Netherlands 2026

 When we rode bikes through the Netherlands during tulip season in 2012 it felt like a once in a lifetime trip.

Doing this same trip with Michael's family again was such a wonderful, beautiful time! We felt so grateful to be there with them. We really missed Shelley and Tony and Pam and Gary. And it really is a hard stage to leave cute kids behind, but we're so grateful for all the things that came together to make this trip happen.

Here's a breakdown of our days and too many pictures :)

Saturday/Sunday: Travel Time
We had a smooth flight to Minneapolis and then a totally sad 4-hour flight delay to Amsterdam, which meant that we would miss our tour of the Anne Frank house. I was looking forward to that so much. I woke up at 2 a.m. to get tickets to it 6 weeks ago when our dates released and now I just have to go back to Amsterdam again to finally visit. BUT we did take advantage of our looooong layover and went to visit the Mall of America. And now Michael can check off Minnesota, so there's that!

When we finally landed in Amsterdam, we left our luggage at the airport so we could book it to our canal tour. We missed it by 5 minutes, but they were kind and let us hop on the next one. The jet lag hit hard on that pleasant boat ride after our all-night flight, but it really is a beautiful city! Michael and I walked around after before grabbing our luggage and meeting up with Rachel and Spencer and Ed and Sally. We took an Uber together to Weesp, ate delicious Indian food for dinner, and went to bed to get rested for our week of riding.

Weesp was so beautiful!
Cute families in the street, beautiful canal walk, our hotel was on top of a restaurant, and we walked to a little town castle that night after dinner.

Mall of America. 
Not quite the Anne Frank house but it was something.
Michael did get a nice jacket?

Monday:

Weesp to Edam, 30 miles, little ferry ride, tons of lambs, castle outside of Weesp.

We got a late start on our bike ride after our orientation/bike meeting. We stopped at Muiden Castle three miles and it was a really fascinating tour. The day was a little longer because of the late start and early long stop -- we finished dinner at 10pm. Our bums are already feeling it, but that's the beauty of a bike week! My favorite part of the ride today was seeing tons and tons of baby lambs just everywhere along our path.

Tuesday:

Edam to Alkmaar, 30 miles

Started with a yummy European breakfast at our hotel then a visit to the Edam cheese factory — learned how it’s different from Gouda. Edam is made with skim milk and if you flavor it then it's not Edam. Gouda is made with different levels of fat and aged different lengths of time and made with all sorts of flavors. Today felt like a more leisurely 30 miles -- we took a break at a fort that had lots of cute tables and a perfect sunny spot for some of our packed snacks, then we stopped at a grocery store to get some fun snacks and things to bring home to all the kids. We took another ice cream cone stop for a bathroom break spot, and stopped at a sheep farm with newborn lambs (1-day to 1-week old!) with the nicest farmer, and our first tulip fields.

FaceTimed the kids by a windmill then made it to Alkmaar in time for a famous ice cream shop that has been open since 1948 — specializes in plain vanilla and truly so delicious. Would have gone again the next day if it opened earlier! We had Thai for dinner, Europe and tap water is always a thing. Then Michael and I walked after dinner and planned a little for the next day when we were in charge of leading the group and picking a dinner spot.

Wednesday:

Alkmaar to Haarlem

We left at a good time, took a good windmill picture on the way out of Alkmaar, rode to a busy windmill spot, and ate Dutch pancakes for lunch. Nutella really is a wonderful thing. We took a little ferry across a river, then we rode on to Haarlem in time to go to the the main church there, St. Bavo church. Mozart played the organ there (over 5,000 pipes) when he was 10 and Handel also played that organ. A big carnival was happening at the city center and the old/new side by side was funny. We parked our bikes in a cool bike parking garage (double level bike parking, free to use), then walked to Prakm for dinner — a Dutch kitchen that I found and the waiter/owner/chef was so great. We liked the Dutch food — beef stew, Dutch apple pie, I got seafood stew. I really loved walking through Haarlem. I remember this city from last time we were here.

Thursday: 

Haarlem to Lieden

Tulip day! Best bacon I’ve ever had for breakfast. Michael led the group on the bikes again. We had a hard ride by the coast today up and down the dunes, but a great view of the North Sea. Made good time to Keukenhof! So fun to see tulip fields before and after and to walk around the beautiful gardens. Then we had a third of our day left and it wasn't a bad ride at all, plus the last loop through Leiden was beautiful. We got falafels/shawarmas and ate them on benches by the canal for dinner. Found gelato after and we tried the Bueno flavor, like a Kinder Bueno. Then we played Scum at the hotel after with the Jensens and Findlays.

