I am typing today from an intercity train that will bring us over a period of two hours from Amsterdam back to our home city of Enschede. My family spent the days between Christmas and New Years Eve traipsing around Amsterdam, on foot and by tram, exploring the city’s attractions.

Are you curious about Amsterdam during the holidays? These are the highlights of our trip!

Carré Circus

In 1887 the Carré theater opened on the shores of the Amstel river. The Carré circus family had decided to make Amsterdam their hometown, and in this prestigious position they would bring the circus and other performing delights to to the public for decades to come.

At 6 years old, Elora is a fantastic age for the circus. She was awestruck by the show, but not just her. All four of us, including my 15-year-old son, deemed the event top-notch. Liam says it was even better than Cirque du Soleil, which he saw about ten years ago. Well, the Carré must be pretty good to overshadow his younger memories.

The Carré circus has the variety of acts that you might expect, featuring feats of strength, flexibility, balance, grace and skill. There were no elephants or tigers. In fact, the only animals involved where horses, whose tricks made the Carre famous long ago. Watching the horses prance-walk on their hind legs is a sight to behold!

Winter Paradise

For day 2 of our Amsterdam getaway, we visited the Amsterdam Winter Paradise. This is a huge indoor/outdoor event of carnival rides and winter fun. There’s a snow tubing hill, a tube jump, snow ball fights, tricycles on ice and three ice skating rings. Almost everything is including in the admission price, even the carnival rides and shows like puppets and magicians.

What fun, right? But alas, there were too many people. It was typical to wait 30 minutes in line for a ride. While that might be normal at Disney, waiting that long for a short tube slide or swing is a bit much.

The best part for us was ice skating, which we could have done elsewhere in Amsterdam. With the double skates, Elora was able to get her feet under her and even skate without the training seal at the end. She would have skated all day long. Next time we’ll just go skating!

Around Town

The next day we put on our walking shoes and took on the town. About 19,700 steps later, we had seen it all. Kidding - but not about the number of steps! Our day three was a shopping day, with an abbreviated museum stop thrown in. We took the tram as much as reasonable, to try to spare Elora’s little legs, but we certainly got a work out that day.

My teenager is allergic to museums, so we chose a very simple, very short experience this time - the Houseboat museum. That is an interesting look inside a real houseboat. I think Liam’s favorite part was the wall displaying real estate listings of actual houseboats for sale. He did clarify that he feels we should not retire in a houseboat, as he imagines that would bring certain maintenance challenges that he would inherit. Hm, very practical.

Amsterdam offers no end to shopping opportunities, from a flashy Apple emporium to well-stocked secondhand clothing stores. Our tastes run the gamut, so it was nice that there was something for everyone. If you’re traveling with children you shouldn’t miss The Mouse Mansion Mini Museum.

This is utterly charming! The store/musuem is based on a series of books by Karina Schaapman. The “Muizenhuis” books are made up of photographs of a mice world created in miniature in fantastic detail. At the Mouse Mansion Mini Museum you can see those scenes in real life. Super fun!

The books are also well-written - Elora loves them. A couple are available in English and in other languages too. Plus, children can buy a DIY dollhouse, furniture and furnishings to bring their own mouse dollhouse to life. And it’s all plastic-free, recyclable and reasonably priced.

Light Festival

We finished our last day in Amsterdam with the quintessential boat tour - light festival style. For the 11th year Amsterdam’s waters are embellished with light installations made by artists from around the world. They are best to view from the waters. With blankets on our laps and cups of hot chocolate in our hands, this was a cozy way to bid goodby to the city.

Our Amsterdam Light Festival cruise was operated by Friendship boats. The guide was sick, so we did not hear much about the artwork or city as we cruised. If I were planning another go at it, I would recommend a small boat or even renting your own boat, so that you can get up close to the lights and linger where you would like.

Regardless, the lights were fun to see. Elora’s favorite installation reminded her of a garden lollipops. Brandon said they are more like rainbow cattails. Their movement and flashing color make them magical. My favorite installation looked like fireflies. A photograph wouldn’t do it justice, but you can see a video at this link in the header. It’s the one showing a small boat going under a bridge.

Now we’re home again and the fireworks are exploding all around us, even though it’s not yet dark. They really love fireworks for New Year’s Eve (and the weeks leading up to it). We shall have an amazing show right from our windows. Sometime in the early morning hours of 2023 they’ll finally take a break and we’ll have a few hours of peaceful sleep before the popping resumes in the morning.

Happy New Year, everyone! Here’s the view this week in Amsterdam, where they’re already welcoming 2023 with a light show in front of the Rijksmuseum!