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Benelux

Posted by (Topspham, Maine, USA) on

My daughter, who is going to school in Cairo, are meeting in Brussels in early to mid April 2009. I will be with her for 10 days, excluding travel days to/from USA. Amsterdam appears to be the most interesting city in the area, followed by Brugges. Amsterdam seems to rate 3 nights, Brugges, one or two nights. Does anyone have any recommendations for other places to go. I was thinking about Cologne, Germany, but it seems even more expensive than Amsterdam. Secondly, I would not mind spending some time in a smaller town, provided we could get there fairly conveniently by bus or train. Any suggestions that anyone may have would be most welcome.

Thanks,

Posted by
12040 posts

Small towns and villages are a bit harder to reach in Belgium without a car... but you can reach most of the small cities easily by train.

If your daughter is of college age, she may enjoy spending a Friday or Saturday evening in the university town of Leuven. It's an attractive old city, if a little low on the types of sites tourists typically flock to. But the cafe scene on the Oude Markt is very enjoyable. Much more civilized than the deafening ruckous that characterizes the US college "bar scene".

If you visit Cologne, also consider a quick stop-off in Maastricht. Like many of the smaller cities in this region, it lacks world famous tourist draws, but is a very pleasent place to spend a few hours. I particularly enjoyed the outdoor market here.

Posted by
242 posts

I think it largely depends on what you are interested in.

You could also go the other direction and see Paris.

If you wanted to see Benelux, I would do the following:

Day 1: Brussels

Day 2 & 3: Bruges - do the bike ride to Damme or Sluis

Day 4: travel to Delft, stopping in Gent along the way; Delft is a college town but is also a beautiful Dutch town. There is a wonderful square that is surrounded on all sides with cafes and restaurants - a lovely way to pass an evening

Day 5: Delft - even better if it is a Thursday or a Saturday and the market is town; there is also the porcelain factory, old churches (including the burial site of the House of Orange), a Vermeer museum, beautiful botanical gardens, lovely canals...

Day 6: Kuekenhof to see the tulips in bloom; you can take a bike ride from Leiden and travel through other flower fields on the way to the gardens or else there are direct buses from Leiden, Haarlem, and Amsterdam. Biking would take you through several smaller towns in addition to the flower fields. You can sleep in Leiden or go ahead on to Amsterdam.

Day 7 - 10: Amsterdam with possible side trips to Utrecht, Haarlem, or the Kinderdijk bike ride out of Gouda. The kinderdijk ride is one of my favorites; you get to see over 30 windmills along the way, take a ferry, bike through several small towns, pass farms with cheese shops, and see the beautiful landscape.

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