Entries in Netherlands (8)

Thursday
Jun212012

Fieldtrip Fridays..

or it could be tuesdays, sometimes a thursday, but NEVER on a Monday. (I reserve Mondays for unpacking, laundry, grocery, emails and printing out boarding passes for the next weekend!:)

Have had some fun field trips/adventures the last couple of weeks that i thought I'd share. Especially for locals that haven't been to these spots yet! Brussels really is an amazing location as far as exploring the rest of Europe and I'm taking advantage of it!

First up: The Horta House/Museum in Ixelles. (a fun area of Brussels just off of Ave Louise)
Victor Horta was to Brussels what Gaudi was to Barcelona: Art Nouveau Master architect that left an indelible mark on city which 100 yrs later, is still fantastic.  Gaudi was a little more outlandish, but Horta certainly was a creative genious and his primary residence/studio can be visited and appreciated today. I arranged a private tour (in English) that was very enjoyable and I'd highly recommend if you go!
No photos allowed, so I snagged these from the web. What a bummer that was too, as it's a photographers dream!
Afterwards, we walked thru the Balli area of Brussels (near Chatlain) and enjoyed some of my favorite shops. First up is Felicity.. a quaint, quirky find with my favorite new accessory: The Noosa bracelet. How cute are these?? I think they would be a huge hit in the US.
Many purchases were made by all :) We ended the day at Sens Bagel Shop (not too many of those around these parts!), and had a delightful lunch outside, despite a morning of dodging the rain. So it is in Brussels!
What a fun outing with great friends. You'll see more of these girls I'm sure in future posts.. no telling where (or which country) we'll end up next!

Speaking of other countries, my next 2 travels took me to Netherlands and France for the day.. why not!
First was a shopping trip to the "Polish Pottery outlet" in the NL (about 2 hours away.. vs Poland which is about 9hrs away at the very closest). You see the pottery everywhere here.. All handpainted, and the serving dishes can be put in the oven. It's fantastic!! Of course I made a few purchases for myself, but most were for presents. My friend Allison and I went and met a group there from Waterloo. It was extra fun with a group of ladies.
Last up was a quick trip to Lille, France with my friend Allison. One of the main reasons I went was because they have a GAP! haha. They had Gaps in London and Dublin, but as I was with the fam, it really wasn't time to shop. SO.. an hour and 20 minutes from Brussels, lies the adorable, historic town of Lille which is WAY more than a Gap, I promise! ;) Cute, cute shops, Grand Place, outdoor cafes.. much more to see and do. I'll be making my way back for sure!

Voila! That's the end of the "mommy field trips" as my kids' summer starts tomorrow at noon! So we'll shift gears for the next 10 weeks and focus on kid-friendly excursions. And what's first on the list? A weekend trip to Venice! So, put your seatbelts on bc it's going to be a wild and fun summer ride!
Thanks for looking and happy adventure making wherever you are!

 

Thursday
May032012

tulips galore in Holland {traveling with kids in Europe}

There are certain seasonal floral wonders on my European wish list:
lavendar in Provence
sunflowers in France
tulips in Holland

I can cross off the latter!

After seeing an amazing display of flowers at Floralia-Brussels a few weeks ago, I wondered if we needed to see the actual fields in Holland. While the gardens of Kukenhof were amazing, I must say Floralia was almost as impressive. The tie-breaker in favor of Holland was certainly the fields with acres and acres of tulips! It was a fun experience and could have only been better had the sun been shining :(  It could have been worse, of course, if it was pouring, or had we not gone at all (!) so voila! Gratitude for being allowed to see God's amazing creation!

We met up with my friend Shayna and her cute crew. You might be seeing a lot more of them in Wheatley adventures as she loves to travel as much as I do!

We left at 6am (I told you I met my match in travel-craziness) so we could pull in around 8:15am when the doors opened. We were rewarded with virtually no crowds and people-free photos. By 9:30-10, it was getting quite packed so go early if you can! The kids endured the rows and rows of flowers and were pleased to find a fun playground and hot chocolate mid-adventure to perk them up. We then climbed into a windmill, discovered a labrynth and petted a few animals in the petting zoo. A good time was had by all!




After the tulips, we headed back to Brussels by way of Gouda! I've got a couple of cheese lovers in my house who were estatic to spend the afternoon with all things cheesy. It's a cute town and I'd recommend it if you're in route from Brussels to Holland. There's an auction on certain days in the summer that would be really fun to see, so we might just have to go back! Queen's Day was the following day, so there was orange everywhere!(their national color) and we could have stayed and seen quite the party! But dad had to work the next day, so we leisurely made our way back with a couple of purchases and yes, had Gouda for dinner ;)
On the way home, we kept seeing wild yellow flowers on the side of the road (more on these tomorrow when I saw the mother of all "fields of gold"). But i had to pull over and snap a few pics. K was done with photos, but my girl and her dad (probably bc they were so giddy over the Gouda) were happy to snap a few. Here's my fave!

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