This past weekend, Marito took a 96 hour liberty and we escaped to Amsterdam. I personally didn't have much desire to got o Amsterdam, especially with a bambino in tow, but I was dying to go see the tulips in full bloom before we PCS back to the states this summer. The window of opportunity to see what Holland is famous for is relatively small. March to mid May. I looked at my calendar and decided to go mid April- that is when all of the websites recommend going, majority of the flowers are in full bloom, versus going sooner and the gardens still being all green or going too late and the tulips have already peaked and are starting to wilt.
As I started to look up flights from Naples, I noticed that Transavia.com was the only airline that flew direct from Naples to Amsterdam. Things may change for next year, you never know. I enjoy the freedom of having a car sometimes, so for this trip I booked us a car for cheap through the website AutoEurope.com. We rented a small Kia for $68 Friday-Monday. I booked our hotel through Crowne Plaza and chose the one beside the airport. It was 89 Euro a night and for that price I know that I am getting a safe hotel, a comfortable bed, and points towards my IHG membership. I've stayed at some not so fabulous places when I used airbnb.com or booking.com and for the price I paid, I knew exactly what I was getting, plus I've become a bit picky now that I have a small child with me. I chose the Crown Plaza closest to the airport because I had a 0640 flight the morning we left, and being close by let us sleep in just a tad bit more, and it was half way between downtown Amsterdam and the Keukenhof Garden.
We left Naples Friday morning at 0940 and arrived in Amsterdam Schiphol sometime after 12 pm, and the first thing we did was grab a coffee from Starbucks at the airport before getting our luggage (I swear I only bee line for Starbucks because we don't have it here in Italy!) After we grabbed our luggage and rental car it was too early to check into the hotel, so we started to drive towards Belgium because why not?! Along the way we stopped at Kinderdijk which is 15 km outside of Rotterdam, pretty close to the Belgium boarder. There we got to walk around 19 windmills, and even go inside one. The one you get to enter shows you how people used to live in the windmills, they have a small (tiny actually) family room, with a little table, fire place and a hole in the wall used for sleeping. Working your way upstairs you see two more sleeping spots, and you crawl into the bed and listen to the noise the windmill makes, lots of swooshes and squeaks and thumps, I imagine sleeping through that could be quite difficult. You get to see how the windmill works, the spinning of the blades, turning gears that rotates a dowel which in turn turns more gears to operate a water wheel. It's fascinating and the windmills are quite beautiful. I was geeking out I was so excited to see them up close and personal. It was rather windy which made it even more awesome to see the windmills operating.
We continued on our way to Belgium with the plan to go to Bruges, but we hit some hideous rush hour traffic. The speed limit drops from 120 to 50 back up and back down for what appears to be no reason (ie no car accidents) but that may be the reason why it does drop to prevent accidents from merging traffic. Either way, it was a nightmare creeping under 50 for quite some time. So instead of going to Bruges or Brussels we stopped just outside of Antwerp, got a Belgium beer and headed back. We could have stayed later but we had our little tike with us that we are trying to keep on a routine bedtime schedule.
Day two- Saturday we slept in (well I was up hours before the other two, couldn't sleep I was so excited to see the tulips!) We drove to The Hague to walk their market (largest market place in Europe with over 500 stalls). The drive was easy, parking was a breeze. We got there around 1015, walked around for an hour, got a croissant and cappuccino and bought baby boy a pair of shoes since he kicked one off and lost it before we got to the airport (we found the missing shoe under his high chair back at home). As we left, the parking garage was getting pretty full, so I recommend going early. If you stay in Amsterdam for an extended period I highly suggest going to getting some fruits and veggies- they had so many! Majority of the stalls are permanent stalls so they are set up like actual shops, with shelves and clothes racks, refrigerators for the food vendors etc. The market is 4 days a week, Mon, Wed, Fri, and Sat 9-5. It was a great side trip and it wasn't packed like I was expecting it to be.
We left The Hague and drove 30 minutes to get to the Keukenhof Garden. I asked Marito to take the scenic route in case we saw tulip fields because I didn't see any from the highway driving to the Hague. About 6 km away from the garden we found the traffic going to it. It took us an hour to drive just over 3 miles (this was around noon time). But we did drive by fields of flowers which is what I wanted. the first field was full of Hyacinthus and when you rolled down the window you could smell their heavenly scent. I wanted to bottle it up and turn it into my own candle brand. It smelled so damned good! And the rows of flowers just looked astonishing. I was happier than a dog with a tennis ball.
We finally got to park and entered the gardens, it was crowded but not as bad as I had expected. For some reason, people are much more mindful about personal space when you're not in Italy. The flowers were in full bloom, a handful hadn't blossomed yet, and a handful had already peaked the were cut back. I learned that these flowers and fields are not grown for cut flowers but for growing bulbs. After the flowers have peaked their blooms are cut off and after the leaves wilt and yellow the bulbs are harvest for next year. I was so in love with the gorgeous array of flowers that I planned on buying bulbs from the Garden to be delivered to me next year. In order to purchase them you need to visit an information desk, select a package and they will be delivered to you the following autumn. The packages were a deal, but I wanted particular flowers so I'm going to order from a website the Keukenhof Gardens recommend.
