Can You Stand Another Amsterdam Trip Report?

Bikes can be rented to ride on the roads around Keukenhof to see the tulip fields. It was important to Chuck to do this. This was my first bike ride in about 30 years, and I was a bit nervous about it, especially after some guy fell over on his rented bike into a motorcycle at an intersection. But… whadya know… you really can just hop on a bike and the muscle memory from childhood and adolescence is still there. The young adult happened to call from the US while I was stopped to look at tulip fields. “What are you doing, Dave?” “I’m riding a bike and looking at tulip fields.” Long pause. “I didn’t know Dave could ride a bike.”

- Leiden & The Hague

Leiden was the home of the Pilgrims before they came to the New World. We arrived at Leiden just before 8 am and headed to the TI (opens at 8) to buy the Pilgrim Walking Route booklet for €6,95. We walked the route, which also included more general sites related to Leiden, too. For example, what Dutch artist was a boy running around Leiden at the time the Pilgrims were pilgriming there? Little Remy! There are a good number of Rembrandt sights in Leiden – so many, that the TI also offers a Rembrandt Walking Route booklet (along with booklets with other walking themes).

After our self-guided walking tour, we visited the weekly Wednesday market, full of produce, meat, and other goods. Next, we hit the De Valk Windmill Museum, set within a tower mill dating back to 1743; we watched a video, explored exhibitions, and climbed to the top of the windmill. I liked the museum quite a bit and learned more about windmills here than at Kinderdijk, to be honest. We had a quick lunch at Cafe Pieter at Pieterskerk, and we then did a 1-hour tour at the Pilgrim Museum, which includes a room set up in the style of a typical one-room Pilgrim home in 17th century Leiden including a 17th century wooden baby walker with wheels. This was another very good activity. Leiden is quite gorgeous and quite clean. I can easily see why people on this forum recommend it as an alternative base for visiting Amsterdam/the Netherlands.

The Hague is a short 10-minute train ride from Leiden, so we headed there mid-afternoon for the purpose of visiting the Mauritshuis and viewing its Vermeer paintings (among other things). The Girl with a Pearl Earring is indeed something special. My favorite masterpiece of the trip! After dinner, it was back to Amsterdam.

- Rotterdam & Kinderdijk

We had another early start on the day we headed to Rotterdam, where we would catch the Waterbus to Kinderdijk. We arrived well before our Waterbus departure time so that we could take a leisurely walk from Rotterdam Centraal to the dock. The ferry ride was pleasant enough; the ferry passes Johan’s Ark, an exact replica of Noah’s ark with a giraffe standing at its bow; it was built by a guy named Johan; apparently, it’s up for sale if you are in the market for an ark.

Kinderdijk has also been mentioned quite a bit on this forum. To review, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site that has 19 windmills built between 1738 and 1740. Two of them are museums that may be entered. There is a film that introduces the site near the entrance. It’s definitely a visual learner film – big on animation, light on info, which is required of a film whose target audience is people of all languages. The film at De Falk in Leiden had so much more info, but only in Dutch or English and delivered in a much less engaging manner. Walking among the windmills and the boat ride are nice activities, though the boat ride definitely was not a “must do.”

We returned to Rotterdam via the Waterbus. Once back in Rotterdam, we took public transportation to Delfshaven, a borough of Rotterdam that “survived Germany’s 1940 bombing of the city” and has “a well-preserved 17th-century canal-side architecture” (credit to Wikipedia). And it has… Pilgrim history! The Pilgrim Fathers Church stands along a canal at the site where the Pilgrims boarded that famous ship… the Speedwell… which was supposed to meet up with the Mayflower in England and sail to the New World with the Mayflower… but it repeatedly sprang leaks and had to be left behind in England. One of the things I LOVE to do when I travel? Stand where history happened. It was very cool to stand where the Pilgrims embarked a ship for their journey to the New World.

The Houses

Corrie Ten Boom House tour. Great. Awesome. Wonderful. Highlight of the trip. The Ten Boom family saved over 800 people during WWII, including Jewish people and members of the Dutch Resistance. Corrie, her father Casper, and her sister Betsy are among Yad Vashem’s “Righteous Among the Nations.” Get those tickets at least 4-6 months in advance; you can get them up to a year in advance now.

