The fourth installment of our summer 2023 European adventures.

On a Tuesday morning, C and I and I headed to St. Pancras station to board the Eurostar train to Amsterdam. I had long wanted to travel through the Chunnel and here we were doing it. I must say it was rather anticlimactic. The train went into a tunnel. At first I thought it a normal tunnel, but then it seemed to go on for awhile. And then we came out after some time and the conductor announced we had arrived in France! I must have been so engrossed in reading and talking with C that I had not realized the tunnel lasted half an hour. No matter, I suppose, we still took a train under the English Channel and the whole journey to Amsterdam passed by quickly and in comfort.

We were met at the train station by my sister CH1, my brother-in-law CH2, my niece NH and nephew AH. They helped us to drag our belongings to our hotel. As I had booked C’s and my trip first and given that family-sized rooms are less common in Europe than America, we were not at the same hotel, but within a quick 10 minutes walk from one another. Luckily, my sister and family had arrived a few days before, so, like us, were mostly over their jet lag.

After getting checked-in at our hotel, we all walked to De Carrousel Pannenkoeken for lunch. The restaurant is located by a park in an old-fashioned carousel house complete with a small merry-go-round at its center. It serves Dutch pancakes, poffertjes, and Belgian waffles all day long. My sister had a list of foods she planned to try on the trip and poffertjes were at the top. My sister did not end up caring for them much, but I found them delicious.

Strolling in the museum area, we stopped for 20 minutes or so at the Moco Museum, which features modern and surrealist art, to check out the interesting sculptures in its forecourt. Our next stop was the Van Gogh Museum. My first and only other visit to Amsterdam was in the summer of 1999, when I visited on a trip from Japan, where I was teaching English. The Van Gogh Museum stood out as a highlight of that trip and I put it at the top of the list of sights to see this go round. I have only photos of paintings, which can be seen a million times over online or on postcards or other decorative items, and a photo of the three kids sitting together in a corner of a viewing area – bored of waiting for the adults to finish viewing the art, they had figured out how to jerry-rig their audio guides to search the Internet for YouTube videos. Though we spent two hours at the museum and clearly the adults could have stayed longer, the kids were ready to go. Good thing I had booked our tickets two hours before closing.

My sister said she loved the grocery stores, so I suggested we get our dinner at one and sit in the park, like I used to do when I was a backpacker with far less disposable income. Then the plan was a stroll to the historic area before heading back to our respective hotels. Unfortunately, that historic area included the Red Light District. For some bizarre reason, I thought it would be okay to walk through with the kids, and in my defense, we were not the only people strolling with their children, but I had not remembered what the area was really like. Though the sun had not yet set, it was late in the day, and the crowds were changing. A block or two was all we managed and the kids were scandalized. Not my finest travel moment.

On our second day, we had tickets for City Sightseeing’s Hop On Hop Off Bus. I have taken this company’s buses in numerous cities and have found them generally a good deal and a great way for first timers to travel or those with a short time to get around to a city’s main sights. We rode a few stops and disembarked at the Amsterdam harbor front. We walked past the historic Arsenal building, now the National Maritime Museum, to the NEMO Science Museum.

Here was my thinking: Pop up to the roof of the NEMO, which is free and gives a spectacular view over the harbor, then maybe a bit of time in the museum. Here is what really happened: We went into the museum and the kids were blown away and ran off in all different directions, thus we spent HOURS there and it was very difficult to round up our minor travel companions.

After the museum, we headed back to the Hop On Hop Off bus stop. And we waited. And waited. And waited. And even once on, the bus stopped at a diamond center that offered a free tour; it seemed an odd item to include on such a trip and it seemed to take forever to get in and turn around in the parking lot. Additionally, the kids were not interested in listening to the on-bus commentary at all. I seemed to have engineered another vacation faux-pas.

After a late lunch at the Hard Rock Café (so that C and I could continue our tradition), we all meandered our way back to the train station area where we boarded the Lovers Canal Cruise, included in our City Sightseeing ticket. The boat could seat maybe 50 people and it was jam packed. We could not get any window seats nor sit together. The kids reluctantly sat next to a random couple and gave me the world wary glances of pre-teens and teenagers forced to take part in something they deemed beneath them. And they refused to wear the headphones for the commentary again. I thought the tour was just okay, but that I had missed the mark again.

