Traveling to Amsterdam and Copenhagen

I was at a conference in Arnhem last summer, it is fairly close via train (as is everything). I don't know what your Dad likes, but they had an absolutely amazing WWII museum.

Rent a bycicle. It's an incredible experience.

Excellent Van Gogh Museum.

Try staying outside the centre of Amsterdam, its way cheaper and the tram service in and out of the centre is really good. Get a pedalo and go on the canals. I can recommend hotels if you want.

Go see the church, smack in the middle of the red light district, surrounded by 'coffee' bars.

Take a raincoat.

There are a few games stores.

Try Jenever in an olde bar.

Go to the Sex Museum in the main street from the train station (can't remember the name but its the main street to Dam Square).

Anne Frank's House but book before you go or you'll have to queue at a ridiculous time in the morning.

The Rijksmuseum is pretty wrthwhile for Rembrant ie the night watch.

The Crown Plaza hotel in Amsterdam was great. Real nice hotel. Walking distance from the Train Station, boat area, Red Light district but not right in the Red Light district. You can use Holiday inn points or get points for staying there.

I stayed in the Crowne Plaza Amsterdam South.

Lots cheaper than the city centre version but super nice, added advantage of quiet and you can get a tram in to the centre which is maybe 15min away. Right next to another railway station which connects you to Schipol Airport.

Also (for Al) nice little garden outside where you can smoke and they will bring you a beer from the bar.

I was just there for a week with my family a few weeks ago. It depends on the age and health of your father, and your interests, but here is a list of things you may enjoy, and some observations.

1. Rent bicycles and ride them everywhere. Cheaper, faster, and more enjoyable than the trams.

2. Use Airbnb to find a place to stay in the heart of the city. Buy food at the local street markets. We stayed in a place hosted by a nice Jewish lesbian couple that was 20 meters from an open market, on a tram line and a block from a large park and the Tropen museum.

3. We arrived 30 minutes prior to the opening of the Anne Frank house, and had to wait an hour in line. I had not finished the book so felt like it was a bit of a let down.

4. We went on a guided tour of the surrounding countryside on bicycles that stopped at a tourist farm and also visited the polders. It was quite nice and worth it.

5. I've enjoyed historical walking tours as well.

6. In addition to the open markets (waterloopenstein was just new age crap from China, but Dammersmarkt was good), there are normal big city things to do.

7. There's a nearby city filled with flowers, windmills and amazing pastries that a friend told me about, but I don't have the name on me. Will post it later.

Ah here are my friend's notes from four years ago:

Amsterdam is totally awesome - not for boring retired couples at all. There's the Anne Frank house, which is a must see. Also walk across the street from Anne Frank's house to the church tower and climb to the top and ring the bells and look all over the city from the tower look out. Totally worth it.

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There's a zoo where the monkeys crawl all over you.

Take a train to Haarlem and see the Hiding Place - it's amazing. There are christian ladies who preach to you then give you the tour. Totally worth it. Then walk right down the street from the Hiding Place and there is an amazing church with a totally killer organ in it that both Mozart and Handel played. When we were there someone was practicing on it, which is rare apparently.

We went to Zaanse Scahns which I would totally recommend. They have this incredible cheese house that we have had food lust for ever since. There are swans there that will figuratively try to kill you. And there are amazing old style classic Holland windmills that you can walk inside. We went in one that was smashing talcum powder. It was so incredible. Your kids can pretend that they are in that windmill place in skyward sword.

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We took a train up to the North Sea, which was a cool day. It's just a beach, but still.

Tina and I went to the Rijksmuseum, which was pretty great, but not the best museum ever.

[Note: it is a good museum and worth seeing. I ran out of time and couldn't see the weaponry section]

We went on a canal tour, which was cool and relaxing. It gave us a great sense for the whole city and it was a good chance to just sit down and check things out for a little while.