Anne Frank House. We could only get tickets to walk through the house with the audio guide; a website malfunction during the brief moment when tickets for the visit + talk became available knocked us out of that (though I had done the talk about a decade ago). Both Chuck and I had re-read The Diary of Anne Frank before the trip. A poignant stop.

Storytime

Dave is an obsessive planner. For our visit to Haarlem to see the Corrie Ten Boom House, I found a handful of Jewish sites to visit before the 10 am tour. I entered them on the itinerary during the planning stage. But I failed to save the itinerary. So I had to research them again.

On the day of our Haarlem visit, Chuck and I started our journey early so we could see these sights. On the train, though, we met a fellow traveler from the US who was making her first international trip at the age of 75 or 80; the widow of 5 years told us she had no one with whom to travel because her sister lived paycheck to paycheck. She had done a cruise in Norway to explore her Norwegian roots and was now spending a couple of days in Amsterdam because she wanted to see the Corrie Ten Boom House. She had missed the window to get a ticket for an inside tour, but she had found a walking tour about WWII and the Ten Boom family. When we got off the train, she had trouble figuring out the tap to pay system to exit the platform, and it soon became clear she had no idea how to get to the meeting point for her tour. We tried to show her how to use Google Maps (which she had on her phone and had used for driving in the past), but it was also clear this strategy was not going to get her to the meeting spot.

So… Dave said, “How about we walk you there?” As we walked, she told us how important Corrie Ten Boom was to her. I of course offered her my ticket for the inside tour of the house because I will almost definitely return to Haarlem to visit my friends who live there. She declined the offer multiple times. As we continued our walk, she also told us that she had prayed that God would send her someone to get her to the meeting point of her tour. She knew she didn’t have the skill set to get herself there but had hopped on the train in Amsterdam, trusting in God’s provision for assistance. For anyone who has read any of Corrie Ten Boom’s books, that was a very Corrie Ten Boom thing to do.

We got the lady to her meeting point with only enough time to double time it to the Corrie Ten Boom House for our tour. There was no time for the well-researched Jewish sites. I would argue though, that the ultimate purpose of the few hours put into researching Jewish sites in Haarlem a few months prior to the trip was not so much preparation for seeing Jewish sites as it was preparation for being on an early train so that we could be the answer to the prayer of a full-of-faith solo senior traveler. Sights are cool; people are cooler.

The Art Museums

Van Gogh Museum. We jumped in the line outside the museum at about 8:45 am for our 9:00 opening time tickets. We used the audio guide, which I thought was quite good. The museum was very busy. I found it interesting that Van Gogh was a lay pastor in a mine for a few months in his early 20’s. It was also interesting that the unfortunate ear was wrapped in a newspaper and given to a prostitute, prompting a call to the local authorities.

Mauritshuis. The museum has a nice collection. We used the museum’s app to negotiate the museum and to learn about its art; this worked out well.

Rijksmuseum. It’s pretty cool that The Nightwatchman is still on display as it undergoes restoration. We used a Context Travel guide for a 2.5-hour tour. It was good. But expensive. I wish I had noticed the €7,50 guided tours offered by the museum on its website. That would have been much more economical. As a side note, the guide had been to a play the previous night about life in the Netherlands during an invasion of the country by a Trump-led USA. She expressed genuine concern about that possibility.

Dutch Resistance Museum. An excellent museum that chronicles the people and activities of the Dutch resistance but, more broadly, also does a great job telling the story of the Dutch experience of WWII. It is well worth a stop.

The Performances

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra #1. A matinee. The Concertgebouw is a grand place to see a performance. I was particularly impressed by the wrought-iron banisters for the stairs that ascend to the balcony that have Cupid-like creatures playing musical instruments embedded in them. The performance was a bit of a “must” for me coming off my trip to Czechia last fall. It included pieces by the Czech composers Smetana and Dvořák, along with a new piece by a Dutch composer. Excellent.

