What Ana Does

Last post on the series of Europe 50th Birthday celebration trip. The final stop is Amsterdam!  We disembarked our comfortable Viking Cruise adventure in a very hot, very crowded Amsterdam. As you know from our 2024 trip here, it is not my favorite city (see this post) but I was determined to do this right and change my opinion of this city.  Amsterdam  Starting with the hotel. We stayed at the Amsterdam Renaissance hotel in the northern part of the city, near Central Station. Super big, comfortable, updated, beautiful with a coffee bar in the lobby. It's at the top of the Red Light District (so be aware where you walk). But near quieter canals, shops and restaurants. NOT near the museum district, which was a bummer, but we figured out the tram system so it wasn't a big deal. That morning, once we got settled into the hotel, it was early so Dave went to the gym and I did a tour of the Royal Palace in the middle of town. At 10am, this city is very manageable. But after ...

This Spring, I got a chance to tag along with David back to Europe. May is an excellent time to be in Europe, the weather is Spring-like and the crowds are manageable. The itinerary was based on Dave's meeting schedule, so it was: Copenhagen, Skordsborg, Amsterdam and Utrecht.  Copenhagen and Skordsborg We started in Copenhagen , our favorite city. We arrived on a holiday Monday where a big "Royal Run" was taking place, so the streets in central part of the city were packed and roads were closed. We had the afternoon free, so we rented bikes, which we've never done, and explored a bit. Biking along the canal was such a "goal achieving" moment. Just awesome fun. Impossible to take a photo, though. After the first day, we headed to Skordsborg, a seaside town north of Copenhagen where Dave's three-day training was taking place. I spent a day enjoying the spa but otherwise, there wasn't much of a town to explore. So the second day, I took the train back ...