We also went to Muiderslot. It was cool but I wouldn't really recommend it unless you're sort of bored. The best thing about it was that it had amazing chocolate. But the castle there was boring. Maybe it was because there was a school field trip happening while we were there, so it was noisy and there were school jerks all over the place.

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Probably the best part of Amsterdam was just walking around the city, though. There are canals everywhere. There are outdoor markets. There are musicians. The grocery store down the street from our apartment was almost as good as any of the tourist attractions.

You'll love it. I actually liked it better than Paris. I know most people would think I'm crazy for saying that. But Paris was a massive tourist trap. Lots of amazing things - unforgettable things - but it's huge and expensive and you have to catch a train just to get from one side of town to the other. Amsterdam on the other hand is small and accessible and it has a real european feel.

I used to live in Copenhagen and there is really a lot to do. So while I can't really recommend hotels and stuff, I have a few suggestions as to what to do.

1. Rent a bike. Copenhagen is very easy to get around in by bike, and if you want to visit some places outside the capital you can bring your bike on the train.

2. If you want museums consider Louisiana which is about half and hour by train north of copenhagen. It's a modern art museum, but apart from the exhibition, the area surrounding the museum is just very nice. The Post og Tele museum (mail and telecommunication) dead in the center of town is also nice. Not because of the exhibits (actually I've never seen it), but because of the roof top café that give a fine view of the city.

3. A tour of the canals by boat. Take the expensive trip with Stromma from Nyhavn. The cheap boats sail the same route, but the sound system is better in the expensive ones (and I also used to do comedy tours for them, so maybe I'm a bit biased Some of the guides are really good, but no matter what it's a great way to see both old and new architecture. And the trip goes by the very insignificant little mermaid sculpture so you don't have to go there and be disappointed.

4. Christiania is a very interesting part of Copenhagen. It's the only place in Denmark with very obvious (but still illegal) marihuana trade going on, but it's also a place where people build their own houses and try to create a free society. So go there for the houses and the atmosphere.

5. Vesterbro is the cool part of Copenhagen. Lots of hipsters, small independent shops with designers selling (and making) their own clothes, lots of coffeeshops and so on. But the first part of Vesterbro immediately behind the central station is also where you find all the drug addicts, the porn shops, and not a few prostitutes, so walking from one end of Istedgade to the other is very interesting.

6. There's a lot of really good restaurants in Copenhagen. I know next to nothing about it, but if you're interested in food and/or the so-called New Nordic Kitchen I'll be happy to hook you up with a few friends of mine who know a lot about it.

7. If you're into parks consider going to Frederiksberg Have (Frederiksberg Garden) which is very neat with a palace, some small lakes and all. And from the garden you can also say hello to the elephants in the nearby zoo since their enclosure "opens" into the public park. But in the area called Nørrebro there's also a few parks worth visiting. One is Assistens Kirkegaarden (The assist cemetary I think you'd call it) which is basically a cemetary that is also used as a park. But if you go a bit further away from downtown (still Nørrebro) you find The Green Wedge which is a very interesting park/recreational city space.

Anyways, this is from the top of my head. If you want to know anything specific, let me know and I'll be happy to help. Copenhagen is a cool city.

I'd love to go to Nijmegen but I'd never make it to the bridge. It's just too far.

Bicycling sounds good in the summer, less so in April, I would have thought. It's not likely to be that warm.

repoman wrote: I'd love to go to Nijmegen but I'd never make it to the bridge. It's just too far.

Apparently, this post is classified as humour although the jury is still out.

FYI Arnhem was The Bridge too Far not Nijmegen, which they actually got to eventually.

HI Uba,


AMsterdam is just around the corner from me (in US terms) so don't fail to contact me for meeting up.

Lots of good suggestions above. Much depends on how much time you have and what you like. There's the flower beds between Leiden and Amsterdam which are just in season around the time you hope to be here.

Biking is highly recommended both in Copenhagen and Amsterdam and as long as it's dry it's well doable in late April early May