Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam itinerary: great introduction to Europe

Louvre

The main reason why I was fairly quiet for the past 2 months is my getaway with Colleen to Europe in late spring 2 months back. After coming back, it was another hurdle to edit the photos which took me weeks to do so. And since I had been away for 2 weeks, I had been craving on home cooked food. Anyway, here are the itinerary of my travel to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam for reference.

Before the trip, it is always always prudent to do your homework first. From booking hotels to selecting food, everything need to be planned in order to prevent any wastage both in term of money or time. Comparison between airline is very important but as all will suggest, buy as early as possible, preferably during promotion period. We selected Emirates because during the promotion month, it beats all other airline (except Vietnam airline) including our own MAS. Transit, in a way is a good way to rest from flying so we did not mind stopping over in Dubai Airport. The other ticket we need to book really early is the train tickets between the countries. We took Thalys which travel between Paris- Brussels- Amsterdam route, which make up the 3 main cities that we visited. The concept of Thalys (or Eurostar in that aspect) is similar to budget airline. Book as early as you can to gain the best discount.

By the way, there is no need for visa to enter the selected countries and because of Schengen agreement, there is not even a passport/ immigration check when travel between those countries.

Montmarte

D1: Paris
We stayed in Arty Paris, bit far but in a safe neighbourhood (something that we appreciated after returning from Paris). Select the single room with private toilet for privacy but double decked room for the cheaper price. We also bought the Paris Museum Pass, which covers most of the places we wanted to visit, and also to skip certain lines (which can be really really long), except the queue for security check.

Versailles

D2: Paris centre
Notre Dame: impressive gothic cathedral, free to enter. Come early in the morning to avoid the crowds which can be suffocating. Pay extra to climb the tower for better view of Paris. The crypt has a separate entry, but not as interesting as the chapel
Sainte-Chapelle: another must-visit. The top attraction here is definitely the stained glass surrounding the upper chapel.
Conciergerie: gloomy prison cells turned into a museum. A nice breakaway from all the chapels
Ile St Louis: supposedly more quiet and great for lunch but after walking over here, I would have gave it a miss, even the recommended Berthillon Maison ice cream.
Le Centre Pompidou: walk from Ile de la Cite towards Louvre, and Pompidou is on the way. Museum of modern art is not everyone cup of tea, but the different art would be interesting after loaded with so many European art.
Louvre: the museum of Paris that everyone must come to visit. There are many celebrated art here but the most famous one would be Leornado Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. One can easily spend a whole day here and get lost in the 3 conjoining buildings. The easier way to enjoy Louvre is come during the evening where the crowd is slightly less and visit only the exhibition you wanted to see rather than seeing everything.

garden in Versailles

D3: Paris North, Centre
Montmarte: The main church here is Basilica sacre coeur, which the impressive architecture and dome attracts crowds of people everyday. To take note, there are many thugs on the way up to the chapel who actually try to extort money from tourist. It is difficult to avoid them especially couples, so it is best to travel in groups or at least stick close to some tourist groups. The other option, which I did not try, is to spend bit of money to take the funicular train up. I suspect the thugs concentrated on the staircase rather than the train.
Musee D Orsay: another must-visit museum after Louvre, just across the river. Much more manageable size, it is possible to see all exhibit here, though bit tiring. A good selection of Van Gogh and other famous paintings are exhibited here.
Place de La concorde, Champ Elysees: continue on the walk across River Seine to Jardin Des Tuilleries, to Concorde and walk along the famous expensive street to Arc De Triomphe, and impressive landmark by Napolean.

D4: Versailles
A piece of advice, do not come visit on weekend, as the queue is very very long, even with the museum pass. In case when it is unavoidable, like our case, visit the trianon palaces first, though it is a rather long walk from the main castle there. Sample the awesome luxurious royal living here.

Quater latin, Pantheon: it was closed for an event when we arrived. Just our luck.
Eiffel tower: we still manage to visit the tower after returning to Paris, though we did not want to queue up to go up the tower. There is a shorter line for those who would not mind climbing up to the 1st level, but the queue is still long enough to deter us to climb,

Belgian frites may be ordinary,
but the dips are out of this world

D5: to Brussels
A quiet morning before boarding the afternoon train to Brussels. We got the Brussels city card as well, not for the transport, but rather the admissions, because admissions fees to the museums here could be pricey. We checked into Max Hotel, which is a new hotel with DIY check in. We must say, this is the most comfortable room we had in Europe without breaking a hole in the pocket.

