Yotel Hotel at Schiphol: A Review
A review of Yotel Hotel Schiphol (a.k.a. YotelAir): inspired by capsule hotels, it’s worth considering if you have an early flight and little luggage.
The Netherlands
I live in the Netherlands, so I have lots of articles from around the country. In particular, if you’re planning travel to Amsterdam, you’ll find reviews of lots of Amsterdam museums and other sights. But there’s plenty more to see outside of the tourist crowds in Amsterdam, so check out my articles about other places too!
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Electric Ladyland: hippie heaven
Electric Ladyland in Amsterdam is one of the weirdest museums I’ve visited yet. The museum claims to be the “first museum of fluorescent art.”
The Cat Cabinet: Another quirky Amsterdam museum
The Cat Cabinet is a rather mixed bag of cat art – from movie posters and mass-produced figurines to Picasso and Rembrandt – in a beautiful Amsterdam canal house.
The Houseboat Museum, Amsterdam
Ever considered living in a houseboat? The Houseboat Museum in Amsterdam gives a glimpse of houseboat life: a very quick glimpse, given how small a vintage houseboat is.
Ter Apel Cloister
The village of Ter Apel has been in the news a lot lately. A huge refugee center there is the first home for hundreds of Syrians, Eritreans, Afghans and others seeking safety and a new life in the Netherlands. Ter Apel’s claim to fame, though, if you can call it famous, is a medieval cloister…
What to do in Zaanse Schans
Frequent travelers often express a certain disdain for places that are “touristy,” meaning crowded with tourists: San Marco’s square in Venice, for example, or the Tower of London, or the Forbidden City in Beijing. Many of us avoid such places, preferring the more off-the-beaten-track destinations. Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click on…
Visiting Dutch Gardens
When you think of the Netherlands and gardens and flowers, what comes immediately to mind? I assume your answer is “tulips.” Tulips are cultivated here in huge quantity and they or the bulbs are exported all over the world. Keukenhof and Giethoorn One of the biggest attractions for tourists in the Netherlands is Keukenhof, a tulip…
Amsterdam Central train station sightseeing
If you find yourself with some time to kill at Amsterdam Central train station, there’s plenty to do right nearby. Here are some suggestions.
The Sex Museum Amsterdam: Cure for insomnia
The first thing you see on entering the Sex Museum Amsterdam is a life size statue of Priapus, the Greek god of fertility, and he’s … well, let’s say he’s pretty turned on, and well-endowed. Review of the Sex Museum Amsterdam The rest of the museum goes downhill from there. Unfortunately, if I want to keep…
Churches of Groningen province (part 1)
When I first arrived in the Netherlands back in 1997, one of the first bits of sightseeing I did, besides exploring my new hometown of Groningen itself, was to go on a driving tour of village churches in Groningen province. The idea came from my favorite guidebook: the Michelin green guide to the Netherlands. The…
The Beauty of a Dutch Commute
A couple of times a week, I commute to my part-time job in Leeuwarden, in Friesland province. Sometimes I drive, but as much as possible, I like to take the train. I start by bicycling to the train station in the center of Groningen, parking the bike and boarding the train. The train trip takes about 35…
The Martinitoren: a Groningen Landmark
About a year ago I wrote a post about Groningen, the small city where I live. I mapped out a route that started at the train station and wound its way through the city, ending at the landmark Martinitoren. The Martinitoren Today, for the first time in several years, I climbed the Martinitoren, and it…
Exploring Amsterdam’s Undiscovered North
Once overlooked by travelers, the borough of Amsterdam Noord (Amsterdam North) has developed into a thriving artistic community, a spot for dance and music festivals, and an escape from Amsterdam’s chaotic and touristy center. This is – or, rather, was – a sponsored guest post, originally published by thehipmunk on Hipmunk’s Tailwind blog on December 10, 2015….
