I have a theory that the only vacation pictures anyone is really interested in are those with people in them1. So in that spirit, here are a few from the trip that HVW and I took recently. Note: I have other pics, with no people, that show up from time to time on my Instagram profile.
We started in Paris2, the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Musée d’Orsay.
Then we headed to Belgium [Brugge and Ghent]. Brugge was crawling with turistas, so no pics from there, but we took bikes and rode to Zeebrugge, on the North Sea. Here’s a picture of HVW cruising on her e-bike3. We liked Ghent.
Then we repositioned to meet HVW’s cousins in ‘S Hertogenbosch. We pretended to be angels, and HVW found her doppelgänger cousin.
And a visit to Rotterdam.
On our own again, we stopped in Utrecht. Everyone should stop in Utrecht. It is lovely.4 We discovered the very impressive Kasteel de Haar while on another bike adventure in the countryside.
And finally, we explored Leiden, where a charming volunteer gave us a tour of a windmill. This time our bikes took us to Scheveningen5, on the coast (and on the way we found the amazing Museum Voorlinden).
There were several very pleasant surprises on this trip: De Petrus Museum and Library in Vught; Kasteel de Haar; Museum Voorlinden and the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave in Leiden. More about them later, possibly.
- Of course there are exceptions to this rule, like when RVZ goes to the Greek Islands. ↩︎
- It was nice to see the city of light making progress in creating space for people and bikes, and fewer cars. ↩︎
- Not shown, is me pedalling like mad, and sweating like crazy, trying to keep up. The hotel bike I rented was crap, and the wind blew against us in both directions. ↩︎
- Utrecht > Amsterdam: 1. Fewer turistas. 2. Dining at water level beside the canals. 3. St. Martin’s Cathedral was destroyed by a giant windstorm in 1674 and lay in ruins for 150 years. ↩︎
- HVW and I had been here in 1985 on our first Euro trip. It was cold and windy then, and again this time. ↩︎
