A short trip to the Netherlands
 

At the end of May/ start of June my husband and I drove over to the Netherlands for a few days. We live in the Midlands area of the UK and felt it was high time we visited our neighbours!

The aim of the holiday was to see the countryside of the Netherlands and visit Amsterdam for a day. It involved a considerable amount of driving but we found the roads lovely to use although some were very narrow especially around the Vecht . We enjoyed visiting Kinderdijk, Spakenburg, Zandvoort, Medemblik and driving across the Houtribdijk.

Travel was in our own car using the Dover/ Calais crossing with DFDS. The 90 minute crossing was smooth both ways. The ferries were fine and not crowded but a little drab and the catering seems rather basic, however we did not try the self service restaurant either way. The ferry from Dover to Calais was delayed for 30 minutes and no explanation was given.

Accommodation
At Ieper we stayed overnight at Kasteelhof 'T Hooghe. http://www.hotelkasteelhofthooghe.be
This lies a few miles outside Ieper. We had stayed here several years ago when touring the First World War battle fields and had loved it and did not regret stopping here again. Our room was comfortable and the food was good. It is served in the bar from a very limited menu (the beer menu is more extensive) but is very well cooked. Most of the guests were English speaking and seemed to be involved in touring the war sites. It really is an excellent base and even has old trenches in the grounds.

Near Amsterdam we stayed 4 nights at Landhuis Logies Ouderhoek at Nieuwerluis on the banks of the Vecht. http://www.ouderhoek.nl
We would certainly recommend this for a comfortable place to stay. The hosts do not speak English although one day we did meet a son who spoke excellent English but he did not seem to have much to do with the rental accommodation. A basic breakfast is served in your room (where there is a dining table) and you have to order it the day before. The cheese and ham were good and boiled eggs were available. They also left a bottle of their own apple juice in the fridge which was delicious.
Since you also have a kitchenette with a microwave, kettle and coffee maker it is possible to do some minimal self-catering. The bed was very comfortable and the view of the orchard and river was great.
We found that we missed having a breakfast room – or at least a balcony or terrace to eat on. I am not sure why but we are not fans of studio style accommodation. There were outside tables and chairs we could have used but the weather was never quite good enough.
Parking was easy and they gave us a control to open the electronic gates (explained by many hand signals) and the area is lovely. It is also convenient for Amsterdam as we drove 15 minutes to Gaasperplas and toke the train from there into central Amsterdam.
We would be happy to stay here again to visit Amsterdam.

So glad to see this report. The Netherlands is a wonderful country and the countryside is often passed by. I love the small towns in various parts of the country.

On our recent trip, we stayed outside Amsterdam ib Broek in Waterland in a marvelous place called The Inn on The Lake. Fifteen minutes by bus to Amsterdam Central station. Couldn't be better.

Then we traveled around to other places as we have done before.
Next I'd like to see WW I battle sites.

Many thanks.

I'm looking forward to reading more too. Spakenburg is 10 minutes by car from where I live.

Hopefully you will inspire others to break out of Amsterdam and to explore some more.

Great trip report. Thanks for sharing!

We love Amsterdam!! We need to spend more time in the countryside, I can see by your report (yours, too, taconic).

Simpson: There is so much to see in The Netherlands. Lovely small towns, beautiful gardens, gorgeous views, excellent restaurants, all over.

Thanks for your replies. We enjoyed the countryside much more than we enjoyed Amsterdam.
Taconic - the whole area seemed like one massive garden to us at times!

I'll go onto a day by day report now to give an idea of what the areas are like.

Wednesday - Across the channel.

The drive down to Dover through pouring was as expected including the stationary traffic in the M25 roadworks but we reached the ferry in time.

We prefer the ferry to the tunnel since it gives us a longer and more comfortable break in the journey. It is short enough that if the crossing is rough you know you will soon be out of your misery and when the weather is kind it is really enjoyable to be up on deck. This time the weather did not cooperate but the sea was smooth so we just had a relaxing break. Since there were so few passengers it was easy to find a good seat in the bar area and watch all the other ferries and ships on this very busy sea route.

At Calais there are no formalities as you drive off – passports were checked in the UK and we have never seen anyone pulled over by customs – and so we headed up towards Kasteelhof 'T Hooghe near Ieper where we were staying the night. It was still drizzling but hey we're on holiday so who cares!

Thursday –to the Netherlands.

After a good breakfast we started on our long drive up towards Amsterdam. Thanks to advice from menachem and hetismij2 we planned to visit the windmills at Kinderdijk and then drive up the banks of the Lek to Utrecht.

To get to Kinderdijk I decided to miss out the area around Antwerp by going through the Westerschelde tunnel and driving across Zeeland. I had thought this would be a pleasant rural drive and if the weather had been better it probably would have been enjoyable if not spectacular. As it was dull and misty we were not impressed. Yes there is a reason why this area do not have much tourism - there is not that much to see!

There was also a dearth of roadside cafes until we got close to Rotterdam and we ended up stopping at a MacDonald’s (heresy I know) for lunch where I had a surprisingly good goat’s cheese salad although M was not so impressed by his Caesar salad.

Then we reached Kinderdijk and although we considered it expensive for what was there (€5 for parking plus €6 each for tickets) we loved it. The open windmill was very well presented, the walk along the canal delightful and - best of all - the sun came out!

Now we could put the roof down and drive up the riverbank through some of the most wonderful countryside we have seen. I had never realised how many thatched roofs there are in the Netherlands nor how charming the chimneys can be. M felt that this part of the journey made the previous part worthwhile.

Finally we set the satnav for the quickest route to our accommodation and she guided us across the river at one of the many ferry points and we headed up to Nieuwerluis on the banks of the Vecht. We didn’t have time to visit the local towns on the Lek but we hope to visit this area again in the future.

We arrived at Landhuis Logies Ouderhoek and settled in. Then we headed back to Breukelen for a walk around and to find something to eat. It was a nice small town although it did not seem to have a waterfront. However we decided to eat at Zizi as I had seen some good reviews. We were disappointed however as the style of cooking was not to our taste.

Home again for a good nights sleep ready for Amsterdam on Friday.

I think Zeeland is one of the nicest bits of the Netherlands, it struggles because it is flat... but so is most of the country. Many of the small towns still have medieval centres and each island has its own style and character. Still if you were driving through.