If you're coming to the Netherlands, Amsterdam is a must.It's a nice city, with loads of shops, a bit of culture, some coffeeshops (as in Dutch coffeeshops. You know, where they sell funny smelling cigarettes. It is surprisingly difficult to get a nice coffee in Amsterdam. There's a Starbucks at Schiphol Airport. Which isn't really
in Amsterdam) and loads of slightly too expensive souvenir shops. It's a shame, but if I were you, I'd avoid the Anne Frank house, unless you want to stand outside in the cold for about 5 hours. Go to Madame Toussauds instead. Or even better, the Amsterdam Dungeon. Also, you should come here during the couple of weeks we like to call summer, and since you're gonna do a winter tour, maybe round about christmas. But you might want to be in London or Paris then
😉 Either way, invest in a decent umbrella.
Staying in Amsterdam is not too difficult. There are youth hostels a plenty. Just check on stayokay.nl (or those dodgy sites like cheap hostels.com)
If you want to see more than only Amsterdam, you could also go to Utrecht, Rotterdam (former European Capital of Culture and an interesting bridge), Maastricht (where we live, and it's probably the prettiest town in the country, and definitely the oldest) Haarlem (which has the Frans Hals museum, a pretty church, some nice shops, a parc where all the emo and goth kids get into fights with the local chavs (though in winter it's not that cool), a river that comes from nowhere and goes to nowhere, me being born there and you can do it in about an afternoon, it's only 20 minutes by train from Amsterdam central train station), Leiden (the oldest university city in the Netherlands since the oldest doesn't exist anymore) and/or some of the towns along the west coast of the Ijselmeer (fromerly known as the Zuider Zee) like Hoorn (which is a cute little town and used to be majorly important during in the 17th and 18th century when Holland actually meant something, internationally speaking) or Enkhuizen (which has the Zuider Zee museum where you can see people in regional costume and old arts and crafts things and stuff like that.)
About travelling in Holland, the Dutch Rail company (NS) offers several passes for tourists. You can check out their website (
Service for everyone who travels by train NS travellers) or just ask someone on any big train station (ie, Amsterdam or Schiphol. Ask them anywhere else and the chance is huge that they don't speak English, or have no idea what you're talking about)
Other places I can recommend are Brussels and Antwerp in Belgium. Seriously, if you have time, go there. Brussels is a strange city, but cool. And Antwerp, well, all I could think of walking around there was Ha! We (Haarlem and Amsterdam) stole your trade, traders and your painters when we more or less forced you to close the Schelde. But I think it was a nice city. There are quite a lot of Jews, which means seriously nice food. About Germany, all I can say is BERLIN, BERLIN, BERLIN. Those are the three places you
have to go. Unless you want something typical German, then you might want to give Munich a try (for Munich, you have to be there in October though, during the Oktoberfesten) In France, Paris is a must see, and if you go way down south (say Nice, or Marseilles, or maybe Avignon) the weather might actually be pleasant. I've never been to Italy, but I guess Rome, Milan, Naples (Pompeii!) are cool places. Watch your backs (and pockets) in Naples and the Roman underground, though. Especially if you're tall, blond and tourist. Greece is cool. Delphi is incredibly pretty, as is the area on the east coast of the Peleponese. You should definitly go to Mycenae if you can. There's not much left, but there's a nice little museum with archeological stuff and the feeling of walking around in a more than 3000 year old city is strange, in an interesting kind of way. Athens is also amazing. There's so much to see there. If you want, I have loads of pictures
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Finally, Spain. I haven't been to Madrid, but apparently it's a nice city, same with Valencia and Sevilla. Barcelona is cool, and when over 21, there are loads of possibilities to stay up all night (in summer, that is. In winter it may be a bit less exciting, but still exciting enough.) Unfortunately, your basic Spanish won't help you there since they either speak Catalan, or Spanish with a very dificult accent. There's a huge Hard Rock Cafe and in one of the Starbuckses works a very cute guy (a) If you like art, you have to go the the Picasso museum. And they have a kind of Oyster card system for public transport, but cheaper. If you go to Granada, you must go to the Alhambra. It is beautiful and from the highest tower you have a really good view on the city and the Sierra Nevada (that's the mountains. In winter, you even can go skiing there).
Well, I like travelling and I like Europe, hence this seriously long post. Moral of the story: You're gonna have a great time, and if you want to see all the good bits of this quaint little continent, you need at least a year
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