You are going to have a wonderful time! We just traveled to the Netherlands and France this past June with our kids (ages 8 and 10 at the time). You are right that it would be easier to travel without them, but I love the memories we created together and the kids still talk about our experiences at least once a week. It made an indelible impression on them. My youngest claims that he is now Dutch! (" mom, there is no bad weather just bad clothes, so I am going to ride my bike in the rain") If you click on my name, you will see the travel reports I wrote about our experiences in the Netherlands and France and they might help you get some ideas. My boys loved the Corrie Ten Boom House, but they were slightly younger than your kids. One idea is that you could go from Amsterdam, stop in Arnhem, NE for the amazing open air museum and Kroller Muller Museum on your way to Germany. Or you could do our trip in reverse and go from Amsterdam to Paris by train and then spend time there. You can't really lose. Ask your kids what they are interested in. Mine love military history so we had to see the D-Day beaches. Our trip was not perhaps the most "efficient" but was saw what we were interested in and that makes all the difference when traveling with young people. Examples of this: My husband and boys love comic books so we found an amazing comic book shop in Haarlem and not only bought some Dutch comics but had amazing conversations with the patrons about the differences between European and American comics and our favorite series. We also love sports and we happened to be in Europe during the Euros. We didn't get tickets to the games, but we certainly went to some local pubs to watch games with the locals while we were in France. Going to Europe is amazing because you can see/ experience things that are totally unique but it is great for young people to see/experience things they already love through the lens of a different culture. So if anyone in your family loves cars you have to go to Germany and see the Porsche and Mercedes museums!