Amsterdam, Delft and the Hague

Imagine a place where children can explore a whole country that is just their size, paint up a storm at a real Delft china factory and, best of all, stir up and serve sweet goodies to their parents at a real restaurant! A family trip to the Netherlands serves up Dutch treats galore.

Forget the tawdry images of drugs and sex. The Netherlands for families is a land where stone trolls are chained outside children’s bookshops and preschoolers can be chefs for a day. A place where the old exists comfortably with the new.

Settling into Amsterdam
Amsterdam is a place of enchantment, with its Old World charm, bustling bicyclists and 165 canals. A good base of operations for your family is the NH Grand Hotel Krasnopolsky (Dam 9). Not only is it centrally located at Dam Square in the historic district, just opposite the Royal Palace (and within easy walking distance for little legs to many points of interest, including the Anne Frank house), but it boasts a fabulous breakfast buffet in the stunning Winter Garden restaurant. Your kids will marvel at its Victorian glass roof. The buffet is bountiful, with a wide selection of fruit and Dutch cheeses. Kids can order steaming cups of hot chocolate and parents can enjoy sparkling wine. Even the pancakes are Lilliputian and will appeal to the small fry. These sweet mini-pancakes are a Dutch delicacy and are called “poffertjes.”

Inside my hotel room at the NH Grand Hotel Krasnopolsky was a little alcove (sort of like a balcony) beyond the drapes, with a huge window overlooking the street. If your family is lucky enough to be able to book such a room, your children can have fun being voyeurs, gazing out on the many bicyclists, motorists, and passing pedestrians in the busy street below. It’s a fascinating way to absorb the Dutch culture before going out to explore.

My choice of a “splurge hotel” in Amsterdam is the fabulous Amstel Intercontinental (Professor Tulpplein 1). You and your children will be pampered and spoiled beyond your wildest dreams and the rooms are absolutely gorgeous, with Delft-Blue-patterned wallpaper. If you spring for a river view, your kids can look out the window and see the houseboats on the Amstel River.

Tiptoe through the Tulips
There is so much to do for families in Amsterdam! Visit the Bloemen Markt, the only floating flower market in the world. In all seasons, it’s one of the most fragrant places in Amsterdam. Your kids will be amazed to see flower stalls standing on houseboats, and the flowers themselves are dazzling, in a bright rainbow of colors. You can even see such rare specimens as black tulips.

If your children are a bit older, they might enjoy a tour of a diamond cutting-and-polishing factory. The tours generally last about a half-hour, so smaller children might get fidgety. Tours are free and are offered by several renowned diamond firms throughout the city.

Waterways of Wonder
A great way to see the city (and chill out at the same time) is to take a canal cruise all around Amsterdam, often dubbed the “Venice of the North.” I recommend taking two separate cruises during your stay—one during the day, so that you can clearly see the charming narrow canal houses, elegant merchants’ residences, churches and warehouses along the route, and another in the evening, so that you can all “ooh” and “ahh” together at the romantic sight of the “Seven Bridges” beautifully illuminated. There are many canal cruise companies located near Central Station, but my favorites are Holland International and Lovers. And if your kids are craving American food, Canal Company offers a pizza cruise with Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for dessert!

A Shopaholic’s Dream-Come-True
Families who love to shop can easily spend a whole day in the area called The Nine Streets, nine blocks of fantastic shopping—vintage, consignment, high-end fashion, shoes, cosmetics, cafes and restaurants.

Kalverstraat is the main city centre shopping street. If you have a teenage daughter, she’ll be in heaven, drooling over the H&M shops and the Lush cosmetics boutique.

Younger girls will adore visiting the sweet little white bunny of Dick Bruna’s picture books at the Miffy Shop—“De Winkel van Nijntje.” The shop has all sorts of goodies, like Miffy backpacks and beach balls.

Be sure to stop in a bakery that makes stroopwafelen. Your children will delight in these decadent treats—two thin waffle wafers sandwiched together with gooey, sticky syrup.

Museums Can Be Child’s Play
You’ll enjoy wandering in Amsterdam’s fabulous art museums, where the paintings are so exquisite that they can move you to tears. But there are also museums where your children can be entertained as well as educated. Your kids can play to their hearts’ content at the NEMO science center. What’s in the name? NEMO means “nobody,” and children visiting NEMO believe themselves to be in “no man’s land,” where fantasies suddenly seem to become real.