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra #2. This was a 9 pm performance in the “Essentials” series. As best as I can tell, the series seems to be kind of like “Intro to Orchestral Music” aimed at young adults with an entertaining, multimedia pre-performance talk in Dutch that concluded with an interview with the conductor in English, including the question, “Is the conductor or the pianist in charge during a piano concerto?” The single piece performed at the event was Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 5, “Emperor.” Another excellent performance.

The Miscellany

De Gooyer Windmill. Chuck was dying to see a windmill on our arrival day, so we caught an Uber from the hotel to the east side of Amsterdam to see this one. It dates to 1725 and has been at its current site atop its current stone base since 1814. It’s cool.

Canal Cruise. Bow’s Journeys receives high praise on the Forum. This was by far the least favorite activity of the trip for Chuck and me. We did not get young, amiable Captain Jack; we got Captain Fokko who spent rather extended amounts of time discussing the Red Light District, drug use, and alcohol. He painted a far more cliched picture of Amsterdam than the large-group canal ride I took a decade ago that presented a much more textured view of the city. In fairness, our impression was likely impacted by the juxtaposition of our daytime house visits where we reflected on Holocaust tragedy and principled acts of bravery worthy of Yad Vashem recognition against a canal tour that was primarily about self-indulgence.

The Restaurants

Al Dente Pasta Lab. This 6-8 table restaurant (and Italian grocery) serves wonderful homemade pasta with homemade sauces. It’s owned by a husband-wife team from Rome. I had rigatoni with eggplant and tomato sauce, topped with grated ricotta cheese. Spectacular. And who knew ricotta exists in a grateable form? My favorite photo of the trip was here -- Chuck and I relaxing with a post-meal Americano at a table in front of a huge store-front window that looks out on the De Gooyer windmill and about 30 bikes parked on the other side of the window. A very Dutch photo.

Takumi Tonkotsu Rivierenbuurt. After the first Concertgebouw performance, we met up with “the young adult’s” cousin and her husband who live in the area. They chose the restaurant, a ramen shop they like that happens to be part of a European chain. It was along the path from the Concertgebouw back to the hotel. It was a very nice meal with great company. Once again, sights are cool; people are cooler.

Restaurant Heemelrijck (De Pjip). This ended up being our Dutch dining experience. The usual RS recommendations like The Pantry were all booked up 2-3 weeks prior to our trip. The dining room here has dark paneling and a big model ship on one of the walls. It felt very Dutch, but there were definitely tourists there. The restaurant was very busy, but our server Rafy was great – friendly, hard-working, good energy. We had a proper Stamppot and the establishment’s very own Flipping [female dog] for dessert… think French toast with cinnamon ice cream and sugar on top. We both enjoyed our meal here. We stopped in another day for lunch because Chuck wanted to try the pea soup he had seen on the dinner menu. Sadly, it was not on the lunch menu, but I’ve learned to ask for something I want even if I expect a “no” because “the worst they can do is say ‘no.’” They said yes. It took a long time to get it with only a few people in the restaurant for lunch, so they apparently made it fresh for us instead of just microwaving it.

Fa. H. Wegewijs. A hole-in-the-wall bread, cheese, and sandwich shop just inside the Jordaan near the Anne Frank House. I found a recommendation for it from a local who said, “It’s where the locals go!” The shop offers warm and cold sandwiches, but one can also get a small cheese platter with samples of a variety of cheeses. This was our Amsterdam cheese tasting, and we also got a sandwich. The guy at the counter told us what each cheese was and instructed us in the order to eat them. No seating inside – there was a table with 4 seats out front that we shared with a couple of young Dutch women.

The Seafood Bar (Damrak). Fresh seafood prepared well and served in a very large, very atmospheric, very loud dining room.

Balkan Grill (The Hague). This dark restaurant in an old automobile garage provides quite good Balkan food. Friendly service. We enjoyed our meal here quite a bit.

Omahe Indonesische Brasserie. Indonesian restaurant without rijsttafel. The ginger lime “house made refreshment” was indeed rather refreshing. The menu “reimagines beloved classics with a modern touch… every dish honors its roots while embracing something new.” Food was great, including dessert. The dadar gulung kelapa, green pandan crepes rolled with sweet coconut and palm sugar (“Indonesia’s all-time favorite dessert”) was one of the most unique desserts I have had.

