pittsburgh

This will be a trip report for our recently completed ~2 week adventure. We are a family of four (husband, wife, 11-year old boy, 9-year old girl).
This year, as we looked at places to visit, we honed in on The Netherlands as the kids had taken a strong interest in the story of Anne Frank and we the adults had also never spent any time there.

As we planned the trip, flying into Frankfurt ended up being our clear best option from a price standpoint. And coming from the west coast of the US, we didn't want to follow a long plane ride with a long train ride (in retrospect, maybe we should have), so we decided stop #1 would be somewhere between Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Stop #2 would be Amsterdam and stop #3 would be Brussels. As we researched various day trips from Amsterdam and Brussels, Lille caught our eye enough that we decided doing more than a day trip would be good.

So, in the end, we ended up with a plan of:
Day 0: Fly to Frankfurt
Day 1: Frankfurt-->Koblenz (train)
Day 2-3: Koblenz
Day 3: Koblenz-->Amsterdam (train)
Day 3-8: Amsterdam
Day 8: Amsterdam-->Lille (train)
Day 8-11: Lille
Day 11: Lille-->Brussels (train)
Day 11-15: Brussels

In this trip report, I'll give a rundown on where we stayed, where we ate, what we visited, what we loved and what we regretted. In order as we travelled. Starting with the German city of Koblenz.

lavandula

On for the ride!

Lavandula

bilboburgler

me too, bunk up

Reading54

Following along.

Interested to hear where you stayed in Koblenz.

Cause that will be my stop #1 next summer with my 3-generational family trip (granddaughters are age 16 and 14.) I am looking for conveniently located hotels with air conditionning.

bilboburgler

I've stayed in Koblenz in an international type hotel with AC (not my booking) cannot remember the name but there certainly are some. Booking.com has a filter I think and some of the international hotels are so badly designed they need it (you know the thing, lots of glass, no brise-soleil and no insulation..)

Koblenz itself is a bit meh, you might do better to take a train further up the Rhine or the Mosel to a pretty little town.

Reading54

Hello bilboburgler,

Understand. Koblenz is a transportation hub to allow us to visit Rhine (and a cruise) one day, and to visit Mosel on another day.

Our schedule will be tight. After Koblenz we'll move to Cologne, then to Paris.

bilboburgler

There is a ferry from Koblenz to the east side of the Rhine from where you can get a cable car to visit a fortress. Not a bad half day out.

pittsburgh

Since we are a group of 4, our preference is larger hotel rooms that can sleep all 4 of us (ex. 2 queens). Or, alternatively, 2 connecting rooms. We also prefer hotels that are easy to reach via public transportation -- no rental car on this trip. We do not mind a good walk.

Why Koblenz? As mentioned before, we wanted something out of Frankfurt but not that far away so that the train ride wouldn't be too long after a long plane ride. And still within a reasonable train journey to Amsterdam. We considered Dusseldorf and Cologne but decided that we would have enough other big cities on this trip, so we narrowed down to Koblenz and Mainz, landing on Koblenz mainly because it was the smaller of the two. We also have an affinity for cities with multiple rivers

For our hotel in Koblenz, we settled on the Top Hotel Kramer, staying in one of their family rooms. The hotel was an easy, less than 10 minute walk from the train station, and also an easy walk into town. We arrived before 3pm, so they said we couldn't check in yet, so their held our luggage while we went on a small introductory walk into town, enjoying some ice cream (Westwood ice cream) right when it started pouring.

We checked into our room and had water/fruit/chocolates in the room to greet us. The family room consists of two separate bedrooms, each with their own tv, plus a little sitting area with windows overlooking nothing interesting, So, the room was spacious enough for our needs.

For our first dinner of the trip, we decided to go for some typical German fare and walked to Weindorf Koblenz, enjoying the walk towards the Rhine. Was a nice traditional dinner with mainly a local crowd.

Next up -- our one full day in Koblenz.



Salmon Tarte Flambe

shelemm

I like that you were able to take advantage of your children's inspiration for this trip. I have found that to be a true joy on our family trips together, and I got to fantastic places that were not necessarily on my radar.

lavandula

Yum! Flammkuchen!!

Lavandula

pittsburgh

Next was our only full day in Koblenz. The main focus was visiting Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, taking the cable car over the Rhine to reach there. Nice walk from the hotel by the Electoral Palace and to the cable car. We were however disappointed when we walked by the weekly market and there was only a sparse number of stands (maybe it was too early in the day?) The cable car was definitely worth it with great views of both rivers. The fortress was a large sprawling complex that was also worth exploring. The kids also loved that they had a special exhibit ongoing about football/soccer. There is also a nice platform that is an easy climb up (ramps and stairs) to give another view across both rivers.

We had a wonderful dinner that night at the Verbene Bistro, one of the best meals of the trip.

Next -- Journey to Amsterdam + an evening at the Anne Frank House


Dinner at Verbene

Dinner at Verbene

Viewing platform at the fortress over the rivers

View from the cable car above the Rhine and Moselle

kerouac

Looking good, but they shouldn't have spit in your bowl of soup.

Melnq8

kerouac

Off to a good start - along for the ride.