After meeting long-lost relatives in Germany, we took the train to one of my favorite places: Amsterdam!

Though my last visit to Amsterdam was without my kids, exploring the city with them was just as enjoyable. We dined at incredible restaurants, visited fascinating museums, and had exciting biking adventures around the city.

HOUSE BOAT STAY

I’ve always wanted to stay on the canal, so I surprised the kids with a houseboat. Last time, we stayed at a BnB in one of the tall homes on the water. I’ll never forget the sketchy steep stairs after being out all night. Challenging.

This house boat was owned by Yaap Sier, one of the coolest guys in the Netherlands. I only wish we could have spent more time with him and his lady. NEXT TIME! Anyways, the house boat was roomy, walking distance to everything, and had great views. 2 of my favorite parts of renting a houseboat:

1. Enjoying the lights and boats from the hammock at night.

2. Watching the tourist boats cruise by and take photos of me while I drank Heineken with my shirt off and pretended to steer the parked boat. I’m certain the marjority of them thought I was a local (with a minority realizing I’m just another a-hole ‘Merican.)

The house boat had everything we needed, and made our adventures here even more fun. I love this city so much!

CANALS & RED LIGHT MISTAKE

On our first day, I wanted to walk a lot and show the kids how cool this town is. This place is beyond picturesque. We walked along the canals, found a playground, and made the mistake of cutting through the heart of the Red Light District.

AMSTERDAM TIP: If you’ve got kids, figure out where the Red Light District is before plugging in your Google walking directions. Nothing says wholesome Europe trip like explaining prostitution to your 12-year-old.

We ended up eating very late at Restaurant-Cafe In de Waag. It’s peak tourist season, so we had trouble finding a restaurant that wasn’t packed with a waitlist. The food was good, service swamped, but they gave us some free drinks to sooth our hunger.

DAY 2 WANDERING

The next morning we went to Restaurant De Kas, which is a greenhouse in the middle of Park Frankendael. Everything was delicious! Every dish was superb, the service perfect, and we loved how much of the food was grown right there.

Then we went to a playground with a Cranes Nest! It was a big nest! Then we went to a number of souvenir shops in Dam Square, which was super cool! Dam Square was a bit of a zoo, so we didn’t stay long. We ate a big waffle sugar bomb to keep the kids’ energy up.

We went back to the boat, and enjoyed some downtime. The boat is located at ’S Gravenhekje 8 1011TG, which is in the heart of the city, yet just off the main canals enough to not have loads of tourists everywhere. We could walk to restaurants, shops and anywhere we needed without a hassle.

For dinner, we walked to eat at Brothers Hartering (very close.) Yet another fantastic meal. They had a neat boat down below the restaurant that the kids loved. Kids crashed after a long day of walking, and Natalie and I enjoyed the evening up top.

MUSEUM DAY!

Today we walked to my favorite museum, the Rijksmuseum!

founded in 1800, it’s the largest art museum in the Netherlands. It houses over 8,000 objects of art and history, including masterpieces by Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Van Gogh. The museum’s most famous piece is Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch.” Its impressive collection spans from the Middle Ages to the present day. The Rijks museum also features beautiful gardens and a library with over 35,000 books.

The kids loved the ship models and gun. It blows my mind how well these kids do at long days at museums. They’re exceptional little people!

Then we got some really sketchy bikes! Since our littlest one wasn’t great at biking, we decided on tandem. I thought we’d find some 3-wheel bikes, which would have been perfect, but all we found were these long, awkward bikes with buckets. It was terrifying when having to ride slow behind others next to busy roads.

We rode through big, long parks, hopped across a fountain pool, and had ice cream. We stopped along the canals here and there for hot cocoa, beer, and bar food snacks like cheesy sticks and olives.

We finally made it to our very late reservation at Ron Gastrobar, after riding to the wrong one (we didn’t realize there was more than one.) Again, amazing food! The kids even got surprise ice cream! We were all way too tired to ride back across the city, so we left our bikes there and got an Uber.

The kids crashed hard, and us adults enjoyed the beauty of this amazing place by staying above deck again. Natalie and I were exhausted from all the bike riding.

PARKS, MUSEUM, FINAL SHOPPING

The next morning, we retrieved our bikes and rode through more parks. We stopped to climb a tree and pick flowers. We grabbed some tasty sushi at Momo.

Then we went to a weird, but cool art museum. It was the STAY-duh-lik Stedelijk Museum, the Museum of contemporary art and design. There were some really wild exhibits.

Then we shared a really big stroop waffle. Mom went shopping, and Dad walked us back to the boat. We had a snacky dinner at ORFF.

Then we flew to Geneva to pick up Gabba, and drove to the Ardeche, France to be with family!