Hello, darling. We are home from Europe, and oh, it was lovely. If memory serves me, it was in September that The Husband and I started discussing Thanksgiving and our plan. He didn’t want to be home for that particular holiday, so I said okay, let’s go somewhere. I suggested we go somewhere that it snows, like Colorado or Washington. He started looking for deals and said, “Hey, there’s a great flight deal to Amsterdam.” I don’t know what prompted me to agree to another huge trip since we went to Hawaii in April, but I did. So we had about two-ish months to get ready to leave. Fortunately, we already had passports ready from the failed Vietnam trip.
So, planning began. We decided to each take one full-size suitcase and pack only the necessities. I packed three full outfits, extra undergarments, a bathing suit, jammies, walking shoes, and (not enough) cold-weather gear. I wore a long-sleeve shirt, long wool skirt, fringed shawl, high boots, and waterproof overcoat as my travel gear. I packed very similarly for Feebs. The husband packed his stuff into a small suitcase we had and nested that in the full-size one. We had a list of things to buy people, so we ensured that we all had room to bring home souvenirs. We each checked the large bag and carried a backpack with travel snacks and stuff to do on the flight. I feel that Feebs and I were a little too optimistic about how many things we needed in our backpacks. Those things were super heavy. We ordered what we thought we needed for the trip, and several of the things we ordered were returned. I ordered RFI-blocking neck wallets for each of us for passports, credit cards, and cash. Feebs had one too for her spending money and a laminated card with her name and that she was a U.S. citizen and our names and contact information. We did this so that if, by some terrifying chance, she was separated from us, she could give her info to someone who could contact us or take her to the police or embassy. I felt better having our neck wallets, but The Husband didn’t. He hated it and swears he will never use it again…
Travel day arrived, and we had to get up at 0230 so that we could leave for the airport at 0300. We all bathed and set our stuff out the night before so we would have minimal fussing to do in the morning. We had Feebs wear her travel clothes to bed so she could wake up and go directly to the car. The husband packed up our bags, and we gave the kitties some loves, and headed to the airport. (Side note: we had The Mother come to feed and hang out with the girls on the day we left, then hired someone to come in each day to feed, clean, and play with them. The ladies also came by most days to hang out with the girls and play with them.) We prepaid for offsite parking with a shuttle to the gate at SFO. It went very easy, and we got through ticketing and security with very little fanfare. We walked around the airport and found some breakfast. We didn’t have to wait long for our first stretch of the flight to Detroit, where we changed planes. We were only there for about 2 hours. I was fine with the stop. It gave us time to go to the bathroom, get something to eat, and stretch our legs. Then we boarded the plane to Amsterdam. We left Detroit around 1600 on Sunday and landed in Amsterdam at 0600 on Monday. Feebs and The Husband slept for a couple of hours on the flight, but I can’t sleep in airplanes, so that was fun. We finally cleared customs, got our rental car, and then were on our way. What we didn’t consider is that when we got to the hotel (dirty, exhausted, and wrung out from a long day of travel), we couldn’t check into our hotel till 1500. We parked the car and went in to ask about early check-in. We were told that they were booked and the soonest would be around 1100. Feebs was deliriously tired, and The Husband and I were trashed. We tried to doze off in the car, but, and I have no earthly idea why, the front seats would NOT recline. That eliminated sleep for me. I ended up pushing the seat back and sitting on the floor with my head on the seat.
Day 1- Amsterdam, Netherlands: Technically, day one started with a full day of travel, but the day got better once we got our room around 1030. We freshened up and became human, then went looking for breakfast. We walked around one of the main streets until we found a little pub that served food. We quickly realized that we didn’t have Euros, and that made buying anything from the many street vendors impossible. I had apple pie and a cappuccino for breakfast. Feebs had Dutch pancakes and hot chocolate. The Husband had a full English breakfast. We walked around and were charmed by the canals, houseboats, and bicycles. The traditional Dutch row houses were gorgeous, and the landscape, though modernized, still oozed European history (at least to my uncultured mind.) Since we were so tired from our travel, we didn’t venture out too terribly far. We mapped out our plans for the next day and found a delightful restaurant that allowed us to watch the local workday rush hour. I was completely delighted by the family-style bicycles that either had front and back seats or a full bench seat on the front of them. Some had windscreens, and some were fully enclosed by a detachable plastic sheet. Cars were definitely not the main mode of transportation in that city. We ended the day very early and were lights out by 2030.
