Travelling to Europe, need some advices

I haven't been to Europe in three years. And taking into account that the last visit was in Poland, that is in this safer part of Europe, I should not comment. But I hope to see a lot of pictures of these pickpockets.

I agree with Addy, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam (and the other major cities in these countries) are generally as safe as the big cities in North America/Canada. Pickpockets are everywhere so you just need to be prudent and don't draw attention to yourself but nothing special as compared to any other tourist hotspot.

In Brussels I would avoid the Molenbeek/Kanaalzone area, not as bad as some areas around Paris but still a slightly higher risk then the other parts of the city.

I also agree that for instance staying in Utrecht is probably cheaper and nicer and all major cities in the Netherlands are easily reached by train for a day-trip.

Enjoy your trip (and the preparation which is half the fun) and I'm all for a Dyxum meet if you feel like you can squeeze it into your program. Let us know.

We enjoyed Leiden as a base for a visit to Holland. Again, well connected with all the other centres in NL. Even Brussels is easy to reach.

I was once a victim of a pickpocket attempt in Barcelona's subway (tip, don't carry your wallet in your hip pocket!) and I gave chase (stupid at my age). The guy got above ground and was spotted by three lycra-clad roller-skaters who gave chase, caught him, kicked him with their blades, and retrieved the wallet! Locals are fed up with petty crime too.

My feeling based on many visits to Holland is that you are quite safe. European statistics for robbery are here, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Crime_statistics and I note Belgium is top of the charts - I don't know if much of this is localised to areas that are best avoided.

Let me give you some information on The Netherlands.

The red light district is a tourist trap. But if you're in Amsterdam it is hard to avoid and free of charge

The Cheesemarket is in the city of Alkmaar - lovely city. The cheesemarket is on fridays: https://www.kaasmarkt.nl/en

The windmills near Rotterdam are Kinderdijk (https://www.kinderdijk.com) and to the north of Amsterdam in Zaandam (https://www.dezaanseschans.nl/en/) - Both are quite touristy. Never been to either.

If you're a Van Gogh fan, yes, got to the Van Gogh Museum.

The places you want to visit are really touristy - so, be aware of pick pockets.

You want to see the beautiful old towns, squares, old buildings - there are a lot of those in The Netherlands. Next to Alkmaar cities like Leiden, Delft, Haarlem and Utrecht are just a train ride away from Amsterdam. As you're just one day in Amsterdam I doubt a visit to these cities fit.

Interesting fact:
You know Vancouver is named after the (not that interesting) Dutch city of Coevorden?

It looks like I won't be able to visit the cheese markets in Alkmaar/Edam/Gouda because I will arrive Amsterdam on a Friday afternoon. The only one I can go to would be Woerden, though not as big as the others, but this one seems to have real trades there.

hope it will become a wonderful journey...

Holland in a rush, quite a challenge. although it's a 'small' country, distances c/b serious, i.e. time consuming, esp. when depending on public transportation. my advice w/b to take your time, enough to also enjoy your 'stay'?! instead of cramming in too many activities? (and only enjoy the pics afterwards, my style ;)).   
(we could mention average travel times if you'd care to know, like, for instance, approx. an hour from Amsterdam to Rotterdam -or vice versa- by train).

crux however will be waiting times and the time to figure out where to go and how to do that.
(an example? to avoid traffic jams, decided to take the train to The Hague, for the funeral of my aunt > arrived after 2 hours. even managed to find the Right! bus stop. long story short- took me well over an hour, after arrival in The Hague, to get from the station to the graveyard, longer than expected, and almost missed the funeral. :S).
not everything is at the very center, not Everywhere a bus departs every 10-15 minutes, not every distance rel. short. etcetera?

in Amsterdam for instance, it's also fairly easy to rent and pick up a bike or scooter/moped. (know nothing about acceptance of foreign driver's licenses for the latter).
https://riderly.com/blog/renting-a-scooter-in-amsterdam-everything-you-need-to-know/
but trams ( trams ) are also a great idea. + metro/subway.


public transport
https://9292.nl/en (no favourite of mine, cryptic?)

you'll need 'this'- Dutch Railways:
https://www.ns.nl/en/journeyplanner/#/ and/or https://www.nsinternational.com/en

+ REALLY annoying:
https://www.ns.nl/en/travel-information/traveling-with-the-ov-chipkaart
(I simply REFUSE to buy a chipkaart / chip card -for emergencies-, for the simple reason the balance will always exceed the actual costs).
I think (?) you'll be able to pay for the bus/tram by bank card as well, it'll cost extra, don't know about credit cards (yet).
all I know is that, for security reasons, you won't be able to pay cash.

at the train stations are ticket machines. you should be able to use a bank card / credit card. (often experienced issues with my particular bank card, not with cards from other banks. (but who said it w/b easy )). and... obviously there are still ticket counters in Amsterdam! elsewhere usually out of fashion.
https://www.ns.nl/en/travel-information/traveling-with-the-ov-chipkaart/ns-ticket-machines.html
https://www.nsinternational.com/en/where-to-buy/stations-selfservice-ticket-machines

https://www.expatica.com/nl/living/transportation/guide-to-public-transport-in-the-netherlands-100594/


as for safety? but nothing promised- (LOL @ Addy with his bike, classic! ), I don't totally agree. in general, no high risk for the Netherlands, quite safe, but not 'Disneyland' either. depends on where, in what neighbourhood, you are and when -at night in particular-. street robberies do occur.
https://www.expatica.com/nl/moving/location/is-amsterdam-safe-1126952/
don't bring your Rolex! + the usual make sure to always shield your pin code, esp. when using cash machines outside. beware of scams or little cameras.

