Taking the kids to Amsterdam for the weekend posed a problem, namely, how do you show them the landmarks of one of the world’s greatest cities, while steering them clear of the other ‘attractions’ that are probably the major draw for 90% of the tourists there. There are some fabulous kid-things to do here – all within walking distance of anywhere. But they also happen to criss-cross the center of Amsterdam, where lies the famously tolerant red-light district. And even if you gave it a wide berth and walked around it, adding an hour to your journey, there’s no escaping the 180 or so coffee shops. And even then, if by some great sleight of hand, you were able to avoid those as well, there is no avoiding their ‘casualties’- bewildered, aromatic, choof-heads, looking like they’d been kicked out of a homeless shelter, all sporting the same “no-one-home” look. One ‘victim’ we stumbled over was parked in a crumbled heap on a bridge, astonished at the frites he was holding. I’m guessing that he simply forgot that he was making a vain attempt at gaining enough sobriety to get let back in to the Christian Youth Hostel, the cheapest bed in town.
Despite this pretty picture, we still managed to do a lot of walking (punctuated with some good coffee breaks). In old Amsterdam, every street is lined with 17th century row houses, – quaint, incredibly narrow and sometimes crooked - they lie right in front of a canal that looks exactly like the one we just passed. After a while, the houses start to look identical too, and before you know it, we hear “hey Dad, where are we?” or “didn’t we pass this already?” A word of caution when visiting Amsterdam - don’t leave your hotel without a good map, a day’s worth of provisions, cell phone, compass and emergency numbers.
A big highlight was the TunFun – a 5000 sq foot underground playground, situated in an old overpass that has been converted into kid heaven. Watching (and worrying) over S&H, I calculated the reasons why we can’t have this in America. Only one real reason - Liability Insurance. With a climbing structure some 5 storey’s high, kids run, climb, jump, swing and bounce around out of sight while parents park themselves in bean bags, sip on koffie verkeerd, absorb complimentary newspapers, surf the net and switch off. Even if you found an insurance company ready to cover it (and even if you could afford it), a broken bone, black eye, or scalded mouth (from that latte) would still end it all. But not in Holland. If you think about it, you never see hordes of Dutch people limping along cobblestone streets sporting ancient wounds from unsupervised fun, so probably this more tolerant approach works out just fine.
We gave Anne Frank’s house a miss – the queue goes around the block now. When I suggested Van Gogh’s museum, I was met with that backwards gulping sound you make when a drink goes down the wrong way. But we did manage to drag our sorry cookie-asses to three street markets, where we found fabulous cheeses, hundreds of tulips (of course), bicycle accessories and designer cast-offs from Italy. We also found a midget car, pictured above. Amsterdam is only an hour and 20 minutes away by train from Eindhoven. As a famous neighboring Austrian twice said – “I’ll be Back”.
Despite this pretty picture, we still managed to do a lot of walking (punctuated with some good coffee breaks). In old Amsterdam, every street is lined with 17th century row houses, – quaint, incredibly narrow and sometimes crooked - they lie right in front of a canal that looks exactly like the one we just passed. After a while, the houses start to look identical too, and before you know it, we hear “hey Dad, where are we?” or “didn’t we pass this already?” A word of caution when visiting Amsterdam - don’t leave your hotel without a good map, a day’s worth of provisions, cell phone, compass and emergency numbers.
A big highlight was the TunFun – a 5000 sq foot underground playground, situated in an old overpass that has been converted into kid heaven. Watching (and worrying) over S&H, I calculated the reasons why we can’t have this in America. Only one real reason - Liability Insurance. With a climbing structure some 5 storey’s high, kids run, climb, jump, swing and bounce around out of sight while parents park themselves in bean bags, sip on koffie verkeerd, absorb complimentary newspapers, surf the net and switch off. Even if you found an insurance company ready to cover it (and even if you could afford it), a broken bone, black eye, or scalded mouth (from that latte) would still end it all. But not in Holland. If you think about it, you never see hordes of Dutch people limping along cobblestone streets sporting ancient wounds from unsupervised fun, so probably this more tolerant approach works out just fine.
We gave Anne Frank’s house a miss – the queue goes around the block now. When I suggested Van Gogh’s museum, I was met with that backwards gulping sound you make when a drink goes down the wrong way. But we did manage to drag our sorry cookie-asses to three street markets, where we found fabulous cheeses, hundreds of tulips (of course), bicycle accessories and designer cast-offs from Italy. We also found a midget car, pictured above. Amsterdam is only an hour and 20 minutes away by train from Eindhoven. As a famous neighboring Austrian twice said – “I’ll be Back”.
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