 

Friday:

Lieden to Delft

Today was our easiest bike day, 25 miles. Rode from Lieden through gorgeous homes on canals toward the coast. Touched the North Sea. Rode more dune hills toward Den Hague. Stopped at the Palace of Peace or International Court of Justice. It was closed today because there was most likely a meeting happening but it was fun to read about what happens there and take a picture. The security guard was really funny with us, he was making us laugh. We rode by the palace and parliament. Ate snacks and packed food in the square and got gelato. Climbed a free lookout tower to see a view of the parliament renovation. Rode on to Delft. Checked into our hotel — hilarious themed rooms, ours bed is a boat. Then we rode to the Delft ceramic museum. It was so fun to see the process and learn the history. Then we rode to Surinamese food for dinner, which was delicious. We loved the satay chicken and fried rice and green beans. And their roti bread was so good — a mix between a pita and crepe. Then we rode back to our hotel to park the bikes for the night, then all the kids went to get Belgian sugar waffles. We sat in the main square with waffles and hot chocolate for a couple hours and I just felt so lucky to be there.

Saturday:

Delft to Gouda

Rode from Delft to the train station, and took the train to Rotterdam central. Funny to use a revolving door with our bikes and figure out the bike system for the underground. Met a super nice old lady who was headed to bike 650 kilometers in France with her friend who was going to get on when we got off — she ended up being 15 years older than the first woman we met, and they looked like such cute old friends going on an adventure. The bike accessibility here is so great. Then we got off and took a water taxi, then a short ride to kinderdijk (windmills, world heritage site). So fun to tour the windmill houses! What a simple sweet life. I think my boys would’ve loved living in a windmill and running a small farm. From there we rode our last leg — 15 miles to Gouda. Beautiful countryside and fields and saw lots of ducks and spring things :) got stopped one mile from our hotel because a drawbridge was up and being worked on, so had a 3-mile detour but got to our last spot 30 min early. The bike van pulled up 5 min after us and we unpacked our panniers and turned in our bikes. That felt sad! Then we got settled, walked into Gouda, took a tour of a stroopwafel factory, and then sampled a ton of Gouda cheese at a cheese shop. Fondue for dinner with everyone before Katie and Ryan went to the airport. Came back and FaceTimed the boys, played scum, and swapped pictures. Then Ed and Sally went to bed and the rest of us went out for one more gelato run and grocery store trip. Came home and got packed up and organized for our whirlwind Paris day tomorrow!

Sunday:

One Day in Paris!

We woke up early in Gouda, took an Uber with the Jensens and Daetwylers to Amsterdam, and hopped on our short flight to Paris. We dropped our stuff at an airport hotel and hit the ground running for our one day in the city!

First stop, Notre Dame. We didn't think we'd have time to go inside but the line moved really quickly! They didn't have the Crown of Thorns in its display case, but it was beautiful to walk around inside. From there we went to Sainte-Chapelle, which is one of my favorite places in the entire world. The first time I visited back during my London study abroad is so memorable to me -- I didn't fully know what I was walking into and when I came up the stairs into all the stained glass, I just physically lost my breath and coudn't believe how beautiful it was. I was so excited to go back. It's the only thing I bought tickets for in advance because I knew we couldn't know our timing well during our marathon day, so we planned it all around our one reservation at Sainte-Chapelle. And we had fun leaving Kindal a secret note there! She'll be visiting in 3 weeks... let's see if it lasts :) From there, we walked to the Shakespeare and Company bookstore. Then we got a delicious, delicious chocolate croissant. Those are one of my top favorite treats and Paris does them right! We ate them at a little park by the river until we got sprinklered :) Then we walked to the Bastille, and saw a fascinating Iranian protest. Basically the Make Iran Great Again crowd with Iranian, Israeli, and American flags. What a unique segment of people. Then we walked to a courtyard, the Plaza de Vosges. A man brought his cat there and was just laying on the grass with it laying on him, off its leash. Blew my mind. Kitty would never. From there we walked through the Louvre grounds and saw where the museum was recently broken into. Such a busy street. So wild they just rolled up a cherry picker and did that. Then came our sad travel moment -- I just could not go on any longer without food, so we stopped to eat something from a little stand in the Tuileries, and because of that we didn't get into the l'Orangerie to see Monet's water lilies. This made me so sad! I've seen them but I really wanted Michael to. But from there we turned on Rick Steves and walked up the Champs Elysses, then went to the Arc de Triomphe during the nightly ceremony for the unknown solider. Then we got mediocre Indian food for dinner, which felt sad when we only had one Paris dinner. From there we walked to the Eiffel tower, and ate Nutella strawberry crepes and watched the twinkle lights. So magical. Then we went to Sacre-Coeur and saw the services inside and people gathered outside. The services run continuously, constantly. I loved the contrast of the service inside and the nightlife scene outside and the Eiffel Tower twinkling again in the distance. From there we took an Uber back to our hotel, ready to fly home to our babies in the morning.

This trip was so full of memories, I'm so grateful we were able to do this!