+ the Netherlands may be rel. safe, but there is also a lot of organized crime; from pickpockets, people trying to scan your RFID signal through ... younameit. esp. gangs/families from Romania are infamous and operating throughout Europe. and the bigger, i.e. more crowded, the city, the higher the risk?


big YES to RFID blocking sleeves! -aluminium foil seems to work as well-.
and pouches are a splendid idea! (+ the obvious- never keep all of the money in 1 place, etc. there are also document covers, covering crucial info or even copy-ID apps).
(I happen to have lots of capes, cloaks and cloak-like coats. in a former life, when I still wore fancy clothes, the prefered outfit when I went to the big city, as they covered everything, (hand)bags included. the ultimate recipe? hope you won't be needing a rain poncho though. ). nowadays I wear my (camera) backpack on my belly when in a massive (pre-corona) crowd or turned around on my back. still can be slit open, but no zippers and the like in sight.


as for the OVERRATED red lights- pls check this out? some things have changed.

Addy is right- the most famous w.mills sites of the Netherlands! where all the tourists gather...

https://dutchreview.com/traveling/daytrips/best-windmill-site-in-holland/

https://rachelsruminations.com/kinderdijk-or-zaanse-schans/

https://theorangebackpack.nl/en/netherlands/best-place-to-see-windmills-in-the-netherlands-kinderdijk-or-zaanse-schans/

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/netherlands/kinderdijk-or-zaanse-schan

https://www.reidsguides.com/destinations/europe/netherlands/zannse_schans/index.html

https://www.albertdros.com/short-sessions (watch pics only! the nerve!!)

https://fotografieploeg.nl/offline-cursussen/workshop-landschapsfotografie/

and so on   

(think I would prefer the Zaanse Schans, more scenic?).
but the expert who can tell you all about these, is Paul! aka snegren.


(Poland? I thought Poland w/b civilized enough to take my brandnew shiny Minolta 8000i ashore, broad daylight. and my -late- husband was by no means 'frail', quite tall and broad. nevertheless we were followed and cornered by a bunch of skinheads. I couldn't follow what they were saying, my Polish is not that good, but I do understand the word 'camera'. and saw what they were trying to grab hold of. and chased them off. NOT funny though! deja vu on Dyxum, where I saw that street again, in the center of Gdansk).

love the ending, Howard! hint! always look out for roller-skaters? ;) Belgium unsafe?    news to me!

yes! june. bought it the moment it hit the shelves. the 9000 already outdated and the 9000i nothing but a vision, it would take another 2 years for it to appear. (thus making 8000i Minolta's flagship for a while; 1/8000s and came with a free subscription to Minolta Magazine). to my frustration, lacking a DOF preview button, but with an auto double exposure option. which we had so, SO much fun with... in an era when it was a fact (!) that 'photographs never lie!'
even had a Cokin mask to cover part of the frame to make the illusion complete, and 'real'. hilarious! not just ghostly pics.

back then people still paid for their lenses themselves. Marktplaats and E-bay had not been invented yet. and that's why I ended up with Sony. because we had spent a 'MERE FORTUNE' on Minolta lenses. and other stuff. little did I know!


@James- stories about funerals, but the clue was that -because I knew this graveyard, my grandparents burried there as well-, I thought I had made up a schedule, only this time without a car. the clue is that this country gets so much bigger, when relaying on public transportation. it sometimes takes like forever to get to places, if possible anyway. (in the city usually the other way round). + the thing with busses is that they stop. they do that a lot.

so I figured you'd better pick a Dyxumer to drive you around? or from / to sites like Zaanse Schans. ? could car rental be an option? outside the city! parking fees in Amsterdam are OUT-RA-GEOUS! IF you can find a parking space that is! (to give you an idea; to drive across this country, diagonally, will take up to 5 hours, since we are not allowed to fly low, there are speed limits).

and another idea perhaps-
https://www.holland.com/global/tourism/destinations/more-destinations/gouda/cheese-valley-gouda-and-beyond.htm

not every cheese named Gouda, comes from Gouda btw. learned that they call the area around Gouda 'cheese valley' nowadays. but afaik cheese was never produced IN the city of Gouda, i.e. my (4) grandparents, who lived in Gouda, used to buy cheese and butter at farms nearby, in the vicinity of Gouda; Gouda cheese.
Jet might be able to tell you about gems that might be hidden there nowadays?
+ -classic!- places like silver city Schoonhoven and such.
(throw in a tulip, a couple of cows and some clogs, a polder perhaps + a dyke and you'll get the whole picture? ;) picture perfect, NOT!).

if you like the utterly pittoresque, very very dutch, the vicinity of the Zaanse Schans is lovely as well. + the whole enchilada at the IJsselmeer /-lake.
near Amsterdam you'll also find a castle, an old one. (also the most famous one? although I think we have nicer ones. anno 1285. Gravensteen, Ghent dates from 1180).   
so much for TOURIST TRAPS in a nutshell.

https://www.dyxum.com/dforum/cities-marken-netherlands_topic139992.html

https://www.catharinavanmijdrecht.eu/arrangement/day-trip-sailing-2/

https://uitjesvolendam.nl/zeiltocht-markermeer-driegangendiner-marken/ (4 hours, but -too- pricey! -including dinner- )