Amsterdam and beyond…

Don’t mind me, I’m just back from the red light district. None of us got up to no-good, I promise.

The day started innocently enough at Zaanse Shans, the historical village style tourist attraction made up of a dozen or so windmills.

The day was beautiful and warm and apart from the squillions of other tourists, it was lovely. I specifically wanted to visit De Kat, a paint mill that has been grinding pigments for artists since Rembrandt was in short pants.

We have over four weeks of travel ahead of us so we’re pacing ourselves. After the trip out to see the windmills we had a nap before heading out to meet friends for dinner and drinks.

On Sunday we hired bikes and set off to enjoy more of the city.

We took a boat cruise on Sunday night with a big group of friends from the squash tournament.

On Monday morning it was time for one last #lifechangingbagel at Cocos Corner Store and we were off to Belgium.

I’d read about a scenic route to Bruges so we programmed Google maps to take us via Middelburg and Terneuzen. For almost two hours we drove through the least scenic landscape you could imagine with ports and cranes and large scale industry. Then we crossed a river and we were suddenly driving through a vast green landscape with people biking on paths on the raised embankments separating us from the North Sea. We were hungry and thirsty but we would pass sweet looking restaurants without knowing how to get to them from the road.

Eventually we arrived in lovely Middelburg and found an amazing parking spot and hightailed it to the square to find food and drinks all the while worrying that we’d get a parking fine. I wish we could have relaxed and enjoyed the lovely town.

We hit the road again after inhaling a yummy apple pastry and within the hour we arrived in beautiful Bruges.

Bruges is a Unesco World heritage site. The whole city is covered by their protection. Everywhere we looked there was beauty. Unfortunately the people who serve in the restaurants and shops were probably quite fed up with tourists and weren’t overly friendly or helpful.

We did do a brilliant bike tour (Retro Bike Tours ) and Sebastian was both friendly and helpful and really knows his city! If you’re in Bruges, do the tour. It’s fantastic.

On Sebastian’s recommendation we had a merveilleux at Merveilleux. This is a little dessert similar to a small pavlova but the meringue is more dense. I had one in Paris years ago and wasn’t disappointed by the more traditional version. The owner of the cafe said they were a Flemish tradition (and the Parisian version a poor imitation. 😆)

On Wednesday we got up early and headed to Ghent. I art nerded out on the Van Eyk brothers’ masterpiece known as the Ghent Altarpiece which includes the painting Adoration of the Mystic Lamb. I first learned about this artwork/national treasure/religious “relic” when studying art history at university. It’s a remarkable piece even by today’s standards.

We made our way back to the car and drove to Ostende. I wanted to see the North Sea. I’m not sure why. The beach is vast and although we wanted to dip our toes in the water, it was blowing a gale so we retreated indoors for a yummy lunch.

So ends our second week of wandering.