D&A Humus Bistro (Zuid). Israeli/Middle Eastern food in a hip but reasonably small restaurant. We had the tasting menu, and it was excellent. The fresh ginger lemonade was lovely.

Conclusion

Chuck and I enjoyed our time in Amsterdam. Nearly every activity was much enjoyed, and we had fun eating a variety of foods. The tulips were gorgeous and more than justified our April trip. Next up for Dave? A trip to North Dakota in August with Chuck to visit the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library (opens July 4) and then a solo trip to Brno and Olomouc, Czechia, in October for Janáček Brno 2026, a festival celebrating the work of composer Leoš Janáček.

Great trip report! Loved your story about helping the lady find her walking tour!

Well, the answer to the question you posed in your title is an enthusiastic yes!! For a Dave-written trip report, always yes.

You packed so much into your days ! That was evident from your rough itinerary list. So lovely to get to go to Keukenhof and what a great tip about the bus stopping right outside the Motel One. I do remember how far out the Franks' Amsterdam apartment looked when they showed it during the talk before the visit of the Anne Frank House (I've been privileged to go twice in the last nine months).

And what an amazing tale about running into the lady who had prayed for help to get to her tour. Truly such a beautiful moment,

And the travel gods smiting Chuck by holding on to his bags for FOUR DAYS !!!!!

I did the Bow's Journey ride in August and found it just okay (but not anywhere as horrible as the experience you had, for sure). I did a a Those Dam Boat Guys tour in February and absolutely loved it, our skipper was fantastic.

And how cool that The Young Adult's cousin lives there and you saw her.

And thank you for sharing your experience with EES. It sounds like Schiphol leadership is doing its best to make the experience tolerable for folks.

A true pleasure to read your report, as always. Not only do you do fun things and have an exquisite ability to notice what is going on around you, you are also an excellent writer, thank you for writing up a trip report to share !

Kim pretty much summed it up:

Well, the answer to the question you posed in your title is an
enthusiastic yes!! For a Dave-written trip report, always yes!

You write such wonderful reports, Dave! Keep traveling so we can enjoy many more of them!
The De Gooyer windmill? That mention bought back a great memory of enjoying flights of beer at Brouwerij 't IJ right next door. The sunny patio was full of lively - and friendly - locals and tourists alike and was one of most fun things we did on that trip.

marvelous - as always

Thank you!! I will be re reading this a few times this week and fine tuning my itinerary. Love the story about the lady in Haarlem. Have you read Corrie's book Tramp for the Lord? I just did recently. My grandma heard her talk at my grandma's church many years ago.

Now I'm thinking if I should cancel my bow's journeys tickets. With 16 year old.

Great trip! Leiden will have to be on a future list.

Thank you, Dave, for another wonderful trip report.

If you have further interest in the life of Van Gogh you may enjoy reading "The Secret Life of Sunflowers" by Marta Molnar.

I look forward to you next trip report.

Traveler Girl

Dave, I loved your trip report, and thanks for not being put off by all the other Amsterdam trip reports out there. They're all worth reading, but this one definitely was. You certainly had a productive but not overwhelming itinerary plan. I remember the Dutch Resistance Museum from my visit there in 2018 and loved it. In fact, I've been to a number of Resistance Museums over the years, and I honestly think that's the best one that I've seen. I was really impressed by it.

I also liked the tip about Motel One Amsterdam. I stayed at the Motel One in Berlin and really liked it there and would not be averse to staying at this one. It looks like a good location.

And I'm so glad you enjoyed Leiden. It's really one of my favorite places that I've been to. Such a charming place to just meander and spend some time in.

But I especially enjoyed the story of the woman making her way to the Corrie Ten Boom tour. That was very heartwarming, and so nice of you and Chuck to walk her there. That story just made my day. Thanks for such a well-written and lovely report!

It's always a "YES" to your trip reports. They are always a joy to read.

Sights are cool; people are cooler.

