Chocolate, Windmills, Tulips and More: A Glorious Week in Belgium and the Netherlands

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

 

With a week left of our half term break we took advantage of some cheap Eurostar tickets I bought months ago and headed across the channel to places I had never been before, Belgium and the Netherlands.

 

I am attempting to give you a condensed highlights package of a really lovely week. We have left the mad rush style of holiday behind and we took it easy, attempting to just breath it all in, rather than cramming in too much.

One night in Brussels

After the incredibly easy trip to Brussels on the Eurostar we stayed at a hotel close to Bruxelles-Midi where the Eurostar arrives and the train to the Netherlands departs. We stayed in a super modern funky hotel, Be Manos, much to the delight of the kids. It was a bargain on Hotwire and had door between the lounge with the kids rooms and ours, which is always nice.

Hotel Room Doors



We had a particularly memorable dinner in Brussels, it was Good Friday and we worried about finding somewhere to eat. I needn't have worried, everything was open and just across from the hotel was a lovely café. I had new season white asparagus with smoked salmon and poached egg. It was such a delight I think I will need to track down some asparagus today and attempt to replicate it. Strawberries are also out early this year due to the rains and both are divine.

Brussels is an easy city for a mornings walk, which of course is not enough to do it justice, however you can only make the best of the time you have. The most important place not to miss is the Grote Markt or Grand Place, Brussels central square where we were able to see the town hall from the early fourteen hundreds and many more buildings from the sixteen hundreds. I would love to see the floral carpet (literally tens of thousands of flowers) they lay out every other August for a few days.

14thC Town Hall

What we did see was Tintin murals, lace shops, of course chocolate shops and even a beer museum we just didn't have time to visit. The kids will remember Belgium as "the land of chocolate", not such a thrill for Julian as he doesn't like it, but both kids loved watching the Chocolatier at work in the window of Godiva in the Grand Sablon. Being Easter Saturday I just had to pick up a few treats for Emma, though for some reason I forget to get anything for the grown ups.

Four Fabulous Nights in Beautiful Leiden

On Easter Saturday afternoon we arrived in beautiful Leiden in the Netherlands. Leiden was chosen as it is close enough to Amsterdam and also Keukenhoff Gardens for incredibly easy day trips. We reached both in half an hour. For that matter it is also close to Rotterdam, Den Haag, Delph and countless other fabulous places we didn't get around to seeing. But we had no idea that Leiden is a wonderful destination in itself and I could easily spend much more time here.

It is usually a very easy journey from Brussels but Easter Weekend was chosen as the best time from track works so we had a four hour trip, made up of four trains and a bus journey. All were very easy and I'm sure a four hour journey without train changes would have been much less of an adventure.

We used Trip Advisor to help select accommodation and while I usually look for an apartment I couldn't help but be intrigued by the reviews for Salomons Room which is a bed and breakfast but consists of the entire top floor of a lovely four hundred year old home. Seeing it was Easter I decided we deserved a treat and it was a truly magical Easter. Griet even gave the children lovely gifts for Easter and took the time to get to know them which was much appreciated by us and the children simply adored her.

Rob and I agree that all the wonderful places we have seen will fade from our minds far sooner than the wonderful people we have met. Griet and Wim, the owners of Salomons Room are perfect examples of this. We were taken into their home and their hearts and we enjoyed such a lovely Easter together.

Salomons Room does not usually take children, and this is understandable as the apartment is filled with fabulous books and art. We feel very privileged that Griet made this exception for us. The apartment was beautiful and you can tell Griet has a background in catering as her food is delicious.

 Leiden itself is like a smaller Amsterdam, a student town with very few tourists which far from being a pitty is actually a wonderful thing, so perhaps I shouldn't tell you more. But I shall because it would be a shame not to share. Like Amsterdam the streets are crisscrossed with canals overlooked by lovely terrace houses.

People get around by bicycle but it is easy to avoid getting mowed down by them compared to the mad throngs of Amsterdam. There are cafes everywhere and food we tried seems aimed at the student population, simple and nourishing and on the cheaper side. Their were more expensive places but after big breakfasts we didn't feel like three or more course dinners.

Set up by the tourist centre, the Leidseloper or the Leiden Loop, is a fabulous way to spend the day, following a trail from one of Leiden's sights to the next. We did this towards the end of our stay and while we thought Leiden was wonderful before, we would have missed its best if we hadn't followed this trail. We even got to climb all the way up inside a windmill, which was hair raising for me. Not an issue to climb up all those ladders, until I was at the top and realised we had to get back down them all.

Keukenhoff

Visiting the Netherlands in late April our main goal was a visit the world famous Keukenhoff Garden's, which are only open for a short time each year. We were so lucky to have timed this holiday so well. Sadly the huge fields of tulips you see in the pictures here were past their prime, however the rest of the perfectly manicure gardens surpassed even our wildest expectations. I hope you enjoy the photos. There was no way I could show you less of them.

 

 We really enjoyed a Birds of Prey show that was presented, Julian was even able to hold a little Owl which was lovely. During the presentation they released a Goshawk to give a display of hunting, except that the Goshawk had other ideas and wasn't seen again. Apparently he has a GPS chip and they hopefully tracked him down later. We were shown all sorts of birds from owls to eagles and even an African Hornbill which none of us had seen before.

