Europe Travel Blog - Holland

Welcome to my European travel blog! I’ve been taking notes along this trip of every country and city we’ve visited – accumulating everything from where to eat, where to grab a great cup of coffee and how public transport works (plus anything else that might be worth noting). Prior to our trip, we had all our accommodation booked and paid for as well as all our flights (just not our flight home because of the situation in Iran…seems that in 3 months nothing has actually changed on that front). We hadn’t booked internal trains and buses, same with experiences as we wanted to see how we were feeling prior to these. Having said that, we were also travelling on a budget – we tried to work within $200 each a day ($10k each [$20k total] for 7 weeks) which includes all travel, accommodation, and food costs. We had booked most of our trip within this budget, $10k for accommodation and flights, leaving us to work with $100 each a day. So first destination – Holland.

Holland was first on our trip as we learned that the tulips are only in bloom for a mere 3 weeks of the year starting in mid-April (depending on the weather of the spring season) and it ends around the start of the second week in May. Keukenhof – the popular tulip farm has its final day on the 11^th. Because of this, I booked my flights to arrive May 1^st (leaving April 30^th) and Jas would meet me the next day – I did this to give me a day to adjust to jetlag. Given the war in Iran, my original flights were cancelled so I paid a bit more ($1900) to fly via San Francisco in America. Would I recommend this? Not really. From when I got to the airport on Thursday (5:30am Adelaide time) to when I got to my accommodation – it was about 44 hours of travel. I was knackered. I had a 6.5 hour layover in San Francisco which was painful – cost me nearly $30 for a toasted sandwich too! I also went into a panic because I forgot to organise my ESTA well in advance. I applied for it 60 hours before my flight (they recommend applying at least 72 hours before your flight in case there’s a delay in the approval). After intense feelings of panic (and self-loathing), it came through after a few hours ($60 just to transit through America…at least it’s valid for 2 years if I ever want to go back to the US). My recommendation? Don’t leave this to the last minute!

After arriving at Schiphol airport, I then caught a train to our accommodation. In Holland, you don’t need tickets. There’s a thing called OV pay where you just tap on and tap off whenever you go somewhere – just make sure you tap off!! You can get an OV card, but it’s something like $10 and isn’t necessary – prices are the same regardless if it’s on the OV card or on your debit card. What we didn’t realise when we booked this Airbnb was that despite being in Maarssen (just outside Utrecht), it’s not a very accessible street. The instructions our Airbnb host gave us was to either call an ‘in demand bus’ an hour before you need it, but only from a Dutch number, to collect you from the bus stop…or walk 30mins with your luggage to the accommodation. So it took me nearly 2.5 hours from when I landed to when I checked into the Airbnb. I was hungry. Exhausted. And had no easy way of getting around. Except by bike. Fortunately our accommodation generously provided us with bikes so after having literally no sleep, I got on a bike and navigated myself into Utrecht. I found a café (that Google maps said was only a 20mins bike ride away but ended up taking me closer to 35!) and had a coffee before heading over the street to a vegan restaurant. Starving, I asked the server which dish he recommended…I got one confit potato with this truffle sauce. It was delicious but my god, it did not curb my hunger! That’s what you get for going out to a ‘vegan’ restaurant. Now for the cycle back. By this stage, I was beyond exhausted. I was frustrated. Tired. Hungry. I was so worried that the location of our Airbnb was going to taint our experience of Holland – the one place I was most excited about visiting given my heritage and connection to my Oma.

By the time I got back to the ‘farm’ (that’s literally a) how far away it was from the city and b) what it was)), I was ready for bed but my host invited me to the lake nearby. So I joined her and forced myself to stay awake until 10pm. A long sleep in in the morning before intending to travel 2.5 hours back to the airport to meet Jas. On my way, I stopped off at a beautiful café called Dagger Coffee (Zijdebalen) but had to cut it short as Jas arrived early. Honestly, having someone travelling with you alleviates 99% of your stress because all of a sudden, a problem shared is a problem halved. Immediately after meeting Jas, everything was okay again. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve found your person. They settle you. They’re like a home away from home.

Dagger Coffee, Utrecht

Instead of going back to our accommodation, because it was so far away, we dropped off our bags at a luggage storage shop using the app Radical Storage - it cost about $10 for the one suitcase. Despite claiming it was a 5mins walk, it was closer to 10mins with Jas’s suitcase and because we couldn’t find the shop – turns out it was just a kebab shop that stored her bag out the back for a few hours. We then found a café called 30mL while we were walking and grabbed a bite to eat there. We were slightly constrained by time as we needed to find a café with wifi to watch the Arsenal Lyon semi-final at 3pm. A lot of cafes we went to didn’t have wifi (and were lowkey rude when we asked them if they did) – I get it, a café is a place to disconnect. And normally I do, but Arsenal!! We ended up finding Cupp, a really nice café in the centre of Utrecht. We had to pay 2 euro an hour to use the wifi (the waitress then didn’t charge us for the second hour because her boyfriend was an Arsenal fan too). She also let us stay a few minutes past closing just so we could finish the game (unfortunately Arsenal lost). As the café was closing, we were greeted by a walking rave. Yes, you read that right. A rave on wheels. Blaring music. Thousands of people. Punk, gothic, and emo clothing surrounded us. Nothing like a bit of a cultural experience!

