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.