Top fives places visited in Belgium and Holland in our motorhome Wally
Earlier in the year I mentioned we had been planning our trips in Wally the Motor Home. Well this Easter we had our first European road trip and it didn’t disappoint. If you don’t know me outside of my upholstery business, I love to travel with my husband Dave and son Alfie. We had avoided travelling abroad in 2022 because of the ridiculously high fuel costs, but we were holding ourselves back. One of the reasons we got the MH was to give us freedom to explore. We’ve had Wally for over two years now and I keep on meaning to write a detailed story of where we have travelled. When I’m researching trips I often read other travellers’ blogs for inspiration. So if you are interested, have a read to see what Dave, Alfie and I have got up to!
You may ask what inspired the trip? A couple of months ago I had been reading a rom com book where a young woman was fulfilling her mum’s bucket list of where she had wanted to travel, but unfortunately hadn’t as she had passed away (sorry I can’t remember the title of the book). One of the places she had wanted to visit was the tulip fields in Holland. Tulips are one of my favourite spring flowers. As soon as I read this I was googling pictures of tulip fields and the idea of our first European road trip was born! April and early May are the best times of year to visit, we booked our trip over Easter as Alife was off school.
- First stop Bruge
Bruge is such a beautiful compact city, If you are travelling by motorhome or car and have the option to take your bikes I would highly recommend it, you can explore a bigger area, and don’t have to rely on other public transport. On our first day we did a guided bike tour, we heard about the history and got our feel for the city. Also great to do with a young family, Alfie really enjoyed it. I loved cycling round the canals and seeing all the different style buildings.
On Easter Sunday we went on a waffle cooking experience, you can’t come to Belgium and not try waffles! It was really fun, learning abouts the difference between Belgian and Dutch waffles, making them and trying out all the different toppings. We were with a small group, families and couples. Great fun and tasty experience.
After two nights in Bruge we moved onto Ghent, in hindsight we should have had longer here, or an extra night in Bruge. It felt a bit rushed and we didn’t really get a chance to explore. It was a beautiful sunny day, we passed an international rowing competition not something you see everyday. We cycled into the city, enjoyed a few drinks and played a few games with Alfie. Late afternoon we headed back to the site, we were staying near a recreation ground and enjoyed a game of crazy golf.
2. Kinderdijk
We couldn’t come to this area and not explore the windmills. The two top places to visit are Kinderdjik nr Rotterdam or Zanse Schans nr Amsterdam. We chose Kinderdjik because of our route. It’s stunning, it’s free to walk or cycle around the area. Or you can pay to get into the operating windmills which includes a boat tour. Dave was in his element taking photos.
3. Duinrell If you love an amusement or water park Duinrell is the place to visit. We kept it as a surprise for Alfie and he had the best day. We left and went on to explore the area around Keukenhof stumbling across a yummy Italian called Mama’s for tea.
4. Keukenhof
The pictures speak for themselves. The highlights were cycling through the open fields with the aroma of hyacinths, seeing geese chicks feeding in the fields. I wish I could have picked up the Tulips beds in Keukenhof and put them in my garden at home. Certainly has inspired me to put more colour in the garden and plant more bulbs.
5. Last stop Amsterdam
With only a couple of days to explore, we knew we couldn’t see everything. I’d organised a bike tour for the first morning so we could see the sights, without wasting our own time trying to find our way around. There are a lot of bikes so you do need to have your wits about you! I have no ideas how many miles we wracked up cycling and walking.
I’d highly recommend Artis zoo even if you haven’t got little ones. Even though its a compact zoo we had the whole day there, the sun was shining and there were loads to explore. A really relaxed day and a lovely way to end the day before we started travelling back.
En route back to Calais we explored Edam and Volendam, two quaint country towns known for cheese, 30 mins outside of Amsterdam.
We’ve had a jam packed trip, it’s been amazing to experience the places we have seen and I’m so pleased I started to research the trip from an idea that I had read in a book. It’s always a challenge trying to get the balance so everyone is happy, this trip definitely fulfilled its expectations. It’s also inspired me to plan our future holidays so they have a purpose to do things that make us all happy. What things have you got planned to make you happy?
