How to Explore, Eat, and Bike Like a Pro Kid in the Netherlands
Hi, it’s Jed again! I’ve lived an amazing two years in the Netherlands, and I’m going to miss it a lot. I might not be a Netherlands expert, but I’ve learned a lot about this amazing country and want to share it with you. This guide will help kids prepare for a great visit! And it will help me remember what I learned so that if I forget I can just look back at my blog. Please read and enjoy!
Getting Around Like a Local
Before my bike got packed up for our move, I spent my last few months biking to school. There are many Dutch biking tips that I learned over the years. Did you know the Netherlands is considered the world’s most bike-friendly country in the world? And that there are around three times more bikes than people?? Let’s just say that if a Dutch person wants to teach you something about biking, you should listen! But the number one lesson I’ve learned is this: helmets are a MUST. The Netherlands is very safe with biking because they have bike lanes on most streets. But there are still accidents, and you want to be as safe and prepared as possible if this happens. I wear a helmet like this. Without a helmet you have a much bigger risk of getting seriously injured if you got hit by a car, motorcycle, tram, train, etc.
Other tips are to look for the reddish-brown bike lanes that are on most of the busy streets in the Netherlands. Don’t ride on the sidewalks if you don’t see a bike lane; it’s better to stay to the right side of the street. Cars are used to bikers and they will respect you on the road. Lastly, when you come to an intersection, you will often see a line of triangles painted on the bike path. If the triangles point toward you and look like a set of shark teeth, you need to yield to the bikers and road in front of you. But if the triangles are facing away from you and look like short arrows, you have the right of way and cars or bikes coming from other directions need to yield to you. This is very important to know in the Netherlands!
Dutch Weather Warnings
When I think of weather in the Netherlands, one main word comes to mind: RAIN. Because it is located along the North Sea, the weather can be grey, rainy, and cold all year long. And even if you think it’s going to be sunny, do not usually trust the weather forecast. You should always be ready for a surprise rain (or hail or sleet or something cold and wet, but not usually snow)! To prepare for this, I usually wear layers like a hoodie with a T-shirt under it so I can take off the top layers if there is a weather change and I get some surprise sun. Another thing is that I wear light, sporty pants that are good in every kind of weather and dry pretty quickly. On top of that, I have sneakers, a rain jacket, rain boots, and an umbrella if it looks super rainy and I need to walk outside for a while (one of my main chores is walking my dog Theo every day).
If it’s especially windy and rainy but you still want to go to your favorite Dutch park, the biggest playground in Europe (Linnaeushof ), or your favorite neighborhood theme park (like Duinrell), then you can slip these rain pants over your normal pants! Big lesson here is always be prepared for rain, even when the forcast says warm and sunny!
Food You Have to Try
There are a lot of fun, yummy foods in the Netherlands. Some of my favorites are Stroopwafels, appleflappen, poffertjes and Hagenslaag. You can make all of them using this recipe book. There are some weird but tasty Dutch foods though, like pickled raw herring (fish), frikandel (a type of sausage that became famous after World War II), and kapsalon (you should google this; but think shawarma meat and French fries and gouda cheese!). Another snack that they are famous for is black Licorice. They even have a salted version that lots of people like. But take my word for it: DO NOT TRY THE BITTERBALLEN! Some people like them, but to me it tastes like fried mush. I won’t say anything stronger than this because this blog is for kids.
My mom and I will mostly miss the warm, freshly made Stroopwafels. Once my family was at a Christmas market inside a long, winding cave in Valkenburg. We started to smell the most wonderful scent as we walked down the walking path and got close to the end. We were so happy to find a fresh Stroopwafel stand! We bought Stroopwafels, and when we came out of the cave, we saw snow! This was the only big, real snow we saw in two years in the Netherlands. We ate warm Stroopwafels in the snow to heat us up after visiting a Christmas market. It was basically paradise.
Best Kid Spots
If you are visiting the Netherlands and you’re hoping to visit the beach, playground, forest and eat some delicious big Dutch pancakes, then I got good news for you. You should go to Meijendel. You can do all of these things and more, like horse riding and visiting a small nature museum. It’s located in Wassenaar, and my parents really like this beach because there are no shops and not a lot of people. You actually have to walk or bike through the dunes to get to the beach. It is gorgeous, and you can spend hours playing in the dunes and enjoying the North Sea. After you’ve worked up your appetite running on the beach, wandering through the forest, and maybe playing a bit at the natural playground called Monkey-Bos (they have a fun zipline!), you can fill your belly at this pancake house.
There are so many cool mueums for kids all around the country. And lots of famous parks and activities in Amsterdam and The Hauge. But some hidden gems in Wassenaar where we live are first, Beach Wassenarslag by Meijendel, then Museum Voorlinden, the beautiful Wassenaar town center, and finally the Meijendel nature reserve (Duinreservaat Meijendel-Kievietsduin). In general, if you’re exploring in the Netherlands, here are some tips for finding the best places:
- Look for tons of bikes parked by one area
- Look for a big forest or nature reserve with TREES
- Hear kids playing around and laughing.
Words That Helped Me
Dutch and English are the official languages in the Netherlands. Almost everyone speaks at least basic English, so it’s pretty easy to get around. However, Dutch is the heart language of the country. And Dutch is also a hard language. So, it’s good to know some basic words like “hello” (Hallo), and “good morning” (Goodemorgeng = khoo-duh-MOR-ghun). Then some everyday sentences like “May I have the menu please?” (Mag ik alstublieft een menu? = mak ikh AHL-stu-bleeft uhn muh-NEW?) and “thank you so much” (ontzettend bedankt = ont-SET-uhnd buh-DANKT). Finally, “You are so welcome” (Je bent zo welkom = yuh bent zoh VEL-kom). Learning Dutch took me a long time. Even now I am not fluent in Dutch, but I think I could survive a day in a non-English, only-Dutch community. The easiest word for me personally is “Hello” (Hallo) because, well, it is just a change of a vowel! If you are looking for a bit more help before your trip, you could get a book like this. Succes!( suk-SES means “good luck!”)
Final Tips from a Semi-Pro
Looking back on my last two years, I think that the Netherlands is a very easy place to live and visit. But if I could tell my old self something important about the Netherlands before I moved there, I would tell myself to learn more Dutch more quickly because it’s a very hard language and it goes a really long way when you use it with Dutch people. But even without the language, the Netherlands is a very easy place to live and explore.
Well, goodbye Netherlands! I will love you forever and remember you fondly. I know I have a lot of exciting places to see and adventures ahead, but the Netherlands will stay close to me forever for so many reasons. I hope you visit it and love it as much as I do! And please leave a comment below if you have visited the Netherlands and have anything to say or add about the things mentioned in this post!
🌍 The Kids Explorer Club With Jed
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