Established in 12th century as a fishing village, today Amsterdam is the largest and most popular city of Netherlands. Although Amsterdam is fairly small, the city is packed with hundreds of treasures for travelers.

Here are a few of Amsterdam’s most popular attractions and sightseeing activities listed to make your travel experience the best possible.

Museums

When touring Amsterdam, it is worth visiting its variety of museums famous for their historical and antique collections. Some of the major museums of Amsterdam are Rijksmuseum (know for its 17th century Dutch collected works), Steldelejk museum, Kroller-Muller (named on the daughter of a rich and eminent German industrialist) and Van Gogh museum (known for its collection of paintings by Van Gogh and other eminent artists from 19th century). With more than 50 museums each boosting amazing collections, it would be a sad thing to miss the experience of museum tour when holidaying in Amsterdam.

The Dam square

The Dam square is known for its historical value and is often an important part of many Amsterdam tours. The beauty and the historical background of this Dam make it a part of every tourist’s visit, when touring Amsterdam. The various fascinating things about the Dam are also documented in the historical museum of Amsterdam.

Amsterdam Canal Cruise

Holiday in Amsterdam can never be complete without the Amsterdam Canal Cruise, through its magnificent and incredible canals. Cruising through canals is the best way to cherish Amsterdam tour, as you get to see marvelous 17th century houses and mansions, as well as startling architecture.

Oude Kerk

Surrounded with small houses, Oude Kerk is a very old and beautiful church, adored by many visitors both locals and foreigners. The church has a building designed in Gothic-renaissance style and has an octagonal bell tower. Located at the centre of red light district, the church has become quite popular among visitors on Amsterdam tour.

Hortus Botanicus - (the Botanical Garden)

With more than 6000 plants, Hortus Botanicus is quite an old and unique botanical garden. It dates back to the year 1632 and has some plants almost 2000 years old. Situated within the walking distance of other major tourist attractions like Amsterdam zoo and resistance as well as historical museum, the garden is remarkable place to enjoy your holiday in Amsterdam.

Albert Cuyp market

With more than 300 stalls, Albert Cuyp market is one of the most busiest and popular tourist attractions. This remarkable outdoor market has a variety of products and is situated in Pijp district. Surrounded with numerous shops and cafes, the market gets to see huge amount of visitors, local and foreigners, everyday.

Best time to visit or holiday in Amsterdam

With its tourist attractions and friendly local people, touring Amsterdam at anytime of the year proves to be good. But the best time or the peak season for holidaying in Amsterdam is in the pleasant months of July and august. Even off-season Amsterdam tours are quite popular. 

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A trip to Williamsburg, Virginia should be in your list of family vacation ideas. Williamsburg is one of the cities included in the Historic Triangle of Virgina, along with Jamestown and Yorktown. There are a lot of interesting sights that come with equally interesting facts in Williamsburg that will tickle the minds of parents, teens and younger children.

Going to Williamsburg is very convenient. It is only a few hours away from Washington, DC, and certainly within driving distance for Atlanta and Jacksonville, Florida. Williamsburg is particularly known for Colonial Williamsburg. It is a 301-acre community of restored 18th century infrastructures. You will find yourself going back in time as you wander about the buildings, houses, shops, taverns, outbuildings and other structures in their original foundation. The highlights of Colonial Williamsburg are the historic sites - Governor’s Palace, Capitol, Peyton Randolph, Releigh Tavern, George Wythe House and James Geddy House and Foundry - and the indoor museums - Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum and DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum.

A family vacation is not complete without spending a day at a theme park! Visit Williamsburg’s Busch Gardens and experience thrilling rides. Get ready to have your heartbeat racing as you ride the Loch Ness Monster roller coaster and Griffon (the world’s tallest and first floorless dive coaster). Also, if your family love scary stories and fright attractions, be sure to visit the theme park’s Howl-O-Scream and scream all your lungs out!

Have a great family bonding time at Williamsburg’s Go-Karts Plus. The attraction spans eight acres with four tracks for the whole family to enjoy. Race around an oval track on a replica of your favorite NASCAR automobiles. There are other activities in Go-Karts Plus that promise loads of fun for the family such as the Kiddie Land, bumper cars, bumper boats, miniature golf course, arcade and other games with prizes.

Visit Historic Yorktown, Historic Jamestown and President’s Park and learn history with your children while exploring the different sights, studios, galleries and museums dedicated to preserving the American heritage. From these attractions, you will also get the chance to learn about the early permanent English settlements in the country. Do not forget to spend some time learning about the Native American heritage and visit the Powhatan Indian Village nearby, which was home to Pocahontas.

Weird mind-boggling facts are what Ripley’s Believe It Or Not is known for. Take your kids to see exhibits of over 300 unusual artifacts Robert Ripley has gathered from his travels around the world, if you wish to see more of interesting global facts. The best part of this experience is that, no matter how odd the things you see are, they are all real! Believe it!