There are not just tulips at Keukenhoff, though the tulips were spectacular, but there were also thousands of varieties of other flowers, both displayed in spectacular beds, wilderness settings and also in huge indoor pavilions. I am sure we did not see it all, and I am doubly sure I am furious at myself for not charging the camera as I can tell you, as nice as these photos are, I missed some of the best displays when my camera ran out.

 Keukenhoff was such an easy day trip from Leiden, a short bus ride away, and spectacular beyond description. I suggest with children or without a trip to the Netherlands in April should be on everyone's bucket list just to visit Keukenhoff.

A Day in Amsterdam

The more we travel the more I realise that travel for the sake of ticking off another city on a list of places that everyone thinks should be visited misses the essential essence of the experience. I must admit that I visited Amsterdam simply because I could not have been to the Netherlands and without being able to say I had been there. 

It reminds me of the Louvre late last year where I watched thousands of tourists attempting to take a 'selfie' with the Mona Lisa rather than appreciating the other amazing art works they were surrounded by. I really wanted to visit the amazing galleries of Amsterdam but I was tired from weeks on the road and I realised that in the wrong frame of mind I was wasting my time and the kids then wouldn't have appreciated the experience.

And so we visited Amsterdam simply to soak in the atmosphere of the place.  We took a boat trip, from a dock right in front of the train station as it was lightly raining and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone in the rain. The boat was filled with people talking loudly throughout, except when they were sushing everyone else when the commentary in their language was played and returned to talking loudly through everyone else's. 

And so we abandoned the commentary to sit outside and have a better view, the rain running down the windows made it difficult to see. However the engines were very loud and scared Julian so we returned inside leaving Rob and Emma to the nice views. I believe that it is easy to form an opinion of a place based solely on the weather you experience while there.



Luckily we spent the afternoon wandering around the streets and canals of the Jordaan area and as the sun came out so our opinion of Amsterdam lifted also.

Long queue at Anne Frank's house

Along the way we passed the Anne Frank museum and decided that the children were too young and the queue was too long and so we continued on. We enjoyed tasting the cheese at the cheese museum and even Rob got into the spirit of things.

After a thoroughly lovely afternoon we walked back to the madding crowds in Dam Square where there was a fun fair in full swing and we were very happy to escape to train station and back to our sanctuary in Leiden.

 Three nights in Brugge

 After leaving Leiden we headed back to Belgium and one of it's jewels, Brugge, for three nights. It felt like three nights in an amazing fairy tale.

Unlike Leiden, which feels like a place where people live real lives, Brugge feels like a film set, where life revolves around tourism. Undeniably beautiful Brugge feels somehow unreal and one wonders if many people outside of the tourism industry live here.

The shops in Brugge mainly sell pralines, lace, beer or touristy souvenirs while the kids favourite and mine were the Kathe Wolfahrt Christmas shops.

We spend the first of our full days covering the well trodden tourist path. We started with a boat cruise that was by far pleasanter than the one in Amsterdam, being outdoors and in lovely weather. It was unseasonably warm while we were in Brugge and we all enjoyed wearing far fewer layers.

 We couldn't understand much of the brief English commentary and when abused for failing to give a tip at the end (with the insult directed at me of course and not Rob) I wish I had of thought to give the tip "you want a tip...don't ask for a tip from an Aussie". Tipping is something we don't do at home, and while I am sure that should we visit the USA we would tip, as I understand that people in service industries rely on this income. On this occasion it felt more like an attempt to milk a cash cow.

 On the other hand the following day we took a horse drawn carriage ride with a lovely friendly lady, who explained the cost of the tour and ended by saying that some people choose to tip but it was entirely at our discretion. We had such an enjoyable half hour we were happy to oblige her.

Don't get me wrong, the people we met in Belgium were, with the exception of our boatman, all beautiful people, very friendly and helpful. Usually when we travel we like to learn enough of the local language to be polite. We were totally unprepared for this trip and had to pick up our please's and thank you's in Dutch for the Netherlands and I'll admit to never having even heard of the Flemish language, vlaams, until it was too late. If I asked people what language we should speak they would politely say "whatever you like".

 Having seen at least an overview of Brugge's beautiful attractions, including a good playground, by boat, foot and finally carriage we felt like escaping the other tourists for awhile. And so we visited a patisserie and a supermarket and collected supplies for a lovely picnic. Our hotel advised that the grassy banks of a canal at the edge of the city was very popular with the locals and it was a lovely quiet getaway for a peaceful afternoon.

With an early train to catch in the morning it was a little unsettling to find a note in our hotel room warning us of a concert to take place that night outside our window in Burg Square that night. The kids were excited and wanted to watch some of the show. So after a quick swim with dad (I'm surprised we ever convinced the kids to leave a hotel with a pool) and a quick dinner Emma was ready to enjoy the concert and Julian wanted his bed. So we left them to it and by the time Julian was climbing into bed Rob and Emma came in looking like drowned rats. Apparently they had been rained out of the concert, which went on without much of an audience until midnight regardless

And so our three week school holiday was over and we moved onto our new home for the next seven weeks in Hampshire. I have mentioned before how wonderful it is and now we wish we had longer here to just relax. But we certainly have collected some wonderful memories on our travels.