I love to start the week by writing Five Happy Things. It’s a chance for me to sit down and reflect on the things that made me happy in the previous week, as well as to record some of our family adventures – it’s a post I always enjoy writing. We spent last week exploring the Netherlands and Belgium. The weather was amazing and we packed so much into our holiday. Now we’re back home and I have piles of washing and bags to unpack!

Five Happy Things {Week 253}

We spent Monday exploring Rotterdam which was only 45 minutes from where we were staying at Duinrell. It was destroyed by the Germans in the Second World War and instead of re-building they city they embraced re-building it in a modern style. It’s a pretty stage city if you are expecting canals and beautiful old Dutch buildings. However we loved seeing all the new architecture Rotterdam is famous for, including the Cube Houses, the Swan bridge, Euromast and Markthal.

As we had booked our holiday direct with Duinrell we had 2 hours at the Tikibad pool every day. It’s a great pool and had been extended since our visit last year. The kids were so happy to play at the pool and we visited 5 times, including the outside pool too. We barely had time to visit Wassenaar beach, which is within cycling distance of Duinrell, but we went there once. I was barely able to get our swimming things dry as they were used so much!

As well as spending plenty of time at Duinrell we had another day trip to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Kinderdijk. Kinderdijk is famous for its iconic 18th-century windmills. Its water-management network features 19 mills and 3 pumping stations, plus dikes and reservoirs that control flooding in the low-lying land. We took a boat ride along pat of the canal and this was a great way to see them.

You can’t visit the Netherlands without enjoying the delicious stroopwafel. We visited Gouda (sadly not on Thursday when the famous cheese market takes place) and it’s a lovely little Dutch city with canals and historic buildings. Of course we bought some cheese to bring home but also took a tour of the Kamphuisen Stroopwafel factory in the centre of Gouda. The Kamphuisen family of Gouda bakes stroopwafels (siroopwafels) following their authentic family recipe from 1810 and they are shipped all over the world.

After our amazing week at Duinrell we came home via the beautiful city of Ghent in Belgium. I had visited this city with my husband over 10 years ago so was excited to go back with the children. We stayed in the Novotel Gent Centrum which was really central and the perfect base for exploring with the kids. We re-visited all our favourite spots (and Belgian waffle eateries!) and took a boat tour too.

I am really looking forward to a few days at home before our next adventure. Have a great week!