After many, many cancellations and rebookings, we finally got to take our trip to Europe in 2022. I guess we learned a lot about how to reschedule trips, so maybe this was a good thing in a small way. Nah, there was not much good about Covid times. ha.
We started planning this trip sometime in 2019 I think. My plan was to use all airline miles and hotel points for flights and lodging. We had to do a bit of footwork, but all hotels were ultimately booked on points, which really kept expenses in check. Our only spending was on dining, trains, trams and any souvenirs purchased. So while we may not have stayed at the most exciting hotels, we were happy with the places we stayed overall. Hotels in Europe are much nicer than in the USA and the standard of service is much higher. For example, in Prague, the young man who checked us in asked if we wanted any dining recommendations and he pulled out a map and showed us where attractions were and marked some dining suggestions, which I was very impressed with.
Departed 5/13/22 - We originally booked our flights with Delta miles and paid cash to upgrade our seats to DeltaOne. SO worth it. Just magical. Our plane was not the newest iteration of the DeltaOne seats, but it was still quite nice and very plush. The seats reclined all the way flat into a bed and I think I was actually able to sleep a bit on the flight.
The flight time actually passed pretty quickly and we enjoyed the many food options and drink selections. The service was very good throughout the flight.
We were a bit worried about arriving into Schipol airport as they had been having major staffing issues before we arrived. We waited in the customs line for about 45 minutes I think and a bit longer for our bags to arrive and we were on our way. Not terrible.
5/14/22 On arrival we grabbed a taxi and checked in to the Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht. We used Hyatt points for the booking. The room was very cool, though it did not have an outside view, just a courtyard view.
Beer tasting room called In The Wildemann
Day's Stone Grill 1870 for lunch/dinner
W Amsterdam rooftoop bar for drinks
view from the W rooftop
5/15/22 breakfast at Pancakes Amsterdam- Dutch pancakes, of course!
We walked around looking at the canals and the flower market.
We did a canal tour withThose Dam Boat Guys. We bought some beverages and they even gave us a small cooler to use on the boat. Very informational and enjoyable. We had the best weather also.
frites from Vlaamse Frites
Exterior of Brewery T'ij
Dinner at The Good Companion
Drinks at a speakeasy called Bar Oldenhof. You had to give a password and such.
5/16/22 We had breakfast the the Andaz before checking out. You ordered off the menu and there were other items on a buffet to select from as well. The service was great.
Next, we had a fun day of adventures on the train from Amsterdam to Berlin. Our first train was taken out of service due to an issue with the doors. The second train did not have enough space for everyone to sit and we stood for a few hours. Eventually they told us to get off and transfer to another track and grab another train to Berlin which had plenty of seating space and was much nicer than the other trains. We made it to Berlin after 9 hours. Not fun, but we survived.
We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Berlin on Marlene Deitrich Platz. The room was very nice.
We walked to Burgermeister for a quick meal. Either it was excellent or we were starving. Maybe both.
5/17/22 Tuesday we had breakfast at the Hyatt that morning and my German relatives Burkhard and Regina came to our hotel to meet us. They took us on a short walking tour of the area and we visited the Berlin Wall Museum.
Berlin Wall Memorial and Museum- a section of the wall as it was originally is preserved and pictured.
We had a lunch/snack of curry wurst
We then took the train with Burkhard and Regina to their home on the outskirts of Berlin. We took a walk around the neighborhood with Burkhard. Here are pieces of the Berlin wall, in what is now a park near their apartment. The trees are cherry blossom trees that were given to the city of Berlin from Japan.
Schrebergarten are community garden plots people rent. Some have little buildings. For gardening mainly. I suppose because apartments don't have much green space.
We had dinner at Burkhard and Regina's apartment.
5/18/22 Zimt and Zucker for breakfast
We met Burkhard and Regina for a boat tour on the River Spree that flows all around Berlin.
Reichstag
train station
They went back home to relax and change clothes and we had lunch at Italo Fritzen.
Next, Burkhard and Regina picked us up and we took a taxi to the Berlin State Opera. They apparently enjoy the opera often and were very excited to share it with us. We saw the Merry Wives of Windsor.
We had champagne at intermission. Can't say no to that!
They put us in a taxi back to the hotel and we had a drink in the hotel bar before calling it a night.
5/19/22 The next day we spent on our own touring around Berlin. We started with donuts for breakfast at Dunkin Donuts.