Day 2- Amsterdam, Netherlands: I slept 12 hours… Holy crap, I don’t know if I have ever slept that many consecutive hours before. We were all groggy, but we started the day off in good spirits. We had a delightful breakfast in the hotel restaurant (shout out to the fresh-baked baguettes and “old cheese,”. They were amazing.) We launched via car and headed to find a currency exchange. We did NOT find one. Well, we did, but it was closed with no signs of ever opening again. We decided to keep our eyes out for one, and headed to the NEMO Museum. We were NOT prepared for driving in heavy foot/ bike traffic, nor the excessive cost of parking. 3 hours cost $42.50 to park. We got to the NEMO, and Feebs lived her best science life. This place has 5 floors of interactive, hands-on scientific activities. She was in heaven. The germophobic American in me cringed at seeing her touch the stuff that 1500 kids had touched that day, but I got over it. The Husband enjoyed himself, too, and they went around and tried all of the fun stuff. We spent several hours there and only left when we realized that we were starving. We made the very long walk from the NEMO to the heart of downtown. We went to a pub that was on The Husband’s “must eat/ drink here” list. We ordered escargot, fondue, a salad, and Feebs ordered pizza. Mind you, she laid her head in my lap and promptly fell asleep before the food got there. She stayed asleep through lunch. The Husband got to try one of the beers that he was so excited to try. After that, we headed to Stephen & Penelope. I had high hopes for that shop, but she didn’t make a great first impression. The shop was smaller than I thought it would be but was delightfully charming. I knew we were planning to do more shopping when we came back on the weekend, so I didn’t want to buy very much. I realized that while I packed Feebs a hat and her ear warmer headband, I didn’t pack myself a hat. I decided to buy yarn and needles and have the shop wind it so that I could have a hat, too. The person who wound the yarn and rang up my purchase was nice enough, but the rest of the staff was very snooty. I felt a bit of elitism, that didn’t sit well with me. By the time I left the store, I felt like I could skip going back when we returned and would just seek out yarn shops at our other stops. We then headed to the mecha that is Tony’s Chocoloney. Again, a tiny shop, but packed full of chocolatey goodness. We may or may not have walked away with 12+ chocolate bars. We continued to eat good food and drink good drinks. Feebs and I are now big fans of fresh mint tea. When we got back to the room, I cast on my hat. I was planning to cast on the Everglade hat, and I started the ribbed band. I decided that I couldn’t be bothered to follow a pattern, so I went rogue and decided to wing it. I made a plan to figure out the decrease maths when I got to them. We were very tired, so we brushed and jammed and relaxed. Again, it was a very early night for all of us.
Day 3- Brussels, Belgium: We got up the next morning and had a repeat hotel breakfast. We packed up the room and loaded the car. For the third time, we went in search of a money exchange place. We drove over hill and dale looking for a place, we got there, and they tell us they only handle money transfers, not cash exchanges. On our walk back to the car, however, we walked by the cutest little yarn shop, Yarn Hugs. Of course, we had to go in and investigate. I may have walked away with some Katia DK weight gloriousness and double-pointed needles in order to decrease the crown of my hat. We had to head back downtown to finally find the open cash exchange. Eureka, we finally got Euros (at the cost of $12 per $100, yikes!) We then loaded up and said goodbye for now to Amsterdam. We got on the highway and headed to our second destination, Brussels, Belgium. The drive was very smooth and scenic. Traffic (if you can call it that) was light and moved at a decent pace. Bless him, the Husband did all of the driving. This is unfair because we both got the international driving permits, and I was an authorized driver of the car, but if it had been up to me to transport us, we may still be stuck at an intersection in Amsterdam. I am NOT built for that level of aggressive driving. When we got to Brussels, we went straight to the Bed & Breakfast where we were staying. I have never stayed at a B&B and have always worried that I would feel like an intruder in someone’s home. I hate to say it, but that was exactly how I felt. The home was gorgeous and the homeowner was charming. The room was very oddly situated. Well, not our room, but the room for Feebs and the bathroom. They were up the most narrow stair case to the converted eaves room. I honestly had no idea how The Husband would get up the stairs, and felt there wasn’t much chance of him being able to take a shower comfortably. Feebs thought it was the best room she had seen in her life. We headed to the local yarnshop, Aetelier Moondust. It was so pretty, and beautifully situated, but didn’t have a huge amount of inventory. I did manage to get some Knitting for Olive, which was on my list of allowable yarn to purchase. We were starting to get hungry, and didn’t realize that Brussels was on European dining time. We are very early dinner eaters, and restaurants don’t open there till around 1900. That forced us to do some Google searching to see where we could go that was open for business. We found the downtown area, through streets that were NOT designed for 21st century vehicles, and walked around till we were coerced into a restaurant by the owner who waited outside to pull people in to eat. It wasn’t the place The Husband had earmarked to go, but we were lost, Google didn’t enjoy the spotty signal found in 16th century villages, and the shop-owner was very convincing. We went in and ordered escargot, Feebs and I both ordered a pot of mussels (big mistake, as they were enormous and one pot would have fed the three of us), and the husband order a traditional Belgum meal. The food was heaven. Feebs tried the escargot, since she fell asleep the last we had order it. She wasn’t a fan, but I was proud of her for trying them. She is a huge fan of mussels now. When we were finished, we walked around more. Feebs got a Belgium waffle, covered in chocolate. We picked up some souveniers, then headed back to the B & B. Another early night was had.
