Sofia and I just got back from our Netherlands trip and it was amazing. I’ll make a separate post about Keukenhof because we went there twice and there are so many pictures. We made Haarlem our home base because of its proximity to Amsterdam and Keukenhof. On our first full day there we went to Keukenhof. The bus picked us up from the Haarlem train station and took us straight to Keukenhof.

Our next day was the day trip to Amsterdam. We took the train which was super quick and easy. We walked to the Nemo Science Museum, which is the same one that Leo and I went to a few years ago. Sofia loved it and I had to drag her away after a few hours. After that we wandered around a bit, though we were both exhausted so we didn’t stay long. We did go to a pancake place and got some lunch there. I need a game plan the next time I go to Amsterdam. I have been twice now and both times I went to the museum and then wandered around a little bit, but have been too tired to really explore. And I’m not sure where to go.

The next day we stayed in Haarlem. They have a cat cafe there called Jippies that I had made reservations for. I have been looking at cat cafes for years to bring Sofia to but most have an age requirement of 10 or so. Jippies only requires kids to be 6, so Sofia was able to go. She loved it. The cats didn’t really want to be pet much, but some of them were very playful. Sofia didn’t even care, she was just so excited to be in the presence of cats. Afterwards we walked around Haarlem a bit. I really like Haarlem. It was bigger than I expected. It’s beautiful, and feels much more manageable than Amsterdam. It was less crowded too. Even being there for 5 days I know there is a lot we didn’t see in Haarlem. We easily could have stayed another week.

On our last day we had a free day and Sofia wanted to see the tulips again, so we went back to Keukenhof. I’m glad we did because we saw a lot that we had missed. We also went on a canal tour in Keukenhof.

We both had tons of fun and didn’t want to come back home. The place we stayed at was above a restaurant and the owner’s dog goes to the restaurant most days. He is an English Retriever named Guus. Sofia completely fell in love with him and was so excited to see him everyday. I have never seen her so attached to a dog- she usually prefers cats. Unfortunately Guus wasn’t there our last two days and she was crying when we left because she missed him. She really wants to go back next year to see the tulips, go to the cat cafe, and visit Guus again. I would love to do a repeat of this trip but we would make it longer.

When planning this trip I was trying to decide between Leiden and Haarlem and ultimately chose Haarlem because it’s closer to Amsterdam. I would really like to go to Keukenhof again next year and I’ll have to decide if we want to stay in Haarlem again or go to Leiden. We will definitely need a kitchen next time because food there is expensive! The majority of my budget went to food. We never quite adjusted to the scheduling there. Things open much earlier than in Portugal but everything closed up at 6PM. During the day it was really busy and lively, but after 6 it was a lot different.

Every time I go to the Netherlands I really love it there, and this time was no exception. I’m glad Sofia had so much fun too. I think I planned almost the perfect Sofia trip. Next time we just need to stay a bit longer. Usually Sofia starts to get home sick after 5 days and she starts to really miss her cat, but this time she really didn’t want to come home.