The Netherlands is a lovely country. I can’t say enough about the lifestyle here… it’s very active with lots of walking and biking, but the mass transit is excellent; plenty of good grocery stores and restaurants. Strolling around the cities and town is such a nice experience. Lots of trees, parks and gardens. You can easily get around with English.
Amsterdam (May 2023)
We spent the month of May in Amsterdam and enjoyed their great lifestyle. The weather was ideal and strolling the canals was lovely in this extremely walkable city. We stayed at Wittenberg by Cove, an aparthotel in a restored 18th-century building near the zoo, and it was perfect. We quickly found our favorite restaurants (Box Social, Ramen Kingdom, Krua Thai, Bagel & Bean, D&A Hummus), but cooked in as well. Highlights included seeing the tulips at Keukenhof, visiting Anne Frank’s house, taking a few bike tours, taking a side trip to cool Rotterdam, seeing Depeche Mode, going to the Heineken Brewery, visiting the Van Gogh museum, and taking a few food tours. We definitely want to come back again for another stay.
Rotterdam (May 2023)
One morning we took the train to Rotterdam, about 45 minutes away, and it was very cool. We walked around a bit, taking in the architecture of the iconic cube houses. We had lunch at the beautiful Markthal (Market Hall), a food hall opened in 2014. The inside of the building is covered with a massive artwork showing fruits, vegetables, fish, flowers and bugs.
Nijmegen (July 2022)
We visited Nijmegen on a river cruise in 2022 and we did a bike tour around the area. One of the coolest things we saw was this large sculpture of a Roman cavalry sports helmet found in the bank of the river in 1915. Nijmegen is the oldest Roman city in the Netherlands.
