Museums, Playgrounds and Other Things To Do in Amsterdam

Museumplein, where Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, and the Diamond Museum are located, is only 5-10minutes by foot from the Marriott. Vondelpark is right next door to the Marriott. (Being next to a park and major attractions make the Marriott super convenient.)

I read about the Holland Pass before leaving the US and purchased them from the KLM website since it gave a discount. The Holland Pass came in very handy. The pass allows the holder to ‘jump the queue’. It totally saved us from waiting in the rain for at least an hour and a half at the Rijksmuseum. Our main reason for going was to see the Vermeers and the Rembrandts. Our favorite was Vermeer’s “The Milkmaid”. The milk looked like it was actually flowing out of the pitcher. The must see painting “The Love Letter’ was on loan to Canada. I was disappointed but the visit was still fabulous. If you have the time, the museum has activities for children. We didn’t but wish we had.

I think the girls enjoyed the Van Gogh Museum; one of the keys to a pleasant experience? a stroller from the museum for our younger one. What a great idea! We could not have lasted as long as we did without the stroller. The Dutch are so thoughtful…one of the ladies took one look at our youngest and offered us the stroller. The girls and I agreed that we liked the happier paintings than the darker ones. We liked “The Irises”, “The Sunflower” and “The Yellow House”.

If the children get tired of the museums, the open square bordered by the museums is a great place to run around. It is a really nice open space with a huge red and white “I Am Amsterdam” sculpture, kids playground, water feature and cafes. Kids loved it! (Another great playground is the UJ Klaren park near the De Pijp neighborhood. It has a built in trampoline in the ground, a huge spider web type climbing feature and lots of swings. The girls didn’t want to leave.)

A fun and non-taxing way to see Amsterdam is to take a canal boat cruise. My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed it but the girls were bored half way through the tour. It’s still a great thing to do with the kids…especially towards the end of the day when they are too tired to walk.

If you ask the girls what they enjoyed or remembered most about Amsterdam, they just might tell you that they really liked the souvenir stores. Both of them became obsessed with the wooden clogs piggy banks and stuffed cows. They wanted to enter every single store they came across. They were good about comparing prices and in the end they did end up with the clog piggy banks and yes, the stuffed cows. And oh right, they tried on the wooden clogs every chance they got. (August 2009)