Philbill

Thank you! We will be leaving the 27th or 28th April so will miss that.

h2babe

Please post a report when you come home. I miss Amsterdam and I can imagine that it must be beautiful in the spring!

hopscotch

Philbill:
<i>Help: What is Queen's Day and have you any recommendations for that day?</i>
Queen's Day is the birthday of the former queen. It is April 30. It is a wild 24 hour street party, starting on the evening of 29 April. A'dam is the place to be.
<i>We will be in Amsterdam April 24th. Is it recommended to see the Flower Parade or will there just be crowds?
What is the 'Flower Parade'? I'm assuming it is at the gardens.</i> The flower parade, <i>Bloemencurso</i> I believe, does not go to Amsterdam. It runs from Noordwijk to Haarlem. If you miss it you can see the floats in Haarlem on the Sunday after the parade.
<i>I'm just starting to plan as we booked our air last night. I have been glued to Fodors for hours.
I also asked advice as to whether to use Amsterdam as a base and use the trains for day trips or whether to travel and stay in different places. Hotels seem expensive for the last week in April.</i> You had better get yourself hotel booked ASAP-INS. Holland is already getting full for April and May. See the post on the HotRaeckse in Haarlem if you have trouble finding a room.

hopscotch

HotRaeckse -- should be Hotel Raeckse.

Philbill

Thanks for all your informative replies. The A-Train Hotel near the station has rooms available. I have made a res. for the first few and the last couple of days and will go out of Amsterdam for the Friday, Sat., Sun. Monday.
I was thinking about Maastricht and maybe going to Luxembourg, but I can't fathom out the trains fro M to L.
I thought we could get back to Haarlem for the end of the parade show on Sunday and stay there Sun. and Mon. nights. Not looked at hotels yet. Any comments or suggestions?
I am costing out a Holland railpass, BeNeLux rail pass and just flat out paying!!!
There seems to be 40% off pass for E40 or so but it takes a photo and processing etc though it does SEEM to be available for foreigners!!!
Anyone been recently for a weather report? We leave the 18th April. We are flying direct one way on KLM and coming back on the Queen Mary 2.
Not worked out the route from Holland to Southampton (very very expensive air ?VLM?) and Easyjet to Gatwick anmd then the direct train seems to be the best right now if I can get my suitcases down to the max. weight of 44lb.

artstuff

Phillbill -

<i>I was thinking about Maastricht and maybe going to Luxembourg, but I can't fathom out the trains fro M to L. </i>

Here's the websites for the different rail lines to help you figure out the schedule.

NETHERLANDS - www.ns.nl
BELGIUM - www.b-rail.be
LUXEMBOURG - www.cfl.lu/f/rail/horairesen

Or, you could also use the German Rail website which will give you rail schedules for pretty much most of Europe -

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Here's the website for the BeNeLux pass, which you can purchase before you leave on your journey. When you get to Amsterdam Centraal Station, you want to go to the International Desk to have your rail pass activated, so it's ready to be used.

http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/pa...rrail_pass.htm

I recommended www.railsaver.com on another post that you made, to help figure out the cost effectiveness of your itinerary - rail pass vs. point-to-point.

We really enjoyed Luxembourg when we visited two years ago. It has yet to be discovered by the masses of tourist, so it is very uncrowded and laid back. Enjoy your journey. Peace.

Robyn &gt;-

Philbill

Thanks Robyn. I did click on your name to pick up other travel hints!

jamiec

Hello all and thanks for the info. We will be leaving for our trip on 9/27 going to Italy and on the return will have only 2 days in Amsterdam. The &quot;canal/museum&quot; pass ounds like a good itdea. Any tips on weather and what to do for 2 days? I need to see flowers and do the canal tour, Anne Frank house and what else? Is that enough? I would like to wander and just enjoy being there...Thanks for the info...