Last week I posted something about how you can manage to travel and see the world, when you also have a (fulltime) job. One of the things I listed was that you can also travel your own country or your own neighbourhood. Find new things to explore, new restaurants or museums. You probably haven’t tried all of them yet. I figured, why not give an example and look for things in the Netherlands that I still want to do. Time for a bucketlist!

See the tulip fields

One of the things my country is famous for, is the tulips. We have some gorgeous tulip fields that will bloom in the spring. It attracts a lot of tourists, but I have to say that I have never seen them. Time to change that! There are multiple places where you could see the tulip fields, namely:

♥ Keukenhof in Lisse (where you can also visit a beautiful castle and some windmills, and it’s close to Amsterdam)
♥ Noordoostpolder
♥ Kop van Noord Holland

The tulips bloom from april to may, so in a few weeks, we are gonna visit them. We will go to the Noordoostpolder, since there is a special tulip route that is one of the most amazing routes in the world, according to National Geographic.

Visit the Rijksmuseum

All tourists go to Amsterdam. In my opinion, Amsterdam is way overrated. I don’t like going there. But the Rijksmuseum is there, which is also a very populair tourist attraction. And also one I’ve never been to. I have visited Amsterdam before, of course, but usually in weekends and then I’m certain the museum will be super crowded. I’m still planning on going there someday, but maybe on a Monday morning or something, when less people will be there

Visit the Stedelijk Museum in Vianen to see cat art

I was actually looking for ‘things to do in the Netherlands’ and then I came across this exposition in the museum in Vianen (near Utrecht) of cat art. I don’t think I need to say more than this. The exposition will be there until may 19th.

Eekhoorn Experience (Squirrel Experience)

Well, I don’t say this often, but that sounds better in Dutch than it does in English. Anyway, on the same list I found the cat art, I also saw this. In Etten-Leur, in the south of the Netherlands, there is this store called the Evenaar which sells all sorts of plants. It also has a section with squirrels and you can actually feed them. It sounds amazing and I need to go there. It is open from april till october.

Giethoorn

Giethoorn is a little village in Overijssel and is famous for its waterways and bridges. Some people call it Dutch Venice. I’ve never been there, and to be honest, never even heard of it until I started looking for things to do in the Netherlands. I wanna visit it soon and see if it’s as cute as people claim it to be.

Visit the best bookstores in the Netherlands

Our country has a lot of cool bookstores. My favourite ones are located in Rotterdam (Donner) and in Utrecht (Broese, where I worked for a few months). But there are two bookstores that prove to be something special. Both Waanders in de Broeren in Zwolle and Dominicanen in Maastricht are located inside of a church and they are absolutely gorgeous. I’ve visited both stores once before and I can’t wait to go back again.

So here’s a couple of things. And I just thought of a few more. I mean, we are famous for our cheese as well, so maybe there is a cheese museum? I have to look this up. There will probably be more of these bucketlists! In any case, I actually found a lot of stuff to do in my own country and I’m sure you will too. Just try and see what’s there. Let me know what you’ve found!