Brussels, Belgium
The first place we went was Brussels in Belgium. Brussels is an awesome city with tons of entertainment. Not only is Brussels the capital of the EU but it is also home to the comic strip TinTin. We could not have planned it better--the weekend we arrived in Brussels was not only the E.U. elections (which gain a lot of publicity in Brussels because it is the capital of the EU) but also the annual International Jazz Festival. In the centre of Grand Place, there were chairs and vendors set up all facing a giant stage that hosted jazz artists from all over each evening. It was a great way to relax after dinner or grab a drink during the day.
Brussels was also the first of many AirBnB experiences I had. AirBnb is a medium for people to offer rooms in their houses or rental properties to travellers at decent prices. It not only beats the cost of any hotel but allows you to meet some amazing locals and their families as well as get insider information on what the city has to offer. The place we stayed at in Brussels was about a 15 minute walk from Grand Place and a 10 minute walk to the train station we trained in and out of. It was a huge house with 3 or 4 floors that each had several bedrooms on it. The owners rented the house out to their employees during training periods in Brussels so each floor was its own living area. The only downfall-we had no hot water. The lady we rented the room from let us know ahead of time, but for those who don't know already--i often go days without hot water when the hot water at my house stops working so it felt just like home in Luton.
Belgian Waffle Count-3
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| A castle we found on our walk to EU Parliament |
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| EU Parliament |
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| Jazz Festival in Grand Place |
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| My favourite view in the whole city |
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| Grand Place lit up at night |
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| Tin Tin and Snowy taking the skies near the train station |
Bruges, Belgium
Now many of you know that Bruges is one of my favourite places on earth but the only time I went was in highschool and I felt it necessary to return now that the travel bug is in me. I have to admit, I still love it.
For starters, our AirBnb in Bruges was amazing. Although nothing is a far walk in Bruges, we were extremely close to the Markt and Berg (in the centre of town) and the place we stayed at was awesome. We were 4th generation subletters. The man who owned the house, rented it to someone who rented it the people who let us stay in the extra room. The couple was a Belgian man and a woman from Canada, although she was not there during our stay. Each morning he made us breakfast on our patio outside our room and let us use his kitchen if we wanted to make lunch or dinner there. Which is exactly what we did on Wednesday when there was a giant market in the Berg so we got some dutch sausages, potatoes and bacon wrapped chicken.
Bruges is a city with many canals and great to walk around. It is very quaint and lovely. We walked almost every canal in the city and even expanded to do a windmill walk in the rain. Before we left, I bought a Lonely Planet Bruges and Brussels book and in Bruges the book was spot on about amazing restaurants and bars to visit. We found with the help of the book an old monk tavern that was underground and had an amazing yet relaxing vibe to it. The best way to experience Bruges is by riverboat canal tours and the morning we were due to the leave, the sun finally graced us with its presence and we got one canal tour in before heading out of Belgium. We also got a touch of Dutch language before heading to the Netherlands as half of Belgium speaks French (like in Brussels) and the other half speaks Dutch (Bruges).
Belgian Waffle Count- 4
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| Canal near our house |
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| Markt |
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| St. Annes Windmills |
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| Underground monk tavern |
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| Berg |
Utrecht, The Netherlands
Utrecht is a city in the Netherlands that is not as popular as Amsterdam for tourists but should be. It is a large city and highly student orientated so the culture and vibe of the city is awesome. There are canals going throughout the entire city in the centre and in the neighbourhood areas. On either side of the major canals are restaurants or pubs, most of which had lower level patios right at the water. Our time in Utrecht was fairly cold and rainy, but we found one of the restaurants with a covered patio and heat lamps outside so we could not resist. We found another underground pub in the city centre that had live jazz music at night performed by up and coming locals. It was an awesome vibe and we went there both nights to experience it.
