Marco Bloemendaal
Senior vice president of sales, VISIT Milwaukee
Marco Bloemendaal oversees VISIT Milwaukee’s sales division. He travels regularly for business and leisure. Sometimes, those trips bring him back to his homeland, the Netherlands, and its capital, Amsterdam.
Transportation:
“Arriving at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, you might be a little overwhelmed. The airport is the third busiest in Europe and fifth busiest in the world for international traffic, as Amsterdam is the ‘gateway to Europe.’ But in all the hectic, you will find the airport to feel compact and easy to navigate. The same goes for navigating in the city. Similar to Milwaukee, the airport is close to the heart of the city – only 11 miles. And once you are in the city, you can tackle it by foot, tram, train, boat and bicycle.”
Excursions:
“Amsterdam has many famous museums, like the Anne Frank House and Van Gogh Museum. Definite to-dos are a canal tour, flower market, sightseeing the historical buildings and, yes, even the Red Light District. Often, Amsterdam is one of several cities during a trip to Europe but you should go outside the city, as the landscape is completely different. During the spring, visit the ‘Keukenhof’ garden, where 7 million tulips bloom every year.”
Credit: Dennis van de Water / Shutterstock.com
Accommodations and food:
“Similar to Milwaukee, everyone knows Amsterdam’s cheese and beer—Heineken, of course—but there is so much more. Explore all the local cafés and when the weather is good, they open the terraces and put the seats in ‘theater style’ so everyone is looking at the street, people watching. If you’re looking for a typical local (lodging) option, try a houseboat—former vessels now converted into homes. Amsterdam is known as the ‘Venice of the north’ with its many canals, so you will find a lot of them.”
Travel tip:
“Biking is not a form of transportation in the Netherlands – it is a way of life. Everywhere you go, you will find bicycle paths. When walking or driving through the city, always look left and right as these bicycles can show up out of nowhere.”