After the canal cruise followed my sister’s suggestion and crossed town by subway to visit the Upside Down Museum. My sister is a photographer and is always on the lookout for places that provide evocative, curious, or fun inspiration. The Upside Down museum, chock full of interactive displays that created optical illusions or amusing sets, provided just that. I had hoped that we would focus more on sights that are quintessential Amsterdam or Dutch, but we had failed to get tickets to the Anne Frank House and the kids were chomping at the bit for something super fun. Thus, off we went. And we did have a lot of fun.

The next morning, our last full one in Amsterdam before our next phase, we headed to Muiden, a small town just 10 miles from Central Station. Originally, we had planned to rent bicycles and ride the 45 minutes there, but we were not entirely sure the kids would manage the distance well, especially with at least a third of the distance on roads. None of our kids have a lot of bicycle experience, especially on roads or in crowds and my daughter, having lived most of her life in places where she could not safely ride, had the least amount. Thus, instead we planned on public transport, walking first to Central Station, taking a train to Weesp station, and then a bus to Muiden town.

I wish our trip had been as smooth as that sounded. We had no issue getting to Amsterdam Central, nor issue getting the train to Weesp. It was from Weesp to Muiden that proved more challenging. As it turns out the bus would not come for at least 45 minutes. It was difficult to see the hundreds of bicycles right there at the station bike parking, that, had we had one, would take us just 15 minutes to ride to Muiden town. Or knowing the bus is just a 10 minute ride, once it arrived, of course. I popped into my Uber app and tried to order a car for six people, but though a driver initially accepted, our ride was cancelled about five minutes later. I booked another Uber and it showed he was on his way – arriving in about 20 minutes, most certainly from Amsterdam. Once the Uber driver arrived he refused to take all six of us, so my brother-in-law and niece volunteered to take the bus, now arriving in just ten minutes.

Our destination was Muiderslot or Muider Castle, which my sister had taken to calling Murder Castle (I have no doubt some murders occurred there). For some reason, I had not really thought of the Netherlands as a country of castles, but here was Muiderslot, one of the country’s most preserved medieval fortress residences, dating from 1280. Because it is one of the Netherlands most well-known castles and is in such good shape, it is often used in period dramas. Perhaps due to its popularity and proximity to Amsterdam, the castle is well set up for visitors with two routes to follow accompanied by an audio guide. I really enjoyed the tour and the kids also appeared entertained for nearly as much time as the adults. We were also once again blessed with gorgeous weather!

After our visit, we contemplated lunch in the little town but the options were limited and even more so were the kids’ agreeability. Considering also that the bus only returned to the train station once an hour, we checked our watches and decided to make a run through the town to try and catch the next one. We made it just in time!

Back in Amsterdam, we grabbed some food and then took the free ferry from Amsterdam Central across the River Ij. Once again, my sister had a brilliant idea of taking in the This is Holland activity. Similar to the Soarin’ ride at Disney, This is Holland takes visitors on a seated hang-gliding-like experience while viewing an IMAX movie of sites. This is Holland would take us over famous locations in the Netherlands.

Afterwards, C and I wanted to go up the next door A’DAM Lookout and ride the Over the Edge swing at it’s top. My sister and family were more keen to visit one of the nearby historic churches, so we parted ways.

Having been on the world’s longest tunnel slide, it only made sense that C and I would try out Europe’s highest swing. I had only learned about it two days before, but figured if given the chance we should ride it. I thought it might be hard to convince C, but she agreed right away, and even when we stood there in line at the top of the A’DAM Lookout, she was nonplussed. I was a little nervous, but after not taking the zipline in Olden, Norway, I thought I needed to give it a go. The Over the Edge sits on one side of the rooftop, and it rocks people back and forth over the edge of the building, 100 meters in the air for one minute. I would not have minded had it been, oh, 15 seconds shorter, but it was exhilarating, and I am so glad that C and I did it together.

It was a great way to wrap up our stay in Amsterdam. The following day, we would head out on the next part of our adventure.