The Netherlands was the first trip that my wife and I took outside of France this summer. Its located only about four hours away from where we live which makes it an easy place for us to visit.
Altogether we spent four days and 3 nights in the country and were able to see quite a lot in such a short amount of time. The south central part of the country is quite small and the cities are spaced relatively close together so we were able to do our entire trip with only about 3 hours of driving. That's not bad at all when its spread over four days. The longest drive for us was going from Utrecht to Kinderjikt but even that was only about an hour.
Our first stop along the way from home was in Delft, a small town located about 20 minutes outside the city of The Hague.
Here we had breakfast and spent about an hour walking through the town and open air market.
Tree covered streets, winding canals, and potted flowers everywhere really added to the charm of the overall city.
Henri Willig is a cheese shop chain that can be found throughout the Netherlands. We didn't buy any cheese there so I can't really comment on its quality but the sales clerks inside wear traditional Dutch outfits and the windows are stacked with large wheels of cheese, sometimes multiple stories high (depending on the shop). Its a neat little place to pop into and browse what they have to offer.
Though we didn't spend a whole lot of time in Delft, it was certainly a neat little spot worth a quick pop in along the way.
The Hague is a large city, the third largest in the country after Amsterdam and Rotterdam. It is located on the west coast of the country and its where we decided to set up our home base for part of our trip.
The location was relatively central to the spots that we wanted to visit, so it was a good location to branch out from. However, I actually regretted this decision shortly after our arrival. Though the city was nice and very clean and had a lot to do overall, it really lacked the small town charm that my wife and I prefer. It felt like a large modern city (which it is, obviously) and we were actually a bit bored by it relatively quickly.
We made the most of it though. We toured the parliament building and the central city hub as well as the beach and promenade.
On day two of our trip we made the short drive to the town of Leiden which ended up being our favorite location for the entire trip. This is where my regret for choosing The Hague as our home base really kicked in. If I were to do it again I would have by passed The Hague entirely and made sure that we spent at least one full day and night in Leiden.
Large canals, a few windmills scattered about and flowers everywhere made Leiden absolutely beautiful.
We had breakfast in a small cafe along one of the main city canals. Many restaurants and cafes were located along the central waterway making it a great place to people watch, both walking down the streets and passing by in boats and kayaks.
I don't know what it is about old sneakers hanging from lines between buildings, but I really get a kick out of it......
Pun pun pun pun pun.
I'm sure there is a story to it that I'm not aware of. If anyone knows please let me know in the comments
A picture of De Valk windmill, a famous historic landmark dating back to 1743. It has since been converted into a windmill museum.
Leiden is home to several national museums (none of which we went into) and is actually where the famous artist known as Rembrandt, was born (fun fact).
Another windmill, this one a replica of an old grain mill.
Homes with patios along the water. You live in a city but your home also feels like a cottage. It really seems like its the best of both worlds.
Along with the flowers and the canals, Leiden also has an assortment of pedestrian bridges of various architectural styles which add to the charm of the overall city.
Leiden is a place my wife and I would love to go back to and i do hope that we get a chance to do so.
Gouda is a small town known for its weekly cheese market that takes place every Thursday. Its located between The Hague and Utrecht so we popped in on our way and had breakfast in the main square.
We also bought a small wheel of cheese in a nice touristy looking shop in the square. Regrettably, it actually isn't very good. I'm used to Gouda cheese being really creamy in texture, but this one was extremely hard and dry, as hard and dry as Parmesan. I can barely cut it with a knife so I mostly just use it for cooking. I don't really know if that's how its supposed to be or if its an old less quality product sold to tourists who will never return to the location anyway. Either way, from now on we will try to avoid buying food from touristy looking stores. We probably should have known that to begin with.
For another large city, Utrecht was quite lovely overall. It had a really nice downtown core with plenty of shops, restaurants, bars and cafes along some large canals. It was a great place for shopping though my wife and I don't do much of that.
We stayed here one night before heading home.
The Netherlands is known for its bicycles, which are literally everywhere. My wife and I had talked about renting bikes for some time and we finally did it in Utrecht. Its a really great way to see the city especially since we typically stay in hotels on the outskirts of the main hub to save money and avoid the hassle of finding reasonable parking. Public transit has always worked well for us but here we learned that biking is just as easy and often a much faster method of travel within town. I think we are slowly learning how to be European.
We stopped for a glass of wine in the evening before diner in one of the bustling squares.
More canals and shops.
And shops and canals.
Our last stop on our way home was to the small local of Kinderjikt, specifically to see the 19 historic windmills that have been preserved there since the 1700's.
They are located in a picturesque spot along a marshy canal. The walking and cycling path is lined with tall grasses and the windmills just sort of pop into view along the way.
It was a nice way to end the trip with a bit of history.