Day 4- Dusseldorf, Germany: The next morning, I was up before the sun, as per usual. I took my knitting and headed down to the sitting room. It felt very odd and sneaky to be in that room by myself. I wasn’t quite comfortable being in there, but I didn’t want to disturb the late sleepers that I travel with. Once they were up, we headed down to the dining room for a delicious French breakfast. There were two other couples at the table with us. One couple was staying at the B&B the other couple was their guest who lived locally. They were very nice, but the conversation was very political, so I stayed quiet. My overall review of Brussels was that while it was beautiful and charming, we probably could have skipped it. We loved the food, but the main attraction of the area that we went to was luxury shopping. We are not luxury shopping people. After breakfast, we got in the car and headed to Germany. It was another two-ish hour drive from Brussels to Dusseldorf. Traffic wasn’t bad, even when we got off of the highway. Our hotel was situated in an industrial area, and very few people spoke English. I pulled up the information about the Christmas market and read that it is oddly situated and parking would be a challenge. The Husband and I decided that this would be an ideal time to utilize the famous European public transportation system. We walked to the nearby train station. Darling, we stood there for a solid 25 minutes trying to figure out the app in order to purchase tickets. There was an option to translate to English, but each time you went to the next page, it converted back to German. I believe that both the Husband and I are intelligent people, but we could NOT figure how how to buy train tickets. We were mindboggled. Finally, I made the executive decision that while we are traveling abroad we would utilize one of the car apps (I believe we used Uber). The Husband wasn’t thrilled, but there was no way we were going to keep swimming upstream when we could make it easier on ourselves. He relented and away we went. Downtown Dusseldorf is very busy and packed full of people. We found a Lego shop where Feebs was able to create her own personalized Lego girl. We located the Christmas market, and I am sad to say, I was so disappointed. Apparently, the market usually goes down six different lanes and has tons of vendors. This year there was construction in the are and only three lanes were open. The market was small, and the vendors were all pretty similar. It was nice to walk around, but there wan’t much to see. We found a local restaurant where the Husband got some schnitzel and I got some struedel. The service was very slow (very short staffed), but friendly and funny. We Ubered back to the hotel and got ready for bed. I had made the Germany stop all about the Christmas market, so I would like to take a trip specifically to Germany at some point. I think it is a beautiful country, and is part of my heratige.
Day 5- Amsterdam, Netherlands: We got up that morning and packed up the room. We went down and had breakfast at the hotel. I wasn’t sure what to expect for German breakfast, but it was very egg-heavy. I didn’t each much, and neither did Feebs. We were going to leave Germany, but we hadn’t realized that the drinking water there was not the best. We needed to find a market to buy bottled water. We found a large shopping area that had a grocery store AND a toy store. This place was what Toys R Us used to be. Feebs was thrilled! We got our water and some snacks and toys and got back on the road. I didn’t seek out a yarn shop while we were in Germany, but I have no regrets. Another two-hour drive brought us back to Amsterdam. We stayed at the Westcord Fashion Hotel, which was pretty freaking amazing. It had a gorgeous basement-level swimming pool and sauna rooms with a full spa. The room was really beautiful. Once we were settled, we ventured out on foot toward downtown. We ended up at the same pub restaurant that we had on the second day of the trip. The Husband was delighted to have his fancy beer again. Feebs was awake for this meal, which was a nice change. We walked around, and Feebs got to have a freshly made stroopwafel. She was in heaven. As we were wandering around, we ended up back at Stephen & Penelope. My yarn purchases had been pretty minimal, and I knew they had a wall of Holts Garn at the back of the store, so I decided to give her another chance. When you walk into the store, there is a full sized cardboard cutout of Stephen West from one of his book covers. I walked through the store toward the Holts Garn wall and look to my left and Stephen West, himself, is standing there. It was a bit disorienting. I think I squeaked “Oh!”. I only slightly fan-girled him. Darling, it was everything I could do to not ask him for a picture, but is seemed very creepy to ask. We talked about A Verb for Keeping Warm, and he mentioned that he loved that shop. He was absolutely charming. I bought my sweater quantity of black Holts Garn, and Feebs picked out a shocking hot pink skein of PRU fingering weight (that she asked me to knit a scarf with). I was very happy that I went back into the shop it completely changed my perception. When we got back to the hotel, we took Feebs swimming. I am 97% sure we interrupted a young couple’s aquatic frolic, so that was charming. We started to get our suitcases organized, then headed to bed.
