Non-stoner-centric day-trip suggestions?

[Couch]

Once again, I am trying to convince my wife to go with me to Amsterdam, and once again, I'm having difficulty convincing her to go because coffeeshops and such are not enough to make her excited to go all by themselves (although it's plenty enough for me, and she doesn't object to it).

We're looking at a week or so in town, but need to come up with a few day trips to make things interesting. Looked at a day trip to Antwerp & Brussels. Looked at an overnight cruise to Newcastle (UK) and back. River cruises in Germany. Visit (or maybe even stay in) Zandvoort?

I'm thinking maybe 2 day trips over the course of a week, get out of town (or at least out of the center) by train/bus/boat, go see/visit something interesting for a few hours, and come back later that day. Just trolling for ideas...

[Balou]

Bruges in Belgium along with Antwerp would be nice. You could also take the ICE train to Dusseldorf for her to do a little shopping. Paris is also reachable by the Thalys high speed train in a few hours. IMO the overnight ferry trips are not worth it. If you want to visit England I would fly easyJet. You can get some great fares if you book far enough in advance. Don't forget there is plenty to see in Amsterdam and the Netherlands. I enjoyed Den Haag and if you're going in the warmer months a trip to the beach is in order.

Peace,
Balou

[Kingdoc]

Yea dusseldorf & antwerp are 2 super days away,& like balou says brugges is another gem! the royal palace in brussels is worth a look also ,KD.

[Ingo2]

Lots of cool things pretty close to Amsterdam. Depends on your wife's interests, but mine certainly enjoyed:

Utrecht - The Museum Speelklok - in the center of the city, a museum full of mechanical music machines. If you wait for the guided tour the guide will play a number of them. Took my wife 3 hours to go through this place, and I was fascinated by the mechanical aspect of the machines. The mini-ballroom at the end has the giant music hall machines that contain an 8-12 piece orchestra which are pretty impressive.

Delft - Has Porceleyne Fles, one of the last operational Delftware porcelein factories. This is where you can see the real thing, not the cheap tat for sale in the souvenir shops.

In Amsterdam itself there's the zoo and aquarium as well as odd little museums like the Tassenmuseum (Purse and Handbag Museum)a couple blocks from Rembrandtplein. The Boom Chicago shows in Leidseplein are pretty funny evening entertainment (80-90% in English with some Dutch in-jokes thrown in for the locals).

And if you're in town between March 24 and May 20 there's the immense gardens at Keukenhof. I believe you can buy a bus + entrance ticket in Leidseplein and catch the bus from there as well. Scarf down a space cake as you board the bus, and I guarantee, no matter how poor the quality of the cake, you will see colors within 40 minutes.

[FlyByNite]

If you have nice weather

http://www.hogeveluwe.nl/en/14

Just outside Arnhem.

It's either a long day trip or an overnighter.
I did the overnight, it was easier on me.

Train to Arnhem
Bus to the park
Free white bikes to ride around the park
Bus back to Arnhem
Train back to Amsterdam

Just in case you want to include a little stone in it

http://thekaart.nl/en-netherlands-arnhe ... _33_0.html

Coffeeshops of Arnhem.

Enjoy
FlyByNite