Den Bosch

04 december 2016

Though it was 5^o C but because it was a sunny day, we decided to go outside Den Haag. There are some towns that not far from Den Haag that we want to visit, such as Breda, Dordrecht and Den Bosch. But because we plan to visit Dordrecht when it has Christmas Market (which is 2 more weeks) and Breda is smaller than Den Bosch (maybe we can combine Breda with another town), so we decided to visit Den Bosch.

Peru

17 August 2016, Santiago and Flight to Lima, Peru

In the morning we went to Mercado. Mercado is a big market that sell almost everything. It had a “tourist” section that sell souvenirs and seafood restaurants. It also had some counters that sell tour packages. We didn’t spend so much time here. After bought Moai (easter island statue), we decided to back to hotel and get our luggage. We took turbus from Alamameda bus terminal to Santiago Airport. Our flight by Skyairlines from Santiago, to Lima was at 15.10 pm.

Chile

12 August 2016, Amsterdam to Santiago, Chile

We took evening flight from Amsterdam to Santiago, Chile with 3 hours transit at Paris Airport. We departed at 18.45 pm from Amsterdam.

13 August 2016, Santiago

We arrived at Santiago Chile Airport at 08.00 am. We followed the sign to the gate where the bus to downtown would stop. We found the bus ticket counter. There were two bus operators, Turbus and Centropuerto. We chose Turbus because it was clear that the bus will stop at Alamada Bus Terminal. The price was CLP 1700 per peson one way. The bus stopped at several bus stops, including Pajaritos Bus Terminal. The last stop was Alameda Bus Terminal. We got off here, and walked less then 3 minutes to Ibis Hotel.

Nijmegen

13 August 2016, Nijmegen

We arrived at Nijmegen train station, it took only 15 minutes from Arnhem central train station. Nijmegen is the oldest city in the Netherlands. Like the other cities in Holland, the old town was close from the train station. We just followed the clear sign to centruum. The first place we see was the Grote Markt. In this square, we saw the Waaggebouw (weighing house), the beautiful old renaissance building from 1600 and now it serves as a restaurant, the bronze statue of Mariken Nieumeghen, a chief character from 15^th century and the entrance to the St. Stevenskerk, a Romanesque Gothic church. The church was already closed when we arrived, so we just can admire its beautiful façade.

The Holland Open Air Museum (Nederlands Openlucht Museum) Arnhem

13 August 2016, The Holland Open Air Museum (Nederlands Openlucht Museum) Arnhem
We took train from Den Haag Central Station to Arnhem Central Station. From there we continued by Breng (name of the bus in Arnhem) no 3 direction Burger’s Zoo and we stopped at Burger’s Zoo bus stop. From there, we walked to the museum.

Ticket to enter this museum was EUR 15 for adults and EUR 11 for child 4-12 years old. As we have Museumkaart, we got free entry. First, we entered the entrance which also a museum shop. It’s a small shop that sells some things especially for children. Also we can buy some snacks and drinks here. The Museum opens from 10.00 am to 17.00 pm.

Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest

28 July 2016, Vienna
We took morning flight from Amsterdam to Vienna. We departed at 07.00 am and arrived at Schwechat Vienna Airport 08.40 am. From airport we took train (we bought train ticket at the airport for EUR 3.9 per person) and stopped at Praterstern. From there we walked to our hotel, Ibis Hotel.
When we reached Ibis Hotel, we just knew that there was a metro station near Ibis Hotel, Vorgartenstasse Metro Station. It less than 5 minutes walking, so it was very convenient for us to use the metro services.

Hoorn, Netherlands

25 June 2016, Hoorn

Hoorn, a city in  the North Netherlands. It was one of the centers of VOC, the Dutch Indies Company which had Batavia (Jakarta) as one of its important trading posts. It was easy to reach Hoorn since it has its train station. From Den Haag to Hoorn took about 1 hour 30 minutes, including transfer in Amsterdam Sloterdijk.