The one astonishing thing about Utrecht was the biking culture. In most of europe, especially Belgium and the Netherlands biking is huge. However, in Utrecht is is astonishing how many people use bicycles as their primary mode of transportation. We looked like odd ducks walking everywhere because unless you were in the city centre, everyone was on a bicycle. You were more likely to get hit by a bike then by a car in Utrecht.
Utrecht is also where we got introduced the house boating culture in the Netherlands. Every major canal had 50+ houseboats and I don't mean the crappy houseboats you can rent for a week in Canada---I mean literal houses on water or the nicest two storey trailer you have ever seen that can float on water.
The family we stayed with in Utrecht was so nice and generous. A mom and her two children who lived about a 20 minute walk from the city centre hosted us in a great bedroom with a table to sit at. They provided us with a mini fridge, microwave and tea if we wanted it in the morning. The first morning, they invited us to their family breakfast where we got dutch pancakes plus a whole assortment of other foods. They were great company! They even let us use their bicycles for the two days we were in town---although the difference in dutch and american style bicycles plus the fact that I have not ridden a bicycle in ten years led to the most embarrassing moments of my life when I could not ride the bike and we had to walk......
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| A bike parking lot--this was just one section and there was about 10 of these throughout the city. |
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| The houseboats in Utrecht |
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| windmill and petting zoo off the canal on our walk to the house |
Giethoorn, the Netherlands
Giethoorn has officially become my new favourite place in the world. It is a small canal village. Each house is built on its own island surrounded on all sides by canals. There are bridges going across each island to connect them to each other. You can only get through the village by boat on the canals or a small sidewalk and bridges. It was the most quaint and beautiful place I have ever seen. Even though it was a bit of a journey and out of the way during our trip, it was incredibly worth it! We rented a small boat for the day and travelled through the canals. The pictures do not do the village justice. Breathtaking!
Zwolle, The Netherlands
In order to go to Giethoorn, one of the closest cities was Zwolle. It was not a place we expected to find much in but ended up loving it anyways. It had a great town centre even though we only had a few hours to experience it.
This was one of the nicest places we stayed us the whole time. The hosts were a young couple with a beautiful house and a cat! I have missed my cat back home a lot so it was great getting to hug and play with a cat again for a bit. The room was in an attic loft and had a pull out couch, bed, television as well as coffee and tea for us in the morning. I still cannot believe how amazing the whole house was--even the room they did not inhabit but rented out to others.
Amsterdam
Before I talk about Amsterdam, I need to talk about the place we stayed at first. It is called Hotel Not Hotel and it is by far the COOLEST place I have ever stayed. It is a small hotel with approximately 15 rooms. The rooms are themed (rather randomly). There is a 'tram room' that is inside a tram shaped room, a birds nest room that you have to climb up a ladder into the room but the coolest of them all was the type we had reserved--a secret bookcase room. On the upper floors overlooking the lounge and open area were rows of bookshelves. Some of the bookshelves had secret key holes that opened up into rooms. The hotel prided itself on the bare room with only beds in them because if you are in Amsterdam why spend time in your room?
Amsterdam itself is a very popular and busy city. It is another high population canal city that led to many canal walks and just experiencing the city. Many people go to Amsterdam for the plethora of museums, but it was too nice outside to spend a day in a museum so we just walked around and experienced everything. The main touristy attraction we went to was the Anne Frank House--which was a great experience as it is in the actual house that Anne Frank and her family hid out in for three years.
One of the staff at our hotel also gave us the recommendation of a music and food festival in a park in Amsterdam. I love food and I love music so it was a great recommendation even though we accidently walked to a park on the opposite end of the city. It was a huge park with food vendors lined up in the centre and periodically a tent with a band would be providing entertainment. I ate the best food there!
The nightlife in Amsterdam is interesting. We expected a busy and active night life in the city centre but because the city centre is based around the 'Red Light District' most of the clubs were 'adult' clubs or strip clubs; which we obviously did not go into. We later discovered there was another area that had more clubs we were expecting but it was far out of the way from where we were. The 'Red Light District' is an ...interesting....area. It is interesting to see the differences in the culture around prostitution in different countries or cities. In Amsterdam it is such a public act that people who live there don't even blink when they see rows and rows of windows lit up in red with ladies waiting for customers. It is definitely a different outlook on prostitution than back home or in many places of the world where it is either illegal or an 'underground' culture.