After exploring the city, we then had to pick up our luggage earlier than we had hoped (7pm rather than the 9pm we had booked because the shop closed). We grabbed a bite to eat at Eazie – a chain restaurant that sells customisable, healthy poke bowls which was exactly what we were after. We then got an Uber from the last bus stop back to the accommodation (fuck walking 30mins with luggage in the heat!). We then hopped on a bike and visited the lake the host had taken me to the night before but this time, we actually went for a swim! Early May = fresh water temperature! After we got back to the farm, we then planned our Sunday. We wanted Monday to be the day we went to visit my Oma’s house so Sunday was our day for ‘experiences’. We had Anne Frank booked at 10am (we had booked this a few weeks in advance, logging in at 10am Holland time (5:30pm Adelaide time) to get tickets.

Cycling to the lake during sunset

In the morning, we rode our bikes in the rain to Utrecht and just locked them up close to the station. There is secure ‘parking’ under the station but, you need an OV card! So we just found a bench with other bikes and locked it up there. Both bikes were there when we got back in the afternoon.

Given that the Anne Franke museum was about a 20mins walk from the station, we grabbed a coffee from Black Bird on the way (really good coffee). The museum itself was such a worthwhile experience – everything was very well curated and there wasn’t too much information nor too many people to navigate through. My experience was probably aided by the fact that I had just finished reading Anne Frank’s diary on my way to Holland so everything was really fresh in my mind. After Anne Frank, we had a few hours to kill before our lunch booking at Box Sociaal – a café run by Australians. In the interim, we explored De 9 Straatjes…in the pouring rain. This is a super pretty area amongst the canals with lots of boutique stores. The food we had at Box Sociaal was elite and has ended up being one of the best breakfasts we had on our trip. Jas had a baked bean bagel and I had a really filling breakfast burger.

Our next stop was heading to Tours and Tickets at Centraal Station for a trip to Keukenhof. We booked these tickets online from Viator and managed to get them for a cheaper price (maybe because it was the start of the last week). There were a few experiences we were tossing up between, like the Tulip Farm or the Tulip Barn – both of which offer very different experiences – but we decided on Keukenhof because it was so late in the season and thought the other places wouldn’t still have an abundance of tulips. And we are so glad we did. A lot of the tulips had already started to be cut, BUT there was still a lot to see and we were more than happy with when we went. And most importantly? Keukenhof wasn’t busy at this time. A lot of reviews recommended either going first thing in the morning or going later in the afternoon and we decided on the latter. A lot of the crowds had gone by then. Important to note though that despite the park not closing until 7pm, a lot of the shops (and food places) closed at 6pm. We really wanted some chips before getting dinner later but…we were too late. Fortunately the café just before the bus was still serving food and we grabbed a small bite there. A 45mins journey back to Centraal Station before catching the train back to Utrecht and cycling home. We ended up just buying some falafels and baguettes to have for dinner (budget travelling!).

On Monday, we road our bikes again into Utrecht (we were becoming seasoned pros by this stage!). We then left them outside a café called ‘t Koffieboontje – a really neat café that served great coffee and little filter sachets for coffee which I thought was a really cool gift idea (and marketing tool). We then caught the train to Nijmegen where we met my Oma’s cousin’s daughter, Irma. I’m currently writing this many weeks after experiencing it, but this was probably one of my favourite days of the trip. Irma met us at the train station with her husband Rob before taking us to where Oma grew up in Nijmegen.

When we arrived at 44, emotions were high. Irma saw that there was someone inside so knocked on the door and explained the situation. She explained that this was the house my Oma had grown up in when she was a child and that I was here from Australia to visit. The beautiful lady, Aletta, generously let us inside and allowed us to walk around the house and take as many photos as we’d like. I was so excited when I saw she had cats! My Oma would have loved that too. Thank you Aletta for allowing strangers into your home and letting us see a glimpse into my Oma’s life when she was younger.

After the visit, we went back to Irma’s father’s house where we had a delicious ‘Dutch’ lunch – fresh rolls, Dutch cheese (incredible!), a vegetarian capsicum paste (yum), coffee, and orange juice. Lunch was scrumptious but the company was what made this day so special. Irma showed me a few photos of her Mum (also called Ria) and shared how difficult the past 12 months had been. The grief still very raw for the both of us but I think we bonded over our mutual love for our ‘Ria’s’. After lunch, we said goodbye to her father and took a drive to see where her mother had chosen to be laid to rest. A beautiful spot amongst nature.

After visiting her Mum, we were then asked what we wanted to do – but we really had no plans. A few ideas were thrown around but none that really interested us until Rob said, ‘How about we go to Germany?’ Jas and I looked at each other – ‘Germany? How far away is that?’ ‘About 5minutes.’ So across the border we went until we found a bakery to have some coffee and treats. I messaged my brother straight away and said guess where we just went!