Day 6- Amsterdam, Netherlands: I would like to say that we woke up in the morning, and started our day. We did not. The Husband and Feebs slept until 1130. The time change and the constant on-the-go caught up with them, and they both slept like the dead. This wasn’t a bad thing, but as usual, I woke up at 0600 and had to lay there for 5.5 hours. It also meant that I was starving by the time they got up. We got up and headed out on foot. We walked to Vondel Park and had lunch at the Vondel Park cafe. I was unaware but completely delighted that rum hot chocolate was a thing. We walked through the park, and I picked out several houses to buy on the perimeter. The Husband rudely declined. We saw the Picaso statue in the park as well. After we left the park, we walked the grounds of the MOCO museum. We had hoped to tour the Van Gogh museum too, but it had already sold out for the day. We took the Husband to a pub that had been standing since 1695. I hope that I can say that he got to eat and drink most of what was on his list. We had an amazing fish dinner at a random restaurant that we passed and more fresh mint tea. We took an Uber back to the hotel since we had done a significant amount of walking that day. Once again, we went swimming. Once again, we interrupted a young couple in the midst of something risque. When we got back to the room, Feebs took a swim in the bathtub, and the Husband went in search of an area where he could have a drink and a cigar. Unfortunately, there was no such place at the hotel. That night we all bathed and got our travel stuff out. We packed our bags, and the Husband removed the extra suitcase to pack up all our goodies. We were ready to face the next day’s travel.
Day 7- Heading home: We woke up at 0600 and got ready to head to the airport. We packed the very last of our things and put on our traveling clothes. The streets were very empty, and we had to stop and fill up the car with petrol. Once we got to the airport, it was very easy to collect our things and turn over the keys. Our little car made us proud on our trek through three countries. We got our boarding passes with minimal fuss, but the Husband insisted on bringing his Mad Max backpack, so it took a month of Sundays to get through security. When we finally got to the gate, the Husband went in search of food for us. He was an angel and found me a toffee nut latte. I am still very hurt that they still make those in Europe, but not the U.S. It was my favorite seasonal drink at Starbucks. We got a row of seats that had no seats in front of them, so there was a lot of legroom. This was a good thing on an eleven-hour flight. There was nothing overly exciting about the flight, other than none of us slept the entire time. We got to SFO and went through the incredibly long customs process. We took the shuttle back to our car and headed home. Some high lights of the evening were when Feebs was so tired and delirious at 1730 that not only did she cry because her face was wet (tears), but then she proclaimed, “Enough of this Tom Foolery, I want to go night-night!”
Lessons learned (in no particular order):
- Find out what time your flight lands and decide if it is worth paying for an extra night at the hotel so that you can check in when you arrive at your destination. It may be worth it if you are landing really early so you can get some rest before you start your day.
- Don’t be cheap: order e-cards or data plans for everyone who will need access to the internet. We only got one for The Husband’s phone, and not only did that leave me with no internet, unless we were on wi-fi, but it made him responsible for all mapping, communication, and internet searches. This also made me feel unable to travel around by myself. I felt very insecure even taking walks by myself (my internal compass is either broken or was never issued to me) because I was afraid I would get lost and have no way to contact him or navigate myself back.
- Order the currency that you will need before you leave for your trip. Finding a place to exchange currency took a large chunk of time over two days and was expensive. Also, use up all coin money before leaving the country that you are traveling to. Wells Fargo will only accept bills to exchange.
- Don’t pack so much in a travel backpack. You have a lot of walking and standing in line to do. Even if it is a long trip, you won’t need to be occupied every minute of the flight.
- Be very realistic about what activities you will do when you are traveling. The Husband went out of his way to book hotels that had gyms, and I never stepped foot in them. We did a lot of walking and packed the days so full that there was no way I would have the time or energy to do an additional workout at the end of the day.
- If you intend to use public transportation while traveling, do the research before you leave. Find out what the ticketing system is like. Do you have to use an app? Can you book/ pay for them on the day, or do you need to book in advance? Do you need to have an app for a car service (Uber, Lyft, etc.)? If so, have the app on your phone(s) and the account set up before you leave.
- When you get to the country and have a better idea of your itinerary, figure out any attractions that you want to see and figure out when you are going to go. Purchase tickets in advance so you don’t miss out on seeing them.
- Packing light and bringing an extra bag is always a good idea. Weigh your luggage and bring the luggage scale on the trip to avoid excess luggage fees.
This trip was amazing, and I don’t regret anything. I do feel that we packed too much into too small a time, though. I think the next time we take a week-long trip, especially to another state or country, we will spend more time in the place we are actually going. I would have liked to see other parts of the Netherlands and not just Amsterdam. I also think Feebs would have liked it better if we could have had more downtime and not so much on the go. We have started to think of places that we want to go in 2025, and so far, Spain, Portugal, and England are topping the list for Feebs and I. We won’t be taking any big trips in 2024, so we have plenty of time to figure it out.
Loves,
M
