Exploring The Benelux, 2014

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A Lazy and Casual Visit to Holland and Belgium!!

Source: Dave Hagen
31 Dec 14

Since we are such Europhiles, we are always keen to travel back to the old continent to enjoy their scenery, history and lifestyle. When we asked “Where have we not been recently, the quick answer was Amsterdam and Brussels. So we set out quickly to rectify that negligence!!

We have definitely discovered that the best way to see a foreign place is to rent a villa or apartment for 5 days or longer and to travel out in day trips rather than re-packing for a new destination and a different hotel each night. So this time we chose Amsterdam and rented an apartment of our own in the center of town for a week.

We knew that we would also want to visit Brussels. I know that I’ve called this trip a Benelux Adventure, but we didn’t visit Luxembourg this time. Still, it made for a more definable mission for our trip. Enroute from Amsterdam to Brussels, where else should we visit? It didn’t take much study or conversations with other travelers to decide to include Den Haag, Bruge and Ghent. So off we went!!

While in Amsterdam we traveled everywhere via every mode of public transportation available; from train to tram to bus to boat. No rental cars and no taxi!! We ‘topped up’ our Public Transport cards often at kiosks with our credit card, then used them to electronically board and de-board every vehicle. Our trip cost was simply subtracted from the running total that we had stored on the card.

Even enroute to the other cities on our excursion we traveled by train, mainly using the High-Speed Thalys. With that speed, we were able to awake in Brussels, have a quiet breakfast (after Patty’s hike) and then board the train which took us right to Schiphol Airport in time for an early afternoon departure!!

Our Apartment in Amsterdam, which had a private garden in the back:

Here’s a small sample of the culture, history and scenery that we visited in our brief visit:

Van Gogh at Kroller-Muller

And Its Sculpture Garden

The National Park is spacious

And the cities are crowded

Everyone rode bikes

Need I say more??

We traveled many canals

And visited the Grand Place

We saw Churches of old

And New Technology as well

We drank a lot of Dutch Coffee

As well as Belgian Beer

A huge thanks go out to my cousin Jane Lansing who, having lived previously in Den Haag, was able to provide us with countless tips on places to go and things to do. She also provided us with a Travel Card that we could use to expedite our public transportation and to instantly make us look like natives whenever we boarded a tram, train, bus or boat!

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