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Benelux (Plus) Vacation Recap
For anyone tuning in for the first time, this blog series catalogs a month-long trip, primarily through Belgium and the Netherlands, with a few days spent in Switzerland, Luxemburg, and a smidgen of Germany. Each entry offers photos, observations, and reflections from one traveler after a limited time in each location. Experiences and opinions may…
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Beyond Amsterdam: Muiden & Zaanse Schans
One advantage of staying in Amsterdam is convenient access to the rest of the province of North Holland. Travelers can choose to visit flower fields, windmills, a castle, or any number of settlements ranging from fishing villages to small, scenic cities. After weighing the options, two destinations made the cut: Muiderslot (AKA Muiden Castle), and…
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Amsterdam
It’s a strong, possibly self-contradictory opinion, but the capital city, Amsterdam, is not the Netherlands. It’s a beautiful thing in its own right, but it’s not Dutch. One of the country’s most admirable traits is openness, with their attitudes and policies embodying a mantra of “live and let live.” That has attracted droves of people…
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Kasteel de Haar / Utrecht
After a full day at de Efteling, a hotel in the nearby town of Kaatsheuvel offered a quiet, restful night before traveling onward. It was a half day filled with various transfers, starting with a bus that slowly made its way toward ‘s Hertogenbosch to catch a train to Utrecht. After dropping bags at the…
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De Efteling (theme park)
Before getting on to the dry part, de Efteling is just cool. It doesn’t need a more poetic description than that. As an outsider, it was a unique look into a Dutch family experience that, despite some signs in English, is very much for the locals. It started as a sports park in the 1930’s,…
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Returning to Ghent; Passing Through Breda
Visiting Ghent twice, twenty days apart, was anything but repetitive. A quick review of the first post about Ghent to avoid subjecting readers to too many duplicate photos didn’t even result in removing any images from this series. There’s obviously going to be some overlap when returning to the same place, but a bit of…
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Kinderdijk
Land, and fertile land in particular, is a scarce resource. While territory grabs have resulted in countless conflicts throughout history, the Dutch have been at war with water for centuries for their land. At least 17% of the country was once underwater, and that number is still growing in a time of rising sea levels.…
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Rotterdam
In a word, this unusual Dutch city is impressive. Why unusual? That requires a bit of historical explanation.. On the western border of Germany was a terrible place to be going into WW2. Hitler wanted a swift victory over the Netherlands, but progress westward was slow to non-existent. A German general sent a letter to…
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Three Countries, One Day
The goal for the day was to get from Maastricht to Robertville, Belgium in order to hike westward through a valley the next morning. This route worked out nicely to take in some sights along the way: Drielandenpunt The first stop was the point where the Belgian, Dutch, and German borders meet. Much like the…
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Maastricht
After a short ride west from Valkenburg, the river known in Dutch as “de Maas” comes into view with a postcard-worthy look across the water at the (not-so-creatively named) city of Maastricht. While both sides have been developed, the historic center lies on the west bank, and that portion is ideal for a half-day trip.…