had been with some of the other Michelin restaurants we've been to, especially for a 2 star. It was still fun to go and have the experience, as the Amsterdam area has so many Michelin starred restaurants to choose from!

Van Gogh Museum

We pre-purchased tickets several weeks in advance for a 9:30am entrance to the Van Gogh Museum. We recently watched the movie Loving Vincent, which is really neat if you haven't seen it. The movie covers some of the life of Vincent and uses 100% animated painted artwork created in the style of Van Gogh. The Van Gogh Museum tied everything together for us with its exceptional audio guide system (a few dollars extra but worth it!) and its well done galleries filled with information. The museum takes you on a path explaining Van Gogh's life, death, and other artists who were influential in his life. It features the personal collections of his late brother's family, and we learned that Van Gogh's nephew was the one to start up the museum.

A few tips on visiting the museum: Get the audio tour. You will spend more time here than you think you will (we were there 2 1/2 hours!). It is helpful to read up on Van Gogh or watch the movie before going, as it made all of his paintings more familiar to us. It was crowded, but you can set your own pace and take your time. Tickets are 25 EUR per person, but kids under 18 are free.

Anne Frank House

You can't go to Amsterdam without paying a visit to the Anne Frank House, now a museum. But first, make sure you plan ahead... Tickets go on sale online 6 weeks before on each Tuesday at 10am Amsterdam time, and it is a MUST that you set your alarm and log in to purchase them as soon as they are released in order to get your desired slot. This meant waking up at 2 am for us and spending a good 45 minutes online after waiting in the long queue, having our credit card denied, and then waiting in an even longer online queue! We finally got tickets for 12:45pm on our desired date (16.60 EUR per person). When you arrive, you will wait in small line as they let people in slowly. Grab your included audio guide and explore the museum at your own pace. Sorry, but no photos allowed inside.

We were inside for a little over an hour, as there are many audio guide stops to listen to. The museum was very well done and took us through the life of Anne and her family, how they came to move to Amsterdam and then the need to go into hiding. You were able to pass into the annex, the back part of the office building and warehouse, hidden behind a swinging bookcase, where the Frank Family lived along with 4 others. You will walk through the bedrooms where the families lived, see their kitchen and soak in the sad history, giving you a deeper appreciation for what Jewish people suffered through during WWII.

Amsterdam Canal Tour

There are SO many canal tours to choose from, it can feel overwhelming! We ended up choosing ours based on the great reviews and it happened to be pretty close to where we were eating lunch. The boat tour with Amsterdam Boat Trips offers a basic or an upgraded experience where beer / wine and a cheese tasting is included. We went for the upgraded experience which cost around 42 Euros per person. Our boat captain and bartender were both so informative, friendly and funny! Our boat wasn't too crowded, and the drinks and cheese tasting was fun to have while admiring the city from the canals. We learned some new things, such as that many homes still feature a beam on the outside upper level that is used with a hook system to hoist larger items such as furniture to the upper floors through the larger windows due to many homes having very narrow staircases.

On our last full day in the Netherlands, we decided to check out another popular town, Haarlem. Close by to Amsterdam, Haarlem is easily accessible by train. We only had to ride 2 stops from the central station and once in Haarlem, the town is very walkable from the train. We spent the afternoon there exploring the town, which you can read about below. Afterward, we rode the train back to Amsterdam where we found a small seafood restaurant called The Good Companion where we enjoyed some fresh oysters, asparagus, fish stew and clams. Afterward, we wandered around the streets, taking in the sights and stopped at a small bar for one last Amsterdam beer before heading back to the hotel.

The next morning, we headed to the airport via the direct train, which didn't take long at all. After a short time in the lounge, we left for Chicago and then on to Denver, able to make it home at a decent time!

Haarlem Saturday Market

If you're in the area on Saturday, we recommend visiting the Haarlem market, located in the Grote Market Square and neighboring streets. There were a lot of food vendors, others with meat and cheese, flowers, and crafts. We decided to try some fried fish fingers with tartar sauce from one of the seafood vendors. There also happened to be a large carvinal going on at the same time in the square, so it was pretty crowded with a lot of people enjoying a weekend day out.

Cathedral of Saint Bavo

Around the corner from the market, the Cathedral of Saint Bavo is a large catholic church that is worth checking out. You have to pay a small entrance fee of 4 EUR per person but they will give you a self guided map of some interesting points to explore around the church. We noticed that the floors of the cathedral were almost 100% made up of large stone slabs, said to be home to graves from the 16-18th century. A 5,000 pipe organ takes up almost an entire side and a fun fact that we learned was that young Mozart actually played on the same organ when he was 10 years old. Just as we were about to leave, the organ came to life and we were able to hear a few songs being played.

Windmill De Adriaan

A popularly photographed sight in Haarlem is the Windmill de Adriaan, which sit along the Spaarne River. It was a short walk from the center of town. Unfortunately, the windmill is undergoing some restoration, so the outside is currently covered by a lot of scaffolding. They were still conducting tours of the inside, so we decided to go check it out. For 7.50 EUR per person, you can go on a guided tour by one of their expert volunteers. Our guide was very entertaining and taught us a lot about windmills in the Netherlands. The tour lasted about 50 minutes.

The original mill was used for many things from cement making, to tobacco snuff making, but burned down completely in 1932. After many years of not being rebuilt, it was finally fully rebuilt and completed in 2002. Today, the mill is functional and is used for producing flour, but not very often. One of the interesting parts of the tour was a map of the Netherlands depicting which parts would be at or under sea level (most of it!), if it were not for the mills. Today, they have a number of high powered pumping stations operating 24/7 pumping water to preserve land in the Netherlands.

After the windmill, we stopped for some craft beer at Jopen Brewery, which is located inside an old renovated church turned into a brewery and restaurant. It was a popular place on a Saturday afternoon and we tried a cheese tasting along with our beer before heading back to the train station.