one week vacation to Europe
 

Hi
My husband and I are planning a trip to Europe in May of 2013. We will be celebrating our 40th birthday and since have little children at home can only leave for 7 days. We currently live in the US. We have talked about Greece and Turkey but seems ambitious to do in 7 days. The Netherlands also seems like an exciting place especially since we like art, museums and biking :). Have seen some people suggest Berlin and Amsterdan but also seems ambitious to do in 1 week.


Would love some advice

You can easily spend a week in the Netherlands. If you are likely to be here in the first half of May you should be lucky and still have tulips to see. Keukenhof is open until May 20th next year.
Whilst you can see most of the popular places by train, if you are prepared to rent a car for a couple of days you could get out into lesser known, but beautiful areas of the Netherlands.

Or take a train out and rent a bike for a day or two to explore the countryside, if you prefer.

There are plenty of trip reports on the forum telling you about Amsterdam and the usual suspects. There are one or two where people have been brave enough to go further afield.
Read some of them and come back with any questions.

second Hetismij's vote for the Netherlands. I have been lucky enough to have spent several one week periods there. Alsways saw some old favorites and explored lots of new places each time. You can never run out of places to see and things to do.

As hetismij has said, check out some of the trip reports and then start asking more questions.

The Netherlands may be a perfect vacation for you.

In addition to the art musuems in Amsterdam, plan a day to go to the Kroller Mueller if you like modern art. It may be just what you're looking for, it's located in a large park and when you get there you can grab a white bike (website tells all) and take off. You may want to spend the night in the little town Otterlo that is nearby.

I'd take the early train, even if you pay a bit more it's worth it. May is the perfect time to visit the KM also because the Rhododendrons will be in full bloom.

http://www.kmm.nl/

Thank you so much for your suggestions. Sounds exciting!

We spent 10 nights in Amsterdam last month and took some day trips. The Netherlands (what little we saw of it) is great. In addition to this forum, check out the Trip Advisor forum on The Netherlands, which has a lot of current information: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum...therlands.html

Another vote for the Netherlands, The national museum card will pay for itself in a couple museums, the trains are excellent and if you bike you will be a happy camper.

The Netherlands in May can be so breath taking if the weather is good. Please do yourself a favor and take a trip to the countryside. If you're based in Amsterdam you could go for a day's sailing on an old barge on IJsselmeer.

In Amsterdam both the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk Museum will be there, open again after long renovations and the city is so utterly beautiful in spring.