We ventured over to the east side of Berlin and went up the Fernsehturm, the TV tower. View from inside.
retro interior hallways
the Fernsehturm, the TV tower exterior
Sirin doner at Alexa mall. Doner kebab sandwiches. They are sort of like gyro but different toppings and bread.
We visited the DDR Museum which was all about life in East Germany under communism. The Trabant was a small car made in East Germany. The design changed very little from the 1950's-1990's.
Ampelman. One of the few remaining vestiges of East Berlin that was kept. I think it is a cute and unique thing to Berlin.
statue of Fredrick the Great, who Burkhard admires greatly and has many, many books about him.
Berliner Weisse is a light beer with fruit flavoring added, found all over Berlin. Very tasty and refreshing.
Brlo Brewhouse for dinner and drinks outdoors in the beer garden. Great beer too.
Brlo Brewhouse for dinner
5/120/22 Yadda Yadda Breakfast Club
Pergamon Museum was built especially for the artifacts brought back from the Babylon.
cool train station
Checkpoint Charlie. My mom and Grandma Leona visited here and I have many photos of this from their visit in the 1960's.
Trabi museum
lunch at McDonald's near Checkpoint Charlie.
Tomasa restaurant for dinner with Brikhard, Regina and the three grandsons, Thomas, Simon and Markus. It was great fun to meet the grandsons as the twins were just babies last time I visited Berlin and now they are 20.
5/121/22 The huge Berlin train station. We took a train from Berlin to Prague. This time our train travels went very smoothly. Burkhard and Regina stopped by our hotel before we left for the train station to say goodbye to us. We had a wonderful time with them and appreciated their time taking us around Berlin and their advice so much.
Berlin was very fun to explore. I am so glad that John was able to meet my German relatives at last. They were the best hosts once again and made sure we had a very enjoyable time in Berlin. I've always enjoyed corresponding with them via letters, but nothing can replace meeting someone in person.
In Prague we stayed at the Hilton Prague Old Town. It was in a great location with easy access to trams that we could take all over the city.
view from our room at the Hilton
We took a walk from the hotel through old town and downtown to the river Vltava.
Charles Bridge
dinner at Brick's restaurant
nice view of the river from the restaurant patio
brewery and restaurant called Vojanuv Dvur
5/22/22 We did a food tour of Prague with Martin Blum from Taste of Prague. The tour was very fun and informative. We were in a small group with a few guys from Sweden going to a Tool concert, a family from the US and us.
Started at Lokal restaurant.
exterior of Lokal
Powder Keg House
Kantyna a meat market with prepared food to eat there as well.
Kro Bistro and Bar
Last stop was Eska
The food tour was wroth every penny and we enjoyed learning abut the food and drink traditions in the Czech Republic. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone going to Prague. It was one of the best tours we did on the entire trip.
brewery Dva Kohouti we stopped at after the tour was over
View of the Astronomical Clock from Hotel U Prince rooftop
Charles Bridge at sunset
trdelnik- chimney cakes served with ice cream or plain
astronomical clock in action
bar Pult across form the hotel
5/23/22 Breakfast was included with our hotel at the Hilton so we started with the buffet most mornings. It was pretty good actually. There was also a cocktail hour from 5-6 each evening though we only made it to that once or twice.
We went up the hill to Prague Castle and toured most of the complex.
late lunch at another location of Lokal
Yes, we did another river tour, on the Grand Bohemia this time. It was another perfect weather day too.
We found a cute lttle tiki bar in Prague called Aloha Bar.
view from the Zizkov television tower in Prague
drinks in the tower at Oblaca restaurant
the tv tower form the tram station
5/24/22 Kus Kolace for breakfast - a slightly sweet pastry topped with fruit. very good.
extra breakfast at a little coffee shop - maybe Kro Kitchen
Petrin tower - designed and built by the same person who built the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but on a much smaller scale as Prague didn't have a large budget.
funicular to Petrin Tower
We got yelled at by a Czech transit employee at the funicular. I am not sure what we did wrong, but she was not happy with us. : ) oopsie.
U Fleku one of the oldest restaurants in Prague
U Fleku beer garden
U Kunstatu sat on the patio in the rain. Large beer menu.
The Butcher Shop for lunch. Our food tour guide worked here and, as he said, the burgers were excellent.
aloha bar again
5/25/22 Narodni Museum a very old museum in Prague with a wide variety of items.
The whale survived accidental bombing in WW II.