To finish off the day we went and explored Nijmegen city before saying our goodbyes to Irma and Rob. Their hospitality, patience, and warmth are what made the day so memorable and one of our favourite days of the entire trip (at least for me). We finished off the day with dinner at Café de Plak – a hip place recommended to us by our Airbnb host before heading back to Maarssen to pack up our bags.

On the Tuesday, we had the entire day to explore Amsterdam as we didn’t have to catch the train until 8pm. So we paid about 20 euro ($35) to store our two suitcases and backpacks (in the back of a souvenir shop) for the day before venturing out to explore Amsterdam again. First stop? Coffee! We caught the train to a place just outside de Pijp market called Back to Black. The highlight of this place was that they had ‘Bob de Straatkat’ in the café (A Street Cat Named Bob) – one of my all-time favourite books. Next we went to the markets to try a freshly made Stroopwafel and my God, you have to try these fresh! We just got the basic caramel flavour and the freshness makes all the difference. A lot of the stalls were very touristy, but we managed to pick up some delicious nuts and Dutch cheese – and the best part? The cheese didn’t need refrigerating! Perfect for our travels in Switzerland. After de Pijp, we headed up north to Zaandam to see the Lego houses and grab a bite to eat at Bagels and Beans – a chain restaurant but the food was actually really good. We continued on to Zaanse Schans to see the windmills (windmolen in Dutch). This was a lovely walk from the train station (the smell of chocolate permeated the air!) and a stunning walk around all the 8 windmills. Be conscious of when you visit as there’s many tourist buses that stop here – the paths are wide enough though that you can avoid most of the walking tours. Lastly on our travels we had a few vintage stores to visit – Holland does vintage better than any other country we’ve visited! Mainly because they were affordable haha. We found the coolest Adidas trackies at a very affordable $27 (op shops in the city centre aren’t really a thing – they’re called ‘vintage’ stores and the prices reflect that).

Before heading back to pick up our luggage, we stopped off at the grocery store (Jumbo) to pick up supplies for Switzerland. We had been forewarned that Switzerland was veryyyy expensive – so we thought we’d negate that by buying groceries (pasta, tomato sauce, oats, fruit, chocolate). We headed to the train station in search of our ‘Obb Nightjet’ – no information was given on the website about where to go or how early to get there so we asked the tourist checkpoint for some assistance and they were very helpful in their directions. But, I’ll save the recount of our experience from the night jet in my Switzerland post. In the interim, here are a few more snaps from our time in Holland:

Holland has been one of my favourite places we’ve visited – maybe because of the history associated with it, but the country in itself has such a nice feel about it. The Dutch are really friendly and almost everyone speaks English. We really liked Utrecht probably more than Amsterdam – Amsterdam was very crowded and touristy whereas Utrecht felt more authentically Dutch (maybe because we were riding bikes to explore it!). Holland has also had the best coffee / café scene that we’ve experienced in Europe. Special thanks again to Irma and Rob for being great tourist guides – and Aletta for being so generous in welcoming us into your home. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be back as a football coach.

For anyone who likes to skim read, the key points from our Holland travels are summarised below:

• Do less, explore more – and walk everywhere! Utrecht and Amsterdam are extremely walkable cities

• Get a bike and ride

• Don’t trust Google maps travel times on the bike. Unless you’re Dutch, it’s probably going to take you longer.

• You can’t use your phone while cycling either. So invest in a phone holder (or ask your host if they have one).

• Expect to pay about $7 for a basic black coffee

• Tulip season blooms for a very short period in the year (middle of April to first week of May) – plan accordingly!

• Tap on and tap off for public transport (OV cards aren’t necessary)

• The cost of transport within cities is cheap, but between cities can be more expensive (about $30 return from Utrecht to Amsterdam…a 20mins journey)

• Location is everything - unless you’re happy to be out all day, every day

• Holland has some very cool op shops (vintage stores)

• The Dutch love it when you try to speak Dutch (everyone speaks English) and the people were very friendly

• May 4^th is Remembrance Day where they hold 2mins silence at 8pm (literally everything and everyone stops at 8pm, including public transport)

• May 5^th is Liberation Day  

• Jumbo and Lidl are the cheaper supermarkets, Jumbo having the biggest variety

• Albert Hijn is a more upmarket grocery store 

Coffee places visited:

• Koffie Leute Brauhaus

• Dagger coffee

• Cupp (east side)

• Blackbird

• ‘t Koffieboontje

• Hummingbird

• Back to Black

• de koffieschenkerij

  
  

Cafes/Restaurants

• Broei

• 30ML

• Box Sociaal (need to book)

• Bagels and Beans

• Eazie

• Café de Plak

Activities

• Anne Frank (can only book 6 weeks in advance but can find extra tickets on Tuesday mornings 10am Dutch time)

• De 9 Straatjes

• Keukenhof

• de Pijp markets

• Lego Houses Zaandam

• Windmills at Zaanse Schans

• Cycle!

Things we might have done with more time (and a bigger budget [most museums have about a $35 entrance fee]):

• Canal tour

• Anatomy of the human body museum

• WWII museum in de Bos (Nijmegen)

• Van Gogh museum

• Upside down museum

• Edible sweets 😉