Grand place, Manneken Pis: spent rest of the evening in the the famous grand place, look for food as well, and manage to visit Galeries Saint Hubert, which is a really small shopping gallery. (nothing like the huge shopping complex here but a rather modest few lanes of shops instead). Do not forget to locate the pissing boy statue and the lesser known pissing girl statue

D6: Brussels centre
Belgian centre of comic strip art: worth a visit if a fan of Tintin or smurfs
MOOF: similar to comic strip art museum, but more of figurines. Still, it pales in comparison to a visit to figurine shops in Akihabara, Tokyo.
Maisson du Roi, museum of the city of Brussels: for the history of city, and to view different costume made specially for Manneken Pis.
Museum of cocoa and chocolate: short visit, especially the demonstration of chocolate making.
Museum of Belgian brewers: too small for a visit. Basically it is just watching a video in a small basement

Brussels east
Autoworld: interesting for those who like old cars, Nothing much for new cars design though.
Royal museum of art and history: quite a big museum with good selection across the cultures around the world, but allocate enough time to walk around.

Beguinage in Bruges

royal museum of armed force: good selection for free, but need to be familiar with European war history first, or else, it would be just a half an hour walk though.

D7: Ghent and Bruges
I will keep it short in this entry because we took the day tour from Brussels, greedy to cover both in the same day. It is logistically more advantageous to go with tour group if we want to cover both town, but in return, we did not manage to enjoy much as the group did not allocate adequate time to really enjoy each and every attraction. And we skipped a great deal of interesting spots as well which I would love to visit, such as the Castle of Ghent or the brewery in Bruges.

D8: to Amsterdam
took afternoon Thalys to Amsterdam, bought the Iamsterdam city card, again for the admissions and the free tram. We stayed in Inner Hostel, which is just across Stedelijk museum. Very reasonable price for such as convenient spot to visit all the main museum of Amsterdam.

Time the nights with night visit to museums, as different museums open at night on a different day of the week.
Stedelijk museum: modern art, more acceptable than Pompidou in Paris.

bridges and canals in Amsterdam

D9: Amsterdam
Diamant musem: surprisingly nice collection and exhibition, and free tour of the polishing work they do next door.
Museumplein: just some outdoor shots with the Iamsterdam words, but we did not enter Rjiks museum since it is not covered in the card (we have a good selection of places to visit with the card already)
canal cruise: good way to relax in between attraction while enjoying cruising around town.
Albert cuyp market: imagine the pasar malam but European style. Few good selection of street food, inlcuding the herring sandwich.
Heineken experience: come here for the beer experience. nice variety of things to do here.
FOAM: surprisingly not so great exhibition here.
Van Gogh museum: come at Friday night for a different experience with DJ spinning music while we admire his art piece.

D10: Amsterdam
Museum of purse and handbags: again, not modern bags but few selections on the evolution of handbags. Not very interesting for us.
Willetholthuysen House: visit to one of the canal house open to public
rembrandplein: a brief stop
bloenmenmarkt: floating flower market, ironically not for flower shopping but for cheap souvenirs.

in canal house Amsterdam

Huis Marseille Photography museum: surprisingly better exhibits than FOAM. There are few really good work, especially the photos of Marseille before he passed on.
NieuKerk church: ongoing world press photo exhibition, highly recommended for all. This, probably is the place I enjoyed the most in Amsterdam. Too bad the exhibition only last for 2 months.
Red light district: expect lots of tourist, some good budget food, and do not be surprised by the sex worker advertising themselves.
houseboat museum: very tiny indeed, but good exposure to how people actually stay in a boat compare to an actual house.
Tulip museum: really tiny space to tell the story of tulip. Forgettable unless have time to spare or on the way to Anne Frank, like us.
Anne Frank house: featured in a few movies, this is the actual house that hide Anne Frank and her family during the Nazi occupation. Very moving for some, but for the rest of us, still a good reminder of the cruel side of war.

D11: zaanse schans
Took the bus pass and off we go to the northern harbour district. First we stop in the touristy Zaanse schans. Although very artificial indeed (we encountered an Asian milkmaid), but where else would you find a functional windmill (all 3 of them) and other interesting local offering such as wood clog workshop or cheese shop?
We went to the harbour town of Marken and Volendam as well but it was raining heavily during that time, so we only manage to enjoy the boat ride in between the 2 town but fail to venture around the area.

D12: farewell
It was a fruitful 2 weeks, and we took the bus to the airport and arrived to KLIA, arriving on D13.

ratings: 3 half poink!
comments: would not go back to Paris anymore, felt it was over rated in many ways. However, ironically, it was the cheapest among the 3 cities. Brussels is nice for a serene getaway, while Amsterdam have such a variety to offer. Europe is definitely not cheap, but with careful planning, and patient waiting for cheap tickets, the cost can be brought down tremendously.