 



 

Gouda

 
09 June 2016


Gouda is a small town famous for its cheese. It was very easy to reach there, only 20 minutes from Den Haag by train. The town can be explore by foot from the central station. There were some beautiful old buildings that we can visit. Sint-Janskerk is a church with its beautiful stained glass windows is one of them. St Janskerk was originally Roman Catholic Church, but now is a Protestant Church. Just across the church, we can also visit Gouda Museum, where we can see many collections from 16^th century, such as ceramics and paintings.


 

Greece : Athens, Delphi and Meteora

Greece

28 May – 01 June 2016

28 May 2016, Fly to Athens

We took evening flight from Amsterdam to Athens. We departed at 08.35 pm and arrived at 00.25. From Airport we took taxi directly to our hotel, Astor Hotel in Syntagma Square area.








 

Copenhagen, Helsingor and Hillerod - Denmark

Copenhagen, 5-7 May 2016

5 May 2016

It’s a long weekend, time to pack our luggage J This time we chose Copenhagen, only 1 hour flight from Amsterdam. We had morning flight at 8 am. We deciced to stay at airport hotel, Park Inn Hotel which is located only 2 stops from Airport by metro. First, we bought 1 day pass (DKK 80) at the airport, then took M2 metro and stop at Femoren Stop. From there, we already can see the hotel. Lucky for us, that we can get our room before the check inn time, so we had some times to freshen up. 

 

 

Keukenhof Garden and Flower Field at Lisse

24 April 2016

There were so many ways to reach Keukenhof. We chose to go there via Leiden. From Leiden train station, there was a special bus that go directly to Keukenhof. The trip was about 25 minutes.

The bus stopped at the main entrance of the Keukenhof Garden. But we decided to explore the surrounding area first to visit some of the flower fields (Because in the garden, we can not find the flower field). 

Flower Parade at Hillegom

Hillegom Flower Parade

23 April 2016

Actually we didn’t plan to watch the Flower Parade. We planned to visit flower field at Lisse. We took bus to Lisse, but since we didn’t realize that the monitor that showing bus stop name was not working, we passed Lisse and end up at Hillegom. Luckily, we just in time for the flower parade (at around 05 pm).

This annual flower parade consists of many floats decorated with flowers. Days before, they prepared the floats, and 3 days before, with a small fee (EUR 5) publics can participate decorate the floats. Then, on April 23, they will have the parade which was start from Noordwijk at 9.30 am to Haarlem. The parade will also pass by Keukenhof. The parade will arrive at Harleem around 21.30. 

Haarlem

 
Haarlem
17 April 2016

We visited Haarlem as part of our trip to Hillegom. From Hillegom, it took only 10 minutes by train. As we did not had our lunch at Hillegom, and it was almost 4 pm when we reached Haarlem, first thing we did was had late lunch. Lucky for us, we found Surinaams Indonesisch Resto, Sinar Cinta, not far from the station (only 5 minutes walk) and double lucky that the resto was opened at 4 pm. So we are their first customer :)

  

Hillegom, Flower Field in Netherlands

Hillegom
17 April 2016

When we think about Netherlands, we must think about tulip. And when we think about tulip, we must think about Keukenhof. Same with us. We always thinking to see the flower strip field in Keukenhof, until... we did our research in the web and found out that if we want to see the flower strip field, Keukenhof is not the place! We should go to town flower area. One of the town is Hillegom.

Amstelveen Cheery Blossom Festival

Amstelveen Cheery Blossom Festival
10 April 2016


Every year in Amsterdamse Bos (Amsterdam Forest), 400 Japanese cherry trees blossom. And every year, Japanese expats from Amsterdam area celebrate the coming of spring in this area. The celebration was on 09 April 2016. But since we only wanted to enjoy the scenery, we decided to come on the next day.

From Den Haag, we took train to Schiphol, then from there, we took bus no 300 and stop at the second stop. Then we changed to bus 149 and stopped just in front of the forest entrance. From there, we just need to walk 10 minutes to the cherry blossom spot. Amsterdam Bos is a very large forest, there were some entrances, so we made sure we took the short way to the cherry blossom area.