Isn't that the truth! Thank you for another joyful report.

Another yes as to we need all the TR's Forum members can contribute. And of course there are many posted now, it's tulip season. The TR's offer valuable current info, as the RS Guide Books are dated from the time they are printed. And if travelers review all the recent TR's of the Netherlands, they will have a great background from which to plan a trip. Thanks for posting!

Iken56... Thanks! It's always nice to get positive feedback, and I'm glad you liked the story about helping the lady find her walking tour!

Kim... I always enjoy reading your thoughtful replies! I'm glad I'm not the only one that was not blown away by my Bow's Journey experience. "Horrible" might be a bit too strong of a term; that would imply a 1 out of 5 experience. I would give it a good strong 2 out of 5 🙂. And... I do think AMS is trying to do the best it can with the new entry system. Thanks again for the kind words.

Kate... Thanks for the kind words. The area around the De Gooyer windmill does have a very nice vibe. It's a good mixture of locals and tourists... a better mix than the central district! In researching the trip, I saw a lot of good comments regarding the brewery there. We walked by, and it looked like people were enjoying themselves.

Nigel... Thanks!

pbscd... I read Tramp for the Lord before the trip, along with The Hiding Place. I'm reading In My Father's House now; it tells about Corrie's upbringing and gives more detail about her life before the war. It's a great read! I purchased it in the bookstore at the Ten Boom House. Your grandma was blessed to hear Corrie speak. As for Bow's Journey, I think it's highly dependent on who the captain is; they have about 8, I think, who do the tour. From my experience, though, I can only recommend against doing it.

travelergirl... Thanks for the recommendation! I'm actually very interested in reading about his life and have wanted to find a biography. Your help is much appreciated.

(Responses for the other comments will be forthcoming, but it's time to take my mom to Mother's Day Lunch!)

Excellent, excellent trip report. Please never stop traveling and telling us about it!

Love this report Dave…..we had an incredible trip to Amsterdam/Leiden/Brugge/Bastogne/Brussels last year and I love reading other reports to see if people had as good a time as we did…..why I am surprised I do not know but it turned out it be one of our best int’l trips EVER. Have to add another amazing Corrie Ten Boom story to yours…my hubby is a retired Pres. pastor and we have admired CTBoom for years…..have so much respect for her and the life she lived. Last year we were on the house tour in Haarlem….we stopped in one of the bedrooms and began to notice a photograph on the wall from October, 1975. It was taken at a Billy Graham crusade in my hometown of Jackson, Mississippi. My father was on the committee that brought BGrahm to Jackson and because he was a contractor he built the stage CTBoom was standing on at the podium in the picture. My husband and I were there behind her in the crusade choir. The platform was skirted by my mom with hundreds of “Billy Graham blue” duck cloth….mom faithfully skirted and staple-gunned the cloth to the tremendous platform. After the crusade Mom had so much cloth left over that our very first dust ruffle for our bed was made from the “Billy Graham blue” cloth!…and there the photo was hanging in Haarlem, Netherlands! The story of your friend’s answered prayer is no surprise to me….happens all of the time to us as we travel. God is good.

Dave, I’m adding another enthusiastic yes to another Amsterdam trip report! I appreciated your great writing and helpful details. I was interested in your experiences at the windmills and with Bow’s journeys, as well as all of the other sights you visited.

I’m glad you had such a great trip. I’m going to go back and reread some of your other reports!

Re: Van Gogh , in the Starry Night the church is the only unlit building due to his experience being rejected from his church, I believe. I've read a lot of artists' biographies to my kids as part of our school (with picture studies).

Thanks again for the report! Happy mother's Day to your mom!

Mardee... Thanks for the kind comments. The Dutch Resistance Museum had a major renovation with a complete redesign of the permanent exhibit in 2022 (the museum was closed for 6-7 months for this). So, you may find it worth a return visit if you are in Amsterdam again. Leiden was great! I liked it a lot and would strongly consider staying there during a future trip to the Netherlands.