Huis Marseille photography museum in Amsterdam
I was very happy when my daughter, visiting from the US, wanted to spend the day in Amsterdam, sightseeing with me. I gave her a list of museums I’d like to visit for my series on Amsterdam museums and other sights, and told her to choose two. My daughter, a graphic designer, chose the Spectacles…
The Dutch Resistance Museum, Amsterdam
“That was pretty interesting” is high praise indeed, when it comes from my 17-year-old son after a visit to a museum. The Verzetsmuseum – the Dutch Resistance Museum – in Amsterdam is one of very few that have earned a “pretty interesting” from him. Documenting not just the resistance movement during World War II, but…
WinterWelVaart: Groningen’s Christmas Market
WinterWelVaart is Groningen’s annual Christmas market, with an unusual maritime twist that makes it extra special!
Red Light Secrets Museum of Prostitution: a review
What I expected on visiting Red Light Secrets Museum of Prostitution was a presentation that titillates and that presents prostitution as a happy profession with practitioners who choose to become prostitutes. Note: I’ve updated this post with some remarks from a “part time excort whore” who commented on it on Twitter. See below. Disclosure: This post contains…
Hash, Marijuana & Hemp Museum Amsterdam
It’s not surprising that Amsterdam is home to a museum of Hash, Marijuana and Hemp, given its generally tolerant policy toward soft drugs. You’d think, given the somewhat subversive subject, that it would be entertaining to visit. It wasn’t. Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you click on one and make a purchase, I…
The Museum of Bags and Purses Amsterdam
Added in May 2021: I just found out that this museum closed in April 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. I’ll leave the review here as it is, in case anyone is interested in what it was like. For the sake of full transparency and before I describe my impressions of Tassenmuseum Hendrikje, the…
Body Worlds Amsterdam: Museum or freak show?
Warning: If you’re squeamish, you might want to click away…but please share this post before you go! Body Worlds: The Happiness Project exhibit in Amsterdam is described on its webpage like this: “More than 200 anatomical specimens of real human bodies show the complexity, resilience and vulnerability of the body.” In other words, at Body Worlds…
The most beautiful Starbucks?
You know how sometimes you get so used to what you see every day that you stop noticing it? I’ve walked by the Starbucks in the Groningen central train station hundreds of times in the course of commuting to and from my job up in Leeuwarden. I just didn’t pay much attention to it until…
The Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam: A review
You could easily be forgiven if, at first, you just walk by the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam. You might notice that it’s pretty, but so are so many houses along the old canal rings. Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. That means I’ll receive a small commission on anything you buy through clicking the links….
Van Loon Museum: A restored Golden Age house
After the Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder museum and The Canal House Museum, our last stop was the van Loon Museum, a restored Golden Age canal house. This is what I’d been expecting when we visited the Canal House Museum: rooms that give an impression of how wealthy residents of Amsterdam’s Golden Age lived and, to…
Canal House Museum Amsterdam: A review
I already posted about the first of the three little museums I visited in Amsterdam with a friend: Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder. After a bite for lunch—Burgermeester has surprisingly good burgers!—we moved on to the Canal House Museum Amsterdam (In Dutch it’s called Het Grachtenhuis.). It’s not surprising that a canal house museum is housed…
Ons Lieve Heer op Solder: A surprising little museum
Tourists in Amsterdam, if they visit museums at all, generally hit the big ones: the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh, for example. But there are dozens of smaller museums in Amsterdam that are just as interesting and worth seeing. Ons Lieve Heer op Solder is one of them. Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If…
Yes, you CAN visit the Rijksmuseum in 2 hours!
I’m not a museum person. That’s not to say I’m not interested in art, or natural history, or science, or whatever the museum is about. It’s just that I don’t have the patience to concentrate on one thing for very long. At the same time, I’m not physically up to it; for some reason standing…
St. Maartens Day: A sweet local tradition
Today is St Maartens Day here in Groningen, a children’s tradition that is relatively unique to this area. On the 11th of November, once the sun goes down, children go door-to-door begging for sweets. Instead of threatening “trick or treat” like on Halloween, the deal here is that they sing a song, and in return,…
Bicycle baptism
All we were trying to do was to get out of the car while it was stopped in traffic. The plan was to walk to the restaurant two blocks away while my husband went to park the car. It made sense. I stepped out on the right side, but not before saying to the kids…
Watery Hubris
That’s part of this admirable hubris: complete and utter self-confidence.