In honor of my second son's bar mitzvah, I wanted to return to Israel with him. This time we would go over the kids' winter break from school. At first we thought that the trip would include me, my husband, the bar mitzvah boy and our 3 year old. However as we began to try and figure out when exactly we would travel and what we would do with the other kids it became obvious that if my husband stayed home those issues disappear. However, if he wasn't coming, then taking the 3 year old (however cute she is) would make for a very different trip. Also, at most of Israel's holy sites men and women go to separate areas. I don't mind being by myself, but my 13 year old son may feel a bit awkward and lost. It would be best to take along one of his brothers and to leave my daughter home with her Abba. The travelers on this trip then became me, the bar mitzvah boy and my 10 year old son.
In the spirit of trying to wisely budget for this trip, I came across very affordable plane tickets with just one catch.... An 11 hour layover in Amsterdam. I consulted with some friends who had done this stop over as well as a friend who is originally from Amsterdam to see if this is feasible. After a lot of encouragement, I booked the trip.
The web searches began, the itinerary developed, the reservations made ( those Israelis love their reservations!) and off we went. We left Los Angeles and it's 80 degree Mid-January weather after lunch and arrived in Amsterdam at 9 am local time, which was midnight on our bodies. We were greeted with cloudy, drizzly 40 degree weather.
All signage in Amsterdam is written in Dutch and English. Everyone we met spoke a perfect English and we're willing to help a confused tourist. We bought our train tickets at the airport and off we went for the first of our 11 hour adventure.
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