NEMO reminds me of the Exploratorium in San Francisco, only more modern, colorful, and cutting-edge. There are no bored, impassive looks on any of the faces of even the teenagers playing there! NEMO’s philosophy is “learning by doing,” and there are tons of interactive exhibits, and cool, manipulative “toys,” engaging all the senses. The Rainbow Shadow room is especially fun. NEMO’s only rule: “Please touch everything you see and explore!”

Little Chefs
The Kinderkookkafe (in the beautiful Vondelpark) is a small restaurant run entirely by children (assisted by the friendly staff). Kids cook tasty meals, serve the food to their parents, bring the bill, and even wash up. Birthday parties (and other groups of six or more kids) reserve time at the Kinderkookkafe throughout the year, but there are also “open registration” dates when individual children can come make lunch, tea, or dinner. (Dates for 2009 are posted on the website, www.kinderkookkafe.nl/, but you’ll have to use Google to translate from the Dutch.)

A Young Girl’s Courage
Many young girls who have been inspired by her diary want to head directly to the Anne Frank house upon arriving in Amsterdam, and don’t be surprised if this is the highlight of your trip. For more than five decades, this house has stood as testament to a girl’s bravery in the face of the worst of humanity. Allow yourselves time to recover afterwards from the very moving experience of touring this special place.

Girl with a Pearl Earring
Well worth a side trip (and easy to get to by train), Delft is sometimes called by the locals “Little Amsterdam,” as it greatly resembles Amsterdam, with its picture-book canals, but in miniature. You and your children (ages six and up) will enjoy taking a tour of the Royal Delft Factory, and then later painting your very own Delft Blue tiles in the workshop. You’ll need to explain to your kids that they can’t take the tiles home immediately, as they need to be glazed and finished off in the oven first. The tiles will be mailed to your home address.

A fun place for the whole family is Stadsherberg de Mol, a Medieval theme restaurant where you eat with your hands from wooden bowls, while being entertained by live music from troubadours.

Be sure to save time to have a slice of probably the most delicious apple pie that you’ve ever had in your life (with a huge dollop of whipped cream made from real cream) at Kobus Kuch, a cozy café in the Beestenmarkt.

To help your older kids fully appreciate Delft, you should buy or rent a copy of Girl with a Pearl Earring (or read the book) before you go, so you can scout all the film’s locations in Vermeer’s hometown, and then go see the actual painting in the Mauritshuis in The Hague.

The Magic of Madurodam
If Delft is Amsterdam in miniature, the Hague (“den Haag”) boasts its own miniature world, Madurodam. You and your kids will feel like giants, walking among palaces, ships, ­medieval houses, and even an airport that are 25 times smaller than real life! This place is truly a child’s ­wonderland, with all the different ­regions of Holland represented in a surface area of 18,000 square miles. The figures are staggering—12 miniature trains, 32 aircraft, 5,236 miniature trees, and 50,000 lights in the miniature village! The fascinating part is that it’s actually a “working” town with buses, planes, trucks, boats, and trains which actually move from place to place. One of the highlights
of the exhibit for me was putting a coin in a slot, and watching a tiny
bus bring me a pair of little Delft china shoes.

A terrific place to stay in the Hague is the Novotel Den Haag Centrum (Hofweg 5-7). Your kids will think the minimalist décor is very cool, and there’s a very nice breakfast buffet so that you can fortify yourself before going out to explore.

When to Go
Any time of year is great for touring the Netherlands, but the absolute BEST night of the year to be in Amsterdam is the first Saturday in November for “Museumnacht,” when nearly all the museums and attractions are open after hours (usually until 2 a.m.). You pay one small price for a ticket to over 40 different museums, and (determined to prove that culture isn’t “stuffy”) all of them are sparkling with special events geared to young people. Would you believe DJs and breakdancing in the Rijksmuseum?

If You Go
The Netherlands Board of Tourism
http://us.holland.com/
Cool Capitals: Amsterdam
www.coolcapitals.com/
The Hague
www.denhaag.com

Nancy Pistorius has written travel articles on a variety of subjects, including family travel on cruise ships. She has writen for Womans Day, Cosmopolitan, Chicago Tribune, Illinois Times, Social, Springfield’s Own magazine and the Wichita Getaways Examiner for Examiner.com. Her most recent honor was the 2009 Langston Hughes Creative Writing Award (Fiction). www.nancypistorius.com.