I adopted little Minnie in September, and ever since then, I’ve been excited for her to meet my…
Times visited: 5 (1 day in 2017, 1 day in 2023, 2x 1 day in early 2024, 2 days in late 2024)
Cities visited: Amsterdam
Towns and villages visited: De Lutte, Boxtel, Baarle-Nassau, Raamsdonksveer, Wijk aan Zee, Franeker, Dokkum, Moddergat
I don’t actually know how many times I went to the Netherlands as a child, as my family often took the ferry from Hoek van Holland to England. But the first time I went there as a tourist was in the summer of 2017, on a 1-day stopover in Amsterdam en route to Luxembourg.
I’ve never really prioritized the Netherlands as I always thought of the country as similar to Denmark but with less natural beauty. But I had heard so many good things about Amsterdam so I decided to give it a shot in 2017. After all, it was much cheaper to get to Luxembourg by flying into Amsterdam and taking a night bus!
I was quite good at touristing in Amsterdam. I got up early to start my 8-hour sightseeing walk around the city centre with a long list of things that I wanted to see. I walked and walked and walked, finding one pretty view of the famous canals after the other. Did you know that there are more than one hundred kilometres of canals with 2,500 bridges and 90 islands in the city!? Venice, move over! I went on a canal cruise that took me all around the city center and through some of the most scenic canals. And yes, I did also visit the Red Light District and no, I didn’t buy any weed.
I know it’s not fair to judge a city after just one day, but I just didn’t love Amsterdam as much as I thought I would. To be honest, I couldn’t help comparing it to Copenhagen and that just isn’t a fair comparison!
I honestly never thought I’d return to Amsterdam, but six years later, I unexpectedly ended up with another half day in the city as I was travelling overland from Scotland to Denmark with my little dog. I took the same route twice in early 2024 as well, and tried to keep an open mind about the city, but I just don’t love it.
However, a country is always much more than its capital! And in November 2024, I finally got to see what makes the Netherlands special. During a roadtrip to Scotland, I spent a day in the Netherlands on the way there and a day on the way back. Having a car allowed me the freedom to see some of the lesser known places in the country and get an understanding of Dutch life beyond the cities. My first day started in De Lutte, a tiny town by the border to Germany. I then drove to the town of Boxtel to see its impressive Medieval castle, Kasteel Stapelen, and spent a few hours exploring the Belgian/Dutch exclave puzzle of Baarle-Hertog/Baarle-Nassau before ending the day in a cozy hotel in Raamsdonksveer. The second day in the Netherlands was all about Frisia, the least-populated region in the country, which is known for its vast countryside, lakes and canals and small towns. After a walk along the beach in Wijk aan Zee, I drove over the 32-kilometre Afsluitdijk dam to Frisia. I opted for two adorable town visits – to Franeker and Dokkum – and ended the day with a cloudy sunset by the Wadden Sea in Moddergat. Finally, I got to see that the Netherlands has much more to offer than an overcrowded city, and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised!