Final Thoughts
I had an awesome vacation and would recommend going to all the places we ventured to in the Netherlands and Belgium. I officially dream of either living on a house boat in the Netherlands or in a canal town (maybe both). It was one of the first vacations I took that travelled across more than one country and so many cities in such short time but it was well worth it. Between AirBnb and indulging in Belgian waffles and cones of fries, it was one of the cheapest vacations I have taken in a while.
The travel bug has me, but where will it take me next?
Giethoorn has officially become my new favourite place in the world. It is a small canal village. Each house is built on its own island surrounded on all sides by canals. There are bridges going across each island to connect them to each other. You can only get through the village by boat on the canals or a small sidewalk and bridges. It was the most quaint and beautiful place I have ever seen. Even though it was a bit of a journey and out of the way during our trip, it was incredibly worth it! We rented a small boat for the day and travelled through the canals. The pictures do not do the village justice. Breathtaking!
Zwolle, The Netherlands
In order to go to Giethoorn, one of the closest cities was Zwolle. It was not a place we expected to find much in but ended up loving it anyways. It had a great town centre even though we only had a few hours to experience it.
This was one of the nicest places we stayed us the whole time. The hosts were a young couple with a beautiful house and a cat! I have missed my cat back home a lot so it was great getting to hug and play with a cat again for a bit. The room was in an attic loft and had a pull out couch, bed, television as well as coffee and tea for us in the morning. I still cannot believe how amazing the whole house was--even the room they did not inhabit but rented out to others.
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| The room in Zwolle |
Amsterdam
Before I talk about Amsterdam, I need to talk about the place we stayed at first. It is called Hotel Not Hotel and it is by far the COOLEST place I have ever stayed. It is a small hotel with approximately 15 rooms. The rooms are themed (rather randomly). There is a 'tram room' that is inside a tram shaped room, a birds nest room that you have to climb up a ladder into the room but the coolest of them all was the type we had reserved--a secret bookcase room. On the upper floors overlooking the lounge and open area were rows of bookshelves. Some of the bookshelves had secret key holes that opened up into rooms. The hotel prided itself on the bare room with only beds in them because if you are in Amsterdam why spend time in your room?
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| Tram style room |
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| Crisis Free Room |
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| Secret Bookcase Room |
One of the staff at our hotel also gave us the recommendation of a music and food festival in a park in Amsterdam. I love food and I love music so it was a great recommendation even though we accidently walked to a park on the opposite end of the city. It was a huge park with food vendors lined up in the centre and periodically a tent with a band would be providing entertainment. I ate the best food there!
The nightlife in Amsterdam is interesting. We expected a busy and active night life in the city centre but because the city centre is based around the 'Red Light District' most of the clubs were 'adult' clubs or strip clubs; which we obviously did not go into. We later discovered there was another area that had more clubs we were expecting but it was far out of the way from where we were. The 'Red Light District' is an ...interesting....area. It is interesting to see the differences in the culture around prostitution in different countries or cities. In Amsterdam it is such a public act that people who live there don't even blink when they see rows and rows of windows lit up in red with ladies waiting for customers. It is definitely a different outlook on prostitution than back home or in many places of the world where it is either illegal or an 'underground' culture.
Final Thoughts
I had an awesome vacation and would recommend going to all the places we ventured to in the Netherlands and Belgium. I officially dream of either living on a house boat in the Netherlands or in a canal town (maybe both). It was one of the first vacations I took that travelled across more than one country and so many cities in such short time but it was well worth it. Between AirBnb and indulging in Belgian waffles and cones of fries, it was one of the cheapest vacations I have taken in a while.
The travel bug has me, but where will it take me next?
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