Amsterdam - part 3 - lessons learned

1. Make sure Ava eats a big breakfast before she has to sit in the car for an extended period of time. Car sickness isn't fun for anyone!!

2. Always take trash bags so you can contain puked on clothes.

3. Don't spend all of the cash. We owed money for parking at the houseboat, and we had just enough cash to pay for it. I figured we would be fine because it was the last day so we just had to pay for gas for the car and pick up some lunch on the way. We could just use our French bank card that we were told was accepted everywhere in Europe...

4. McDonalds in the Netherlands only accepts Dutch bank cards. We had stopped for lunch at Burger King and our card got denied. So, we drove to the next McDonalds which happened to be a Rock n Roll McDonalds, complete with a giant Michael Jackson statue in front. Ken ordered and the card got denied again. At least they spoke English and could explain to us why. Ken went to the gas station next door (while I did bathroom duty with the kids) to find an ATM - no luck. They told him there was one down the road, so he looked but still found nothing. Meanwhile, the kids and I were sitting at McDonalds with no food because we couldn't pay for any. When Ken finally came back I counted change and found enough to pay for 1 happy meal, a french fry, some chicken nuggets, and a coca light.

 5.   Gas stations in the Netherlands only accept Dutch bank cards. We had about 20 km to empty when we crossed the border from the Netherlands into Belgium. Thank goodness Belgium accepts our French bank card - we were starting to get nervous.

6. Always take money to the bathroom. There are bathroom attendants everywhere, even in the gas stations. It is a little awkward taking your 3 year old to the bathroom and almost begging to have them let you use it without paying because you forgot your wallet in the car. I guess even if I did bring it in, it wouldn't have mattered because I used all of my change to pay for lunch at McDonalds that day!

7. When you are stopped by 6 German cops at a random checkpoint, say you were just on holiday in the Netherlands, not Amsterdam (good thinking Ken!).  Thankfully they let us drive through, but it is a little intimidating having German cops surround your car trying to look in.