Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Tag: Europe

Belgium Snapshot

I’m a little behind in getting it done, but it’s time for a snapshot post! So without further ado, I’ll summarize our time this past April in the land of beer and chocolate with a Belgium snapshot!

Best Moment

As cheesy as it sounds, I really enjoyed our little canal cruise around Bruges. On a day that treated us only to pockets of clear skies, we managed to hop on the boat at the perfect time for a brief pause in the rain. The skies turned momentarily blue, and it allowed us to appreciate our tour of the city’s sights via water. We also loved our tour of De Halve Maan Brouwerij, but I’ll have more on that in a separate post soon!

Worst Moment

On our third morning in Bruges, we were signed up to do a walking tour of the more hidden parts of the city and we ended up being the only two participants in the tour. The forecast predicted some sprinkles, but we encountered an absolute downpour. Our super enthusiastic guide was too willing to keep touring despite my pleas to call it a day and end our private tour, so we stayed out (getting soaked) longer than I would have liked. I can handle the cold and I can handle a bit of rain, but when they’re combined I am a big baby and I get a bit whinier than Chris would prefer.

Best Meal

We loved our dinners at Cambrinus (don’t miss out on their amazing cheese croquettes) and De Koetse where I tried (and enjoyed!) moules frites for the first time. But in the best-of category, both Chris and I couldn’t get enough of the Belgian waffles covered in real melted chocolate at Oyya. We ended up eating there twice. It wasn’t a meal, but it was definitely our favorite thing we ate in Belgium, and it was just the thing to brighten a gray, drizzly day.

Something We Learned

We learned that at any given time, Bruges is required by law to keep swans on its lakes and canals at all times. Specifically we were told that it has to be at least 100 swans, but I haven’t been able to confirm that exact number. Either way, we did see quite a few long-necked feathered residents on the water and hanging out in this area:

We’re Thankful We Packed

Umbrellas. It rained quite a bit in Bruges, and it was a cold, sometimes even icy rain so we were glad to keep dry as much as possible (aside from that walking tour). Thankfully in between the rainy moments we did have periods of beautiful blue skies and sunshine, so I’ll still remember sweet Bruges quite fondly.

We Didn’t Need To Bring

Short-sleeve tops. It was so cold for our visit in late April that we needed to wear multiple layers all day every day. Brrr!

Trip Regrets

I don’t think I actually have any regrets about our time in Belgium. I mean, I do regret that it was a little chillier than we expected and it rained about half of the time, but I’ve learned not to lament the weather during our travels too much (despite the fact that I’ve mentioned the weather at least a dozen times in this post alone).

Reasons To Go Back

While I think we covered Bruges pretty well, I think we’d enjoy seeing Ghent and Antwerp sometime!

Favorite Photos

Climbing to the top of the belfry rewarded us with some great birds-eye views and I love the results despite the wet weather.

And then there’s this photo which is quite representative of our time in Belgium: eat all the waffles!

June 16, 2016
Zaanse Schans: A Dutch Fairytale

If there is one scene that comes to my mind at the mention of The Netherlands (besides tulips), it’s a Dutch countryside setting featuring windmills. So when I planned our trip with a healthy dose of Amsterdam city life and a day trip to the tulip fields, I knew I also wanted to work windmills in there somewhere for a perfectly balanced overview of Nederland. Enter Zaanse Schans, the super quaint neighborhood in Zaandam with several well-preserved, historic windmills.

Zaanse Schans is just a short 30(ish)-minute trip from Amsterdam, so Chris and I hopped on the train from Amsterdam Centraal to Koog-Zaandijk. After a short walk from the train station, we crossed the bridge over river Zaan and I surveyed the scene straight out of a fairytale: windmills dotting the shore along water, sweet picturesque homes, and wooden foot bridges connecting winding pathways. Zaanse Schans certainly rounded out our quest for a quintessential Dutch experience.

Not only did we enjoy seeing and photographing the windmills from the outside, we even had the opportunity to tour the inside of a windmill, De Kat, as it was working. We had fun climbing the steep steps and taking in the view up top while the floorboards shook beneath us from the power of the gears.

And as the cherry on top of our Dutch day, we were treated to a (free!) demonstration on how to make wooden shoes at the Klompenmakerij. I couldn’t believe my eyes at seeing how quickly plain blocks of wood were transformed into a perfect clog shape.

In addition to the windmills and wooden clogs, you can also get your fill of local cheeses at the Cheese Farm De Catherinahoeve, rent a bike for a scenic ride in Dutch country, and pop into all of the cute shops and cafes. I can’t recommend Zaanse Schans enough as a fun, easy, and fascinating day trip from Amsterdam.

May 16, 2016
Tiptoeing Through the Tulips in Holland

As our flight descended into Amsterdam, I gasped, “LOOK AT THE TULIPS!” to Chris…and to all of the passengers within several rows. I snapped a quick (and fairly terrible) iPhone shot through the dirty, scuffed-up airplane window, and spent the rest of the time gawking at the birds-eye sight of The Netherlands, exactly as I had imagined it.

