Knowing that by early June the summer heat would arrive where I live, I wanted to pick a place to travel that would have delightfully cool, even rainy, weather. We chose The Netherlands and Belgium, flying in and out of Amsterdam (strangely, a whole lot less miles on United than other nearby airports). We packed our rain jackets in our backpacks, and away we went!
Our first two days, in Amsterdam, we were glad we had packed our long pants and our rainjackets, and our hotel kindly offered us an umbrella, which we definitely needed. We explored the area near the Damrak, the red light district, the Tulip Museum, and a Rembrandt/Van Gogh exhibit, and loved it. We dodged speeding bicycles and ate bacalhau from Portugal, nasi goreng from Indonesia, gyros from Turkey, and canneloni from Italy, and loved that too. We did not get to visit the Anne Frank house, as it was fully booked for the next six weeks. Plan early on that one, friends!
From Amsterdam, we headed down to Antwerp to get a sense of Belgium. Unfortunately there was a train strike that day, and all busses were booked, so we wound up Ubering there. Ouch. It was pricey, but only a 90 minute drive, and then we were there. I love how close European cities are to each other. In north Texas you can drive for 90 minutes and only be one county away.
In Antwerp we visited a diamond museum, and we set out to try as many Belgian beers as humanly possible. Also as many Belgian fries. We went on a food tour of Antwerp, and enjoyed it so much, we went on a food tour of Bruges a few days later. Did you know there’s two different kinds of Belgian waffles? I like the smaller, denser kind with the sugar baked right in. Delicious!! We stayed three nights in Bruges and added a visit to the North Sea at Oostend. It was not quite so balmy and in fact rather chilly, so we didn’t get any true “beach time”, which actually was fine with me. We had thought to find Belgium’s one nude beach but in the end didn’t bother since there was no way we were getting undressed anyway.
We caught a train from Bruges to Ghent, a cute little medieval city featuring an old castle, monasteries, public squares, and a large Friday market. It was so easy for a few days to take my mind away from the trials and tribulations of living in a big metropolis such as Dallas/Fort Worth, and imagine life in the 8th century in Europe (not that I would necessarily want to trade, as I happen to like sanitation and air conditioning a lot).
Although there is a whole lot of Belgium we hadn’t yet seen, it was time to travel north up to the Netherlands again. We took a train from Ghent to Rotterdam. After these smaller, medieval cities, Rotterdam seems so big and so modern! After near total destruction in the second World War, the city was practically rebuilt from the ground up in the following years, during some really interesting architectural times.
We took a waterbus to Kinderdijke, a system of 16 windmills that are still operating to drain canals and form dry land, which is how about 20% of the Netherlands has been formed over the past 500 years. Two of the windmills are museums, and you can go inside them and see how people lived in them and worked the canals. The other 14 windmills actually still have families living in them now!
After Rotterdam, we took a train to The Hague. There was a lot going on there, in preparation for a huge NATO summit featuring Trump himself. We went to check out an anti-NATO/anti-Trump protest, and noted the increased police presence. In the end, we took a day trip out to Madurodam to get away from it all. Madurodam is a fun outdoor theme park, featuring dozens of large-size “miniatures” of some of the regions’ most famous buildings, such as Kinderdyke, various palaces and judicial buildings, and the Schipol airport. It’s fun to roam through the miniatures, pretending like you’re a giant.
Our last stop before returning to Amseterdam was Delft, to see the Royal Delft Museum and factory. The museum tour is really well organized, and you can watch actual current artists and factory workers as they churn out new and ever-evolving Delft pottery, 400 years after the company began. We also really enjoyed staying at the Social Hub in Delft, where we had access to free laundry, a yoga class, bikes, and more. The place had a really nice vibe and we liked it a lot.
We circled back to Amsterdam and spent the last couple of days wandering through the less-touristed areas of town, such as some residential areas, a large central park, and made sure we sampled the last few dishes we’d been craving, such as an Argentinian steak, a Dutch treat called Bitterballen, and stroopwaffel cannolis. We took a half day trip out to the small town of Edam, home of Edam cheese, to check out their Wednesday market. We picked up soft cheese, spelt bread, chocolates, and blueberrries, and walked to the coastal town of Volendam, which is a super cute fishing town only about 2 km from Edam. We sat on a picnic bench at the wharf and watched the boats sail in and out of the harbor, and tried to keep our picnic safe from the seagulls.
Not a moment too soon, as a heat wave was about to engulf Europe, it was time to head home and check on our parents, siblings, and friends. Still a month to go on summer break for me, so July is sure to bring some fun trips as well. Be sure to check back soon!
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