Lunch at Cafe Savoy
We went up the hill again to a beer garden in a park Letensky Zamecek.
Anonymous Shrinks Office- you looked a pictures and selected your cocktail from the images.
excellent potato chips too!
Prague was John's choice for a city to visit on this trip and I wasn't that excited about it before we arrived. I thought it was going to be difficult to overcome the language differences. But I found the city to be very beautiful and very interesting.
5/26/22 The airport in Prague was kind of far out of town, so we took a hired car as taxis are quite sketchy in Prague; the hotel scheduled the car for us. The airport was very nice and the bar as as nice as any bar in Prague city center. Our flight from Prague to Amsterdam was short and uneventful.
Our last hotel was the Kimpton DeWitt in Amsterdam. Small, but functional. And a convenient location near the tram and train station.
Super Lyan Bar at the Kimpton, we had a hotel credit to use there.
Bitterballen- a Dutch bar appetizer that is sort of cheesy and meaty and fried. Not bad either!
Cafe Restaurant De Reiger
After dinner drinks at Tales and Spirits
5/27/22 Breakfast at Bagels and Beans
Rjeiks Museum
Geflipt Burgers for lunch
ran into Albert Cuyp market
House of Bols tour
Aepjen bar- the monkey bar- a very old bar in Amsterdam, and very small
view from the patio at Grasshopper bar
5/28/22 breakfast at Mortimer just down the street for our hotel
walking tour of Amsterdam, a market, the food hall, then we did another boat tour.
Cafe de Sluyswacht on the canal
Cafe de Sluyswacht on the canal
Cafe de Doffer for happy hour- it was across from the place with the baskets of beer.
Pesca vis seafood restaurant- you selected your fish at the start and then your wine and sides later on.
Hotel Pulitzer Bar for after dinner drinks.
5/29/22 Pancakes Amsterdam for breakfast. Another location of the same chain we ate at early in the trip.
Van Gogh Museum day. We booked all of our museum tickets way in advance, which was good because everything was sold out when we arrived. The museum was excellent and had so many Van Gogh original paintings. We did the audio tour which provided insight into his life at the time each painting was done.
Heineken tour. Kind of a neat tour, but the beer is still not very good tasting to me.
The Lion's Head Bistro brewery for lunch
Dinner was at the Seafood Bar
After dinner we stopped at a casino called Carousel Casino Arcade and had no idea what we were doing but we somehow won a few euros.
5/30/22 breakfast at Celia restaurant in the hotel
We visited the Anne Frank House for the morning. Very interesting and informational and you see the inside of the actual rooms they hid in and lived in. Also, a very heavy and very timely reminder, with recent violence against Jews in resurgence in our country, which is unacceptable. We booked this way in advance as well as they only allow a limited number of visitors daily.
Febo a Netherlands fast food place
tiny baby car
The ferry over to A'dam Tower
views from the tower
cookies from Van Stapele Koekmakerij
Brasserie Extraodinarie
5/31/22 Quick breakfast at McDonald's on our last morning because we were stressed about the airport. They had issues all summer with long security lines so we went to the airport really really early. And the lines were fine, actually, we ended up having tons of time sitting around the airport.
hotel kimpton exterior
Amsterdam was a lot of fun. There is so much to do and the museums were all wonderful. It is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to. We were very lucky to have mostly great weather and we simply scheduled around the rain that did happen or dressed for the weather. Some areas did get very crowded at night and I can't imagine how busy it must be in the summertime.
I think we were most impressed with the easy transit systems in every city. No matter where you wanted to go, you could simply plug it into Google maps and it would tell you how to get there either via transit, walking or a combination of both. It certainly makes mass transit look sad back home. The German train system was not as wonderful as it had been back when I visited years ago, but it was still functional. Apparently they too have suffered staffing and travel issues all over Europe.
Also, we were able to use credit cards almost everywhere. We made sure to use card that did not charge a currency conversion fee. We did tap to pay almost everywhere and with this method, we did not need to enter a PIN when making purchases. Also, the Netherlands and Germany are both on the Euro currency but the Czech Republic is on their own currency yet, the Crown. We just took out cash on a arrival in Amsterdam and Prague for the few places that only accepted cash.
Our flight home was on time and went smoothly. It was a little rough to be back in coach on the way home though! And after two weeks away, I was ready to go home and see my favorite puppy dog. It was wonderful to be able to stay for such a long stretch of time and make the long flights worthwhile.