Ginger... I appreciate the kind words and your frequent comments on my trip reports 🙂

CL... That's my travel motto! I stole it from a baseball radio talk show. People would call in to bemoan their team trading off prospects for well-established players. The host would always say, "Prospects are cool; championships are cooler." I made a couple of changes to get my travel motto. I do try to keep the tone of the trip reports in the joyful direction. Except one trip report. Seven years ago, I wrote two trip reports for a trip that had a couple of challenges. One was written in my normal voice; one was written in a tongue-in-cheek, angry "one hit wonder" voice ("one hit wonder" is my term for posts that are a member's ONLY post and that complain angrily about a product, place, or government agency).

Pat... I appreciate your thoughts. There is indeed a lot of information in all of these trip reports... each with its own take on the sights and activities.

Luv2Travel... Thanks for the very kind words! I plan to travel as long as I am able...

Jane... Thanks for the story. I love reading stuff like that. It's very cool that you had that experience. Yes, things like our Haarlem experience do indeed happen all the time in travel. And the traditional response to your final sentence... All the time.

Barbara N -- Thanks for your very kind comments. I have to admit I occasionally go back and re-read my old trip reports. I post the reports to share my experience and hopefully to help others. But it's kind of nice to have a record of my trips and to be able to go back and relive them a bit, too.

The Dutch Resistance Museum had a major renovation with a complete redesign of the permanent exhibit in 2022 (the museum was closed for 6-7 months for this). So, you may find it worth a return visit if you are in Amsterdam again.

Thanks for that information, Dave! I would definitely like to visit the museum again when I go back. I'm thinking about returning with my grandkids in a few years, as I think that they would love the Netherlands and that whole area.

I'm thinking about returning with my grandkids in a few years, as I
think that they would love the Netherlands and that whole area.

Perhaps the Dutch Resistance Museum had this pre-renovation, but there is a whole children's area of the museum.

We met a school group that was standing outside the museum after their visit when we arrived at the museum. A teacher was talking to a student (maybe around 10 or 12 years old). The teacher was standing with arms bent at the elbows and his forearms and hands turned upwards in front of him. As he talked, he made a gesture with hands going up and down. The kid smiled enormously, made the same movements with his arms, and said, "zes zeven." Yes, six-seven appears to be a thing in the Netherlands.

Dave, I also reread my trip reports from time to time. I enjoy writing them and they complement my photo books to evoke happy memories of my trips.

She smelled you;” we both laughed and laughed and laughed.

I like that this TR was unique in that it was two guys travelling. I won't speak for everybody, but for me, there is definitely a different vibe travelling with a friend instead of my wife. I love her dearly but there wouldn't have been much humour or fun by day 4 if her clothes had gone missing. In fact, there isn't much humour when she catches me on day 2 with the same underwear. Trips with my friend haven't gone beyond following the Blue Jays around different cities and I doubt our wives would even consider a European adventure without them, but I know that while we may see the same sites as we would with our wives, the experience would be from a totally different perspective. I hope that makes sense.

Thanks for reminding me why I love this forum so much.......I can't wipe the smile off my face! The senior traveller story and all the connected responses made my day.

In terms of "...another Amsterdam trip report......": my sister and I do a European trip together about every 2 years (it started as an every 4 years thing, but we are up to every 2 years now and as far as we are concerned, every year is starting to look pretty good!), interspersed with trips with our own husbands and kids. After reading your report and getting a sense of your dynamic together, I'm going to think of us as the female version of Dave and Chuck. from here on in (except that we are both hard core carry-on baggage only travellers and much of our pre-trip discussions involve what to and what not to pack). Anyway, we are off to Italy in October but I am always thinking/planning at least one trip ahead and the Netherlands & Belgium have been percolating in my mind for some time. All the recent trip reports (which have been excellent and well-appreciated) feel like a sign.

Thanks again....can't wait for your next trip!