Giethoorn - Venice of Holland

Giethoorn

9 April 2016

Giethoorn is one of our bucket list since we arrived in Netherlands. And yes, when spring finally come, we’re so excited to go there. We looked at weather prediction and lucky us, this Saturday was a sunny day. Giethoorn is a small village in Netherlands. What make Giethoorn unique is in Giethoorn, houses are separated from each other by canals. That’s why it is known as Venice of Holland. They use canals for their transportation. There are no roads, only small path for walking or cycling. 

Czech Republic: Prague, Karlstejn Castle, Bohemian Saxon Zwitserland and Kutna Hora

Czech Republic: Prague, Karlstejn Castle, Bohemian Saxon Zwitserland and Kutna Hora
26 – 29 March 2016

Our sleeping train from Cologne arrived at Prague Central Station (Hlavni nadrazi) at around 11.20. First, we put our luggage at the hotel. We stayed at EA Tosca Hotel, though it took about 25 minutes walk from central station, but it is very close-only 1 minute walk-to metro stop (Náměstí Miru) and also had a good price EUR 60/night.

 

Cologne, Germany

Cologne, Germany
25 March 2016

As part of our trip to Prague, we need to change our train at Cologne, Germany. So, we just took the opportunity to explore the town. The trip from Den Haag to Cologne itself took around 3 hours including short transfer at Utrecht. We arrived at Cologne Train Station at around 1 pm. We put our luggage in the station luggage storage. It cost EUR 7 for 24 hours.

Main attraction in Cologne is the Cologne Cathedral and it’s located just in front of the train station. Across the Cathedral, we can find tourist information, a good place to get some idea about places we can visit. But for map, we should pay EUR1.

Zandaam and Zaanse Schans

 Zaandam

19 March 2016
Zaandam is not like the other cities in Netherlands. Here we can not easily spot old buildings or windmills. When we stepped outside the train station, we were welcomed by unique shape with the dominant color green buildings. For this trip, we brought our bikes. We can put our bikes in the parking area besides the train station.

Leiden

Leiden, 13 March 2016

Only 15 minutes by train from Den Haag, then we arrive at Leiden. A small city but has so many reasons to be visited. It has the oldest university in Netherlands, it’s the birthplace of Rembrandt, it is pretty and all the attractions are within walking distance from Leiden Centraal Station.

We arrived at Leiden at around 1 pm. Just in front of the station, there were some girls, giving information for tourist. We got Leiden’s map and also good direction from them.

Antwerpen, Belgium

 
28 February 2016
Just because today was sunny (that's very rare here), we hurriedly decided we must go somewhere. The choices were between Maastricht and Antwerpen. Since it's already 9 am, and to reach Maastricht we need 3 hours, so the winner was Antwerpen. It took only 1 hour (by Thallys train) or 1 hour 50 minutes by NS train.

Sweden

Sweden

12- 16 February 2016

12 February 2016, Amsterdam to Stockholm

We took Norwegian Airlines to fly from Amsterdam to Arlanda Airport, Stockholm. Our departure was delayed 1 hour, so we took off at around 22.40. It took 2 hours to get there. Since we arrived very late night, we decided to stay at Airport Hotel Clarion. This hotel located inside the airport, so it was very convenient to reach the hotel. 

Amsterdam : Nemo Museum

Nemo museum is truly a fun place to visit. An interactive museum where we can learn about many things. It is not only interesting for kids, but also for adults. It is open from tuesday to sunday from10.00 - 17.30.



It is located only 10 minutes walking from Amsterdam Centraal Station. From the centraal station, just turn left and we can directly spot the building, the unique shape green building, that looks like a ship.

Rotteram : First Day in 2016

First new day in 2016, we visited new place that can be reached from Den Haag at 30 minutes. Rotterdam. The largest port in Netherlands and also the second largest port in the world.



We arrived at Rotterdam Central Station. Very modern building. With its unique design, the building of Centraal Station can become one of the icons in Rotterdam. And it becomes our starting point to explore the city.