At the gardens there is a small petting zoo, with a handful of goats, pot bellied pigs, hens, roosters, bunnies and peacocks. It was a nice break to let baby boy out of his stroller and walk around. There is also a couple of playgrounds for the kids. They have a large one that was full of kids and fun obstacle courses. There is also a smaller kids playground but we didn't come across it. The park offers free wifi in their buildings, and they have a handful of places to eat- I believe each place serves different types of food. There is also stands to purchase food, like waffles! I took a bunch of pictures of the flowers and I normally don't take pictures of nature because I scrapbook picture with people in them, but I wasn't the only person taking pictures of the flowers, seems like everyone was! They're gorgeous, its hard to resist! Besides I want references for planting my flower garden this fall.
After the garden we headed back to the hotel, dropped off the car and took the train just down the street from Hoofdorp to Amsterdam Central. The train was 20 minutes and four stops away, it cost us 22 Euros for two adults round trip. From the central train station we just walked around, we came up to a carnival and Marito found a German food stand, so he got a Bratwurst and I got my Curry wurst (probably our last ones in Europe). We stopped at random pubs to get a drink and move on to the next. having baby boy with me I was pretty picky on which pubs we were entering. I didn't want crowded or standing room only, but we found quite a few places and no one gave us dirty looks. I personally don't think a child belongs at a bar, but this was the only time we would be in Amsterdam and Martio wanted to try an assortment of beer he doesn't get to try back home. It worked out and baby boy ended up getting some attention from a Bachelorette party, he was the star of the show. It kept him happy and we got to drink our drinks. After too much attention from the bride to be we finished our drinks and bailed only to go next door. We called it a night rather early, Amsterdam just isn't the place to be for a child late a night- SO many bachelor and bachelorette parties, and of course the night scene.
Day three- Sunday was our last full day in The Netherlands, we decided to drive downtown instead of relying on the train. We drove to the Heineken Experience, parked next door (2.50 Euro for 30 minutes of parking- expensive!) The brewery was really nice, it reminded me a lot of the Guinness Brewery in Dublin. We walked through a silo, we got to taste and smell their ingredients (tasted hopps, smelled barley), then we walked in to the room where the brewing takes place, where the mash is made and we even got to sample the wort which is the beer before yeast is added to eat the sugars and produce alcohol. The brewery even had stations where you can stir the mash (actual warm mash) and even ground up the hopps. The following room is a horse stable which was under construction until the end of April so we didn't get to see the horses. Next up was a 4D movie, you get shrunk down and become the brew, from the beginning all the way to bottling and winding up at a party. be careful, there is a water mister in the middle of the room so you might get damp. Following the movie is the tasting bar, where they teach you how to smell and drink a beer. The last half of the tour holds a lot of interactive games- definitely targeting the younger crowd. At the very end is the Heineken bar, you have buttons on your entrance bracelet that you cash in for a beer. One button for a 25ml beer or 2 buttons for an Extra Cold 35ml beer. After you finish your beers you go through a turnstile and wind up in the merchandise shop. There you can pick up a bottle of Heineken with your name on it (you place your order in the middle of the tour in a bottling and labeling room). For only 6.50 Euro it makes a great gift! Though we are very partial to the Guinness Brewery, the Heineken Experience was a great stop! We thoroughly enjoyed it.
Next up we drove to the Anne Frank house, found street parking and walked to the building. The line was ridiculously long as it was in the middle of the day, so we skipped it. It wasn't something I was dying to see, I was in Holland strictly for Tulips and windmills and whatever else we decided to do. We played around with the idea of doing a Canal Cruise, but with all of the walking and driving we were doing in Amsterdam we figured we've seen what we would on the boats. Just so you know, driving in Amsterdam is not the easiest, bikes have the right away and boy are there a bunch of them! Tourists also crowd the streets, and crossing intersections is a bit of a task with all of the bikes ruling the road. We drove close to the Red Light district and parked- 20 Euros for 3 hours!! We spent the time grabbing a bite to eat here and there, and perusing the Red Light District. We walked through the Red Light District in the early afternoon, another place that a baby really doesn't belong, especially at night time. We witnessed a few call girls in the windows, walked past a couple of guys smoking pot on their balcony, on the other side of the canal was the Marijuana Museum. It was definitely entertaining to walk through but that's all we did and wanted to do. We finished up our time in Amsterdam and made our way back to the hotel, packed up and headed to bed. We had an early flight in the morning.
Monday morning came and I had the realization the day before that we are leaving Amsterdam on 4/20 (National Pot Smoking Day) it didn't occur to me until we were already there that it wasn't the ideal day to be in Amsterdam. With that said, you could smell the smoke lingering in the air, you could easily pick people out of the crowd as they walked past you because they smelled of Marijuana, but it wasn't everywhere like I had imagined it. Sure many people go to Amsterdam to smoke legal weed, but there are plenty of people like Marito and myself who don't. It was interesting to walk into a head shop and get an up close and personal look at pot- I've never touched the stuff before in my life. It was educational to say the least. Since 4/20 was National Pot Smoking day, it was a good day to head back to Naples and not worry about the exposure baby boy was getting. Fortunately we were never around the smell or smoke for more than a couple seconds. There were a few people smoking out in the open, but I think most of it was contained to coffee shops.
Over all the trip was a blast, the city was fun (more fun without a kid in tow) and I loved loved loved the road trips to Kinderdijk and Keukenhof. Definitely a must see and do in April!