Wow! quite a lengthy report. Good for you ;)
We were recently in Amsterdam, as well. We were there April 15-19. Just like you we took a canal ride with Bow's Journeys. Ours was April 18 and it was one of our absolute favorite experiences while there! We got lucky and were the only 2 people on the boat. Our captain was Fonz and he was great. It was also my husband's birthday which made the experience all the more special. We highly recommend Bow's. The boat, the Sophie, was electric and a perfectly restored 1926 beauty. Sorry you didn't enjoy your ride. Sounds like the Captain makes a huge difference. Our guy focused on historic landmarks, history of the area and the logistics of so many boats on the canals giving tours:)

Dave, add me to the list of those who will never tire of your trip reports! Really enjoyed the young adult phone call moment being included as I do so love to read of your travels together.

Allan... Your comment makes total sense. I've never been married, but I do trips with two people my age -- one is female, one is male. The dynamics are definitely different on those two trips.

Sue... I'm glad you enjoyed the trip report. Happy travels with your sister in Italy this fall and in the future! I'm always thinking a trip (or two) ahead, too!

themoonte4s... "Our guy focused on historic landmarks, history of the area and the logistics of so many boats on the canals giving tours:)". I would have loved to have had your experience. It's hard for me to recommend Bow's Journey, though, when my captain is on staff... it's a little bit of Dutch Roulette, no?

acher... Thanks for the kind words. Speaking of different dynamics with travel buddies... travel with the young adult is a very different dynamic from traveling with my peers -- it's a lot of fun in a different way!

Dave, I almost skipped reading this trip report because I am not a huge Amsterdam fan, but then I saw it was a Dave trip report. Your story about the woman who prayed for someone to help her made my day! Ditto your response "all the time." You have a gift for writing and I thank you for sharing.

I will never tire of reading Amsterdam trip reports!! Also, that French toast/cinnamon ice cream dessert may or may not have me looking up flights :) Sounds like such a great trip!

Katheryne... Thanks for your kind words. God bless you.

MaggieD... It was a great tip! The french toast thing is unique to that restaurant, I think. Or at least they created it.

I cancelled the Bow's Journeys tickets easily yesterday morning. I think we'll have a leisurely walk that evening instead.

Where's your next adventure?

Dave, great trip report. You and Chuck had some wonderful experiences. Amsterdam and the Netherlands have been yo-yoing on my list. You've nudged it up a few spots. Thanks for sharing.

I just have to chime in and say thank you for your trip report. You are a wonderful writer and observer of details.

I loved reading about your journey. I so enjoyed Amsterdam in February when I was there. I’m envious of your 2 concerts and I wish I had thought to see if that would have been possible for me. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for your wonderful trip report. There is a lot to learn from your adventures, but my biggest takeaway is “Sights are cool; people are cooler.” Words to live by.

pbscd... Kim has a recommendation above for a cruise that she very much enjoyed, so maybe that would be an option? I think walking around is a perfectly fine option, too. My next journeys:

• Chuck and I had been to all the US Presidential Libraries/Museums as of March, but the Obama Library opened in Chicago in April, and the Theodore Roosevelt one opens in North Dakota on July 4. We are going to North Dakota for the TR Library and some hiking in August (hope to hit the Obama Library this winter when hotel prices are lower)
• Solo trip to Brno in the Czech Republic in October to explore Brno and to attend some performances associated with Janáček Brno 2026, a music festival that celebrates Moravian composer Leoš Janáček.

jeanm... Chuck and I definitely enjoyed our time in the Netherlands. I would suggest going during tulip time if you can... the tulips are gorgeous!

Katiecem... Thank you for the kind words. I enjoy writing about my trips! The reports have definitely evolved over the years. My early ones? Dry and boring. About 8 years ago, I read a thread on the Forum about what people liked in trip reports. So, I started playing with my style a bit, moving from "I did this and then I did this and then I did this" to more story-based trip reports. The first trip report in this form was built around a very interesting experience -- a 4 am kiss from a drunk man on Krakow's main square as I waited for a driver to take me to the airport.

Lyndash... Thanks for your kind words, too! I'm glad you enjoyed your February trip to Amsterdam. I much enjoy classical music and opera. Whenever I go to a city, I usually check the major classical music and opera venues to see if there is a performance that works into my schedule. If you ever go to Prague, it has amazing performance halls and orchestras.

Andrea... I'm glad you enjoyed the report. The "sights are cool, people are cooler" statement distills my travel philosophy into a six-word motto.