Four (More) Days in the Netherlands
One of the great benefits of living in Europe is the ability to maximize your time. When one travels from the US to Europe, time is your largest constraint and visitors are forced to blitz through the major cities in order to squeeze in the most possible. A little less than 2.5 years into our grand European adventure, we have now spent seven days in the Netherlands.
We once again took advantage of accrued hotel points and stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott, Amsterdam Airport. The hotel was in the midst of a large expansion, adding over 100 additional rooms, but was fully accessible during our stay. While this trip was scheduled around a return visit to the Keukenhof Gardens, we were able to visit multiple museums, as well as a couple of additional fun activities.
Our first stop was the Clara Maria Cheese Farm and Clog Factory, located southeast of the airport in Amstelveen. Founded in 1859, this working farm is open for tours of their traditional methods of producing cheese and clogs, and has a gift shop with dozens of flavors of cheese available for purchase. They'll send the cheese home with you in a traditional cheese bag, or they'll throw it in plastic wrap, that enables it to be shipped. We sent several cheese wheels (small ones mind you!) back to family in the US.
Museum Hopping
Unlike our trip last year, we purposely stayed a few extra days so that we could visit some of Amsterdam's museums. First up on Friday was the Rijksmuseum. Located in museum square, it is a Dutch national museum focused on art and history--this was by far my favorite of all that we've been to thus far (Official Tip: Purchase your tickets ahead of time!). Our combo ticket got us into the museum as well as the special Rembrandt exhibit that was then on display. What we most appreciated about the Rijksmuseum was not only did they have the audioguides (all the major European museums do), but they had a specially developed kids-guide that takes you to the highlights of the museum. Will had a blast being the official leader that morning! Seeing Rembrandt's The Nightwatch ranked up with seeing the School of Athens in the Vatican. Janet and I's favorite, the museum gift shop. We're both always on the lookout for a good book, and the Rijksmuseum had them, and in English to boot!
A ten minute walk from the Rijksmuseum is the Van Gogh Museum. Substantially smaller than the Rijksmuseum, it was none-the-less an amazing museum, and moved a visitor through Van Gogh's life. Unfortunately, photography was not permitted so I'm unable to share any. With the proximity of the museums, it is easy to see both in the same day.
After our fill of museums, we set off for the city of Haarlem. Haarlem is most known for having the Corrie Ten Boom house. For those unfamiliar, Corrie Ten Boom's family were Christians, part of the Dutch resistance, and housed Jewish people in a hidden room in their residence. For more information, you can read her autobiography, The Hiding Place. We also were able to visit the cathedral prior to its daily closing. Before returning to our hotel, we stopped for dinner at a great burger place, the Thrill Grill. The food was superb, prices were reasonable, and even had locally-brewed beer available.
Keukenhof
Saturday morning was spent at the Keukenhof Gardens. Having been disappointed by the lack of flowers in bloom last year, we were determined to have a different experience this time and were not disappointed. What a difference a year and four weeks makes; though in hindsight, we should have gone the week prior. Many of the blooms were at, or past their peaks, however, the weather was mostly warm which made the experience more enjoyable, even if we dodged some passing rain showers.
Following the Keukenhof, we decided to travel about 40 minutes south to The Hague. Naturally, the many international institutions that call The Hague home were closed for the weekend. We traveled a short distance to the coastal town of Scheveningen. Though it was incredibly windy, we all enjoyed being on the coast and strolling the expansive boardwalk. Once we were all sufficiently cold--which took about 15 minutes--we ducked into an open restaurant for a plate of Dutch pancakes.
Rotterdam
Sunday morning we set off back to Germany, by way of Rotterdam. We surprised the boys with a 1.25 hour harbor tour. This was incredibly informative and the boys thoroughly loved being on a boat! Setting off from the Erasmus bridge, the tour worked toward the North Sea, and after about half an hour, turned around and started back, detouring into several of the channels where cargo ships of all sizes were moored. The tour culminated by taking us past the SS Rotterdam, the former ocean liner that is now a high end hotel and restaurant. 
The harbor tour complete, we made the 15 minute walk to the Maritime Museum Rotterdam. The Maritime Museum had both indoor and exterior components, with the exterior being preserved boats and ships that are able to be explored, some with interactive demonstrations. We grabbed lunch at the museum cafe, and then toured the facility. Overall good displays throughout, and they even had a children's play area on the 3rd floor.
As with our first trip, we enjoyed our time in The Netherlands. The sights, the people and the easy use of English throughout the country always makes for a great trip.
