Planning a trip to Amsterdam... any advice?

[ponyqueen]

Last year my husband and I went to Japan to see the blossoming cherry trees (and look for ponies), next year we want to go Amsterdam to see the tulips (and look for ponies). In our current planning stage, we are wondering where we should go, what we should see, and how long we should stay (and where to find ponies!).

Knowing nothing about the region, I think we could spend 3-4 days hanging around Amsterdam and the tulip fields (I am totally bringing Posey), then what? Should we go to Germany? What's there? Should we go to Belgium or France? And how long should we stay? Is two weeks enough time? Or should we stay for three?

Thanks for any insight at all!

[TornadoTwist]

I life away 20 minutes from Amsterdam. And I think you can visit a lot of places. We had a girl from Sweden here for one week. And we also visited "the Efteling" it's a themepark in the south of Netherlands and it's really worth visiting (its less then 2 hours away by car), even if you're not a big fan of themeparks. 80% is nature and the rest has been build on.

Have an impression here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahyBzqy6gUU

I think visiting Amsterdam itself can be also quite fun. You can also go to Volendam, it's a popular fish town about 30 minutes away from Amsterdam. However it can be quite busy with other tourist! Perhaps if you have time you can take a trip by boat trough the canals. You can also go to Artis, it's in the center of Amsterdam and the oldest Zoo in the Netherlands, its quite a beautifull zoo!

You can also go to Rotterdam, it's a city bombarder during WWII and because of that the city is quite modern and has some good shopping places. You can also go on the Euromast there, one of the biggest towers in the Netherlands. Close to Rotterdam is Kinderdijk, you have those typical dutch windmills there. If you just want a good city to shop I can recommend Almere, it has a huuuge shopping center with lots of stores!

If you want to enjoy more of the scenery I always find that the city Den Haag/Scheveningen have something special. Scheveningen is one of the beach places in the Netherlands. Too bad they shut down the pier. I don't know how much you can travel but Valkenburg can be also beautifull. It's not a that big place but it has some really strange feeling there, like it's almost not part of the Netherlands with all the hills. In Den Haag you also have Madurodam, its a miniature park with miniature models of important buildings in the Netherlands.

As for merch. I can recommend these shops:
The standard toy stores:

- Intertoys
- Bart Smit
- Toys XL (a bit like TRU)
- Top 1 Toys

- Claire's (has TY Beanies)
- Blokker (household shop, also has Ponies and Toys not all of them btw!)

And if you're in Amsterdam you can go to:
- ABC Bookstore, they sell Import merch from the US liek Funko's and comics
- A Space Oddity, they sell Japanse Import stuff like Pokemon, Star Wars etc... website here:

http://www.spaceoddity.nl/en/

Hope I gave you some tips.

[kaoskat]

Sounds like a fun trip! Don't forget to take pictures for us!

[ponyqueen]

Very nice! Thank you for the tips! We love nature but we also appreciate a well designed city and we've taken notes on your recommendations!

Would love to hear any other thoughts from other members on possibly spending time in Germany or Belgium.