The idea of going on a family vacation is to discover as much as you can about the place you visit. These are just some of the things you can do in Williamsburg, Virginia. Nearby cities in Williamsburg also offer a different set of attractions and activities for the family that you might want to check out. The Virginia Arts Festival in Norfolk, Virginia coming on the 23rd until the 25th of May this year, for instance, promises participants and spectators a fun time of great music and other things. It will be the ultimate weekend in one of the country’s most historic settings.

The museums, other historical sights and the more energy-required attractions like the Busch Gardens and the Go-Kart Plus really make the trip to Williamsburg, Virginia a complete package for family fun. No doubt, you can count on this as one of the best family vacation ideas you have ever had.

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The tenth arrondissement is located on the Right Bank in northeastern Paris. Its land area is slightly more than 1.1 square mile (a bit less than 3 square kilometers). Its population is slightly under ninety thousand and offers about seventy-two thousand jobs. Two of its major attractions are railway stations. If you haven’t seen a grandiose railway station such as in Europe or Manhattan’s Grand Central Station, you really should visit some of Paris’s offerings such as described below.

This arrondissement is not particularly well known to tourists. However, if you visit here you may get a feel for the real Paris, the Paris of Parisians. You might start by viewing the Canal Saint-Martin, which links the Seine River with northeastern Paris. This 2.8 mile (4.5 kilometer) long canal was built from 1806 to 1825 under the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte. Believe it or not, in some places it is only about three feet (one meter) deep. It came close to disappearing in the 1960s and might have become just another highway. While there is some canal traffic, mostly it’s a place to view the boats and the locks. Recently the neighborhood has become trendy. In 1938 the Canal Saint-Martin was featured in the famous movie Hotel du Nord. And in 2001 it was once again featured in the movie Amelie. The nearby streets are car-free for the later part of Saturday and all day Sunday giving the area a unique cachet.

The Gare de l’Est (East Station) is one of the largest and the oldest railway stations in Paris. Approximately 34 million passengers per year pass through the Gare de l’Est per year, making it the fifth-busiest station in Paris. I wonder how many of these passengers have seen the beautiful statue representing the city of Strasbourg at the west end of the station and how many have seen the statue representing the city of Verdun at the east end of the station. It’s a magnificent building with lovely artwork throughout. For example, the arcade includes representations of agricultural products and the coat of arms of over thirty cities in eastern France. The ticketing hall includes a large painting of soldiers leaving in 1914 for the Great War. Both these cities are served by this station, first opened in 1849. Perhaps its most famous train was the Orient Express to Istanbul, first opened in 1883. Times have changed and the Orient Express no longer goes to Paris or Istanbul. But some of the new lines are scheduled to run at almost two hundred miles (three hundred twenty kilometers) an hour and almost ten per cent faster in the future. The station is undergoing extensive renovation; for example, removing ugly plastic that covered beautiful marble for decades.

The Gare du Nord (North Station) handles about 180 million travelers a year, making it the busiest station in Europe, and the third busiest railway station in the world. It was first built in 1846 but already partially demolished in 1860 to permit extensive expansion. The old facade is now in the northern city of Lille. The new, mid-1860s, Neoclassical railway station includes 23 statues representing destinations; the international destinations are more imposing than the national ones. The station was expanded several times and is served by several subway lines. In 2007 the station was the site of a riot involving several hundred people that lasted for eight hours. The Gare du Nord has appeared in several French films, for instance in Les Poupees russes (The Russian Dolls) and American movies such as The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Ocean’s Twelve.

Some of the other sights to see in this district are the Porte Saint Denis and Porte Saint Martin erected by order to Louis XIV to celebrate military victories, the Musee de l’Eventail (Fan Museum), Musee de Cristal de Baccarat (Baccarat Crystal Museum), and, for a change of pace, the Place du Colonel Fabien, headquarters of the French Communist Party designed by a famous Brazilian (Communist) architect, Oscar Niemeyer, named in honor of a resistance hero of World War II. A more traditional Place (Square) is the Place de la Republique that is often the site of political or other demonstrations.

Of course you don’t want to be in Paris without sampling fine French wine and food. In my article I Love French Wine and Food - A Midi Merlot I reviewed such a wine and suggested a sample menu: Start with Roque Anchois (Anchovies with Tomato, Spices, Vinegar, and Olive Oil). For your second course savor Tagine de Lotte (Monkfish Stew). And as dessert indulge yourself with Crème Catalan (Crème brulee with Orange Flower and Aniseed). Your Parisian sommelier (wine steward) will be happy to suggest appropriate wines to accompany each course. 

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Levi Reiss has authored alone or with a co-author ten computer and Internet books, but to tell the truth, he would really rather just drink fine French, German, or other wine, accompanied by the right foods. He knows what dieting is, and is glad that for the time being he can eat and drink what he wants, in moderation. He teaches classes in computers at an Ontario French-language community college. Visit his Italian travel, wine, and food website http://www.travelitalytravel.com/ and his global wine website http://www.theworldwidewine.com/.

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