{"id":9435,"date":"2020-01-15T10:00:44","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/?p=9435"},"modified":"2020-02-12T10:33:31","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T15:33:31","slug":"explorica-expeditions-amsterdam-paris-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/explorica-expeditions-amsterdam-paris-london","title":{"rendered":"Explorica Expeditions: Amsterdam, Paris, and London"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Mary C. is a Project Manager on the marketing
\n<\/span><\/i>team in our Boston headquarters.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

She recently traveled to Europe with an Explorica
\ngroup and is here to tell us all about it!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Most tourists flock to Europe during the warm summer months, but I was lucky enough to go on a trip to Amsterdam, Paris, and London in October. Not only were there fewer tourists and lines, but the fall weather was almost perfect (aside from some rain).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been able to travel to some pretty awesome locations including Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, and Italy, but I had never visited these three staple European cities prior to my trip with Explorica. Luckily, the cities are only a few hours apart, so it was easy to fit all of them into one trip.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amsterdam<\/b><\/p>\n

My favorite way to explore a new city is to walk around without a specific destination in mind. It really lets me get to know the city on foot, and it\u2019s how I started my adventure in Amsterdam since I arrived the day before my group. On my first night in the city, I explored the numerous bridges and canals and familiarized myself with the restaurants, museums, and landmarks in the area.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The next day, I explored two places I had spotted the night before: the Van Gogh Museum and the Heineken Experience. I could have easily spent hours in each museum, so I\u2019d recommend setting aside at least a half a day if you plan to visit these attractions. The trams in Amsterdam are quick and reliable, so I was able to get between the two in about ten minutes. And it\u2019s true what they say about bikes in Amsterdam \u2013 there are TONS of people on bikes, so keep your head up and be on the lookout if you\u2019re walking around!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That night, I met my Explorica tour group upon their arrival and we had a traditional Dutch <\/span>pannenkoken <\/span><\/i>dinner while getting to know one another. They had flown overnight from the U.S., so after dinner we retreated back to the hotel for some much-needed sleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next morning, we explored the city together and visited both the Anne Frank Museum and the Rikjsmuseum. One of my favorite moments from the remainder of the trip in Amsterdam was visiting the rural Zaandam area of the Netherlands where they have some of the oldest working windmills in Europe. We were able to tour the inside of a windmill and later had freshly baked stroopwafels as a surprise treat from our tour director, which was a delicious end to a long travel day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re visiting the bustling streets of Amsterdam or smaller villages out in the countryside, there\u2019s plenty of history to explore and tons of delicious food to eat in the Netherlands.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Paris<\/b><\/p>\n

From Amsterdam, we took a coach bus to Paris and arrived late at night.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paris was absolutely gorgeous! We started our visit the next morning with a long walk together exploring the city and learning different things about the neighborhoods from our tour director. We went to the Louvre museum and took a guided tour of a local perfumery where we were each able to test different types of perfumes and learn about the Parisian perfume industry. We were able to catch a beautiful sunset next to the Eiffel Tower as we walked towards the Seine for an evening cruise.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From the river, we had even better views of the Eiffel Tower as it lit up right at sundown. The cruise lasted about an hour, and our tour director told us about various landmarks in the city, including the Conciergerie and the cathedral of Notre Dame.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of our favorite meals in Paris was (ironically) pizza. We learned that Paris is actually known for their thin crust, flatbread-style pizza and we tried four different kinds during our last dinner in France.<\/span><\/p>\n

London<\/b><\/p>\n

If it wasn\u2019t for the rain, London would have easily been my favorite part of the trip! We took the Chunnel from Paris to London \u2013 a roughly two-hour train ride that goes underneath the English Channel, which was an attraction in and of itself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Upon arriving in London, a few of us went for high tea at Twinings while others explored Picadilly Circus. Our tour director actually lives in London, so she was able to show us the most authentic areas and restaurants in the city and gave us an impromptu guided tour of the Portrait Museum. We were all happy to retreat indoors as it was a very typical, rainy London day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The next day, we explored Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and saw (from afar) the Tower Bridge.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Once the rain cleared, we walked across the London Millennium Footbridge, known for its brief spotlight in <\/span>Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince<\/span><\/i>, and enjoyed beautiful views of the skyline together while reminiscing on our favorite parts of the trip. With only one day left on our tour, we were sad to leave but ready to see the countryside of England.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bath and Stonehenge<\/b><\/p>\n

On our last day of the tour, we took advantage of <\/span>an extension<\/span><\/a> and toured the Roman Baths in Bath, England. Built around 60 CE, the Baths were used for public bathing during the Roman rule of Britain. We stopped quickly for traditional Cornish pasties for lunch and then continued on to Stonehenge.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At Stonehenge, we met the rain and wind at full force, which left most of us laughing as our umbrellas inverted and we had no choice but to embrace the weather. It worked in our favor though, as we had nearly uninhibited views of Stonehenge. We nearly had the place to ourselves, so we were able to take our time walking the trail that surrounds the stones and learning all about Stonehenge\u2019s mysterious history.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in discovering more of Amsterdam, Paris, and London, <\/span>let\u2019s get a conversation started<\/span><\/a>! See some of these sites (<\/span>and more<\/span><\/a>) for yourself on an Explorica tour.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mary C. is a Project Manager on the marketing team in our Boston headquarters. She recently traveled to Europe with an Explorica group and is here to tell us all about it!     Most tourists flock to Europe during the warm summer months, but I was lucky enough to go on a trip to Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,63],"tags":[405,752558,651115,453,176,225],"class_list":["post-9435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explorica-news","category-students","tag-amsterdam","tag-bath","tag-explorica-expeditions","tag-london","tag-paris","tag-stonehenge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9435"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9456,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9435\/revisions\/9456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}