Taking the Scenic Route to Bruges

After our visit to Keukenhof in Lisse, Netherlands, I wanted to take the scenic route to Bruges, Belgium. A train ride through small towns in the