So technically, teeeccchnically I could have crossed off my longtime bucket list goal of photographing tulips in Holland right then and there. But I had high hopes for doing a little better than a blurry iPhone snapshot. And then when we checked into our Oud-West neighborhood Airbnb apartment, a fresh bouquet of tulips awaited us. The next day we found them throughout the city, too, and thus plenty of tulips ended up in front of my lens. So again, I suppose I could have checked the box on being in Holland and taking pictures of tulips.

But I had dreamed of photographing the tulip fields specifically, the rows upon rows of perfectly placed bulbs, blooming in bright springtime colors. With time and convenience in mind, my trip research pointed me to Keukenhof Gardens, where I’d be able to spot as many tulips as possible within a 30-minute bus ride from Schiphol.

We purchased the combi tickets online before our trip, which allowed us to simply hop onto the 197 bus to the airport from the Leidseplein/Museumplein area of Amsterdam and then the 858 Arriva bus (big green bus covered in tulips – you can’t miss it) to and from the gardens. I liked that the combi tickets weren’t tied to a specific date, so we were able to play it by ear and pick the best weather day. I briefly considered a tour group simply for transportation purposes, but it would have taken up the whole day with no flexibility for the weather. I’m glad we went on our own schedule.

Keukenhof dazzled me from the moment we stepped through the gates (admission is included in the combi ticket), and I ran around photographing as many bulbs as possible before I wore myself out. Plenty of other people had the same idea that day, but despite the crowds it was still completely possible to find pockets of the park to ourselves, and to take pictures without people in them. I originally wanted to rent a bike and ride through the fields, but as was the theme of our trip, it was just too cold. I was happy to have a rain-free afternoon to see and photograph the flowers, so I’m not complaining! (Tip: flowers don’t always photograph as well in bright, direct sunlight, so don’t be discouraged by an overcast day!)

Several resources in my research advised to plan a half-day or even a full day at the park. I suppose it depends on what you hope to accomplish, but we were there a little over two hours and saw everything we wanted to see. If you include a mealtime there, plus moments to just sit and take it all in, and/or are visiting with kids and plan to play on the playground and spend time at the little petting farm, then yes, you can probably fill the day.

We didn’t eat a meal at the park, but we did find very tasty waffles and poffertjes (mini pancakes) at a stand near the playground. We also did a boat tour around the fields, but I found it to be a bit slow and some of the fields had already been harvested so we were often gazing at empty plots of land. I think it took about thirty minutes.

And now…copious amounts of tulip photos.

This photo of the field is the exact shot I was hoping to get! Rows and rows and rows…

It was so fun to cross this one off! Up next: an afternoon in the quaint neighborhood of Zaanse Schans.

May 11, 2016
Koningsdag 2016 in Amsterdam

On April 27th of this year, Chris and I found ourselves celebrating King’s Day in Amsterdam completely by accident! Since my main goal for visiting The Netherlands was to photograph the tulips, I only took tulip season into consideration when booking the dates for our trip. I selected the week right in the middle of blooming season, which happened to overlap with Koningsdag 2016, a huge festival to celebrate King Willem Alexander’s birthday. Lang zal hij leven! (Long may he live!)

Up until three years ago, the Dutch celebrated the birthday of queen mother Beatrix, but she has since abdicated the throne. We didn’t know anything about a day for the queen or king until after I booked the flights and accommodations. And now that I think about it, if I had known about the nationwide all-day party that draws millions of people out into the streets at once, I might have scheduled different dates since I’m not usually a fan of huge crowds.

But with everything set in stone, I decided to go with the flow and I even packed a shirt in the official royal family color orange. We ended up having a really cold and sometimes quite rainy day, so my orange shirt ended up buried under several layers, but it’s in there. And I bought a $7 pair of orange sunglasses before we left even though I wasn’t sure I’d need them. We did get a bit of sun, so I briefly put them to good use.

Locals and tourists alike donned orange outfits and accessories (and then covered them up with coats and scarves). The city gets dressed up, too, with orange accents.

After I found out about King’s Day being in the middle of our trip, I looked into the best ways to spend our time celebrating. Thousands of merrymakers choose to spend most of the day on the canals in the party boats. That option sounded like a ton of fun, but we didn’t want to restrict so much of our first full day in the city to a specific schedule. We decided to simply enjoy wandering the streets to partake in the various food and drink stalls, the vrijmarkt (basically a city-wide flea market/swap), and watching the boats from the bridges. Being on foot also gave us the added bonus of being able to duck inside when it started to rain.

Despite the chilly and occasionally wet weather, we found ourselves in crowds so thick it was nearly impossible to navigate through the streets. We shimmied and danced our way around, combining sightseeing with the festivities.

During one of the gray and rainy moments, we stopped by the Heineken Experience for a self-guided tour of the original Heineken brewery. Most things are closed on King’s Day, but several of the museums and major attractions do have open hours. (We also fit the Anne Frank House into King’s Day evening since that was the only date we were able to get tickets online.)

The Heineken Experience was the perfect way to spend some time staying dry and I got to try Heineken for the first time (gasp). Dare I say I actually enjoyed this tour more than our time at the Guinness Storehouse last year (gasp again!). I liked the layout, the interactive stations, and the multiple beer samples. While the view of Amsterdam perhaps wasn’t quite as spectacular as the Storehouse’s 360 view of Dublin, Heineken’s rooftop bar had plenty of room for seating, standing, and dancing. And plus they gave us hats!

We heard from a few locals that this year’s Koningsdag was pretty tame compared to years in the past. The weather probably contributed a bit, and some new regulations restricted the party to certain areas, but I still felt the crazy energy and loved the people-watching opportunities. What’s more fun than walking around with beers and seeing a city on a day where everyone is in a great mood?

Happy Koningsdag! Proost!

May 10, 2016
I Amsterdam

If you’ve read some of my other posts, you may have seen me mention that I don’t typically love big cities quite as much as their counterpart smaller towns. For some reason I have always wanted to see Amsterdam though, and over a period of four days, Amsterdam served as our home base in The Netherlands. In that short time, the Dutch capital worked her charms on me easily claiming a spot on my favorite cities list. Amsterdam fascinated me with its complex onion-like layers. The network of neighborhoods offer something for everyone: rich diversity, history, beautiful architecture, a cultural food scene, and of course there’s entertainment of literally all sorts. I found myself mesmerized by the motion of people, bicycles, trams, boats, buses, and cars, constantly weaving their way around the city’s canal structure.

Chris and I hustled to see as much of Amsterdam as possible while also including day trips to the tulip fields and to a quaint countryside neighborhood (posts to follow) in our four-day visit. I feel like we were able to get a good sense of the city, but I’d love to go back because I know we only scratched the surface. We stayed in a centrally located Airbnb apartment in the Oud-West neighborhood, and we ended up walking 5-10 miles every single day simply because we covered so much ground.

Our short stay started by spending the day with King’s Day revelers (post coming up!) and doing some photography around the city.

The transportation situation in Amsterdam captivated me. In such a walkable city, they also have the option of the tram system and of course bicycles. We used the tram a few times (really efficient and easy once you figure it out), but unfortunately the chilly weather dissuaded me from hoping onto a bike this visit. Not to mention, cycling in Amsterdam looked like an experts-only mode of transport! We saw plenty of near-misses for pedestrians and cyclists alike. Tip for anyone visiting Amsterdam: look both ways multiple times when you cross the street! You’ll feel like you’re starring in a game of Frogger while making your way across the bike lanes, the tram tracks, and the road.

We lucked out by scoring advance purchase tickets for the Anne Frank House on King’s Day evening, so we wrapped up our festivities with a moving experience at the museum. No photography is allowed, but I truly enjoyed soaking up the tour sans camera in hand. When we were planning our trip I almost gave the Anne Frank House a miss (I’ve read her diary and thought the museum might be too upsetting), but as one of the top must-see attractions in Amsterdam I’m glad we made time for it. I did do parts of the tour through teary eyes.

Speaking of must-see items, I also went to Amsterdam with a must-eat list, and I managed to check off four out of five local treats: bitterballen, Gouda cheese, stroopwafels, and poffertjes. I missed out on trying pickled herring because we just didn’t come across it (although we didn’t look that hard). Something tells me it’s okay that I missed out on it. Everything else was quite good!

Considering my bucket list goal of photographing the tulips in Holland during tulip season, I loved poking around in the floating flower market. It was a good preview of what I’d see later in the week!

And of course, we had to pop by the Red Light District to see what the fuss is about. We meandered up and down the main canal and some of the side alleyways, perusing sights and transactions that are fairly foreign to us back home. The RLD made for some good people-watching and photos, and we also ate one of the most amazing pizzas I’ve ever had at nearby La Zoccola del Pacioccone. Their homemade limoncello shots were fun, too.

We checked off almost all of our must-see-and-do list for Amsterdam, with the exception of the Van Gogh Museum. Ugh, I’m kind of gutted about it, but I totally goofed – I thought I bought advance tickets online for Friday night, our last night of the trip, but when we got there I couldn’t find the tickets on my phone. It turns out I actually didn’t buy tickets (oops!), and the ticket line was crazy long. We were nearing complete exhaustion at this point, however, so it was probably fine that we skipped the museum. It’ll be on our list for next time!

And I’m certainly hoping for a next time. I really did enjoy our time in this city, and I’d love to dig deeper someday.

Up next: King’s Day fun and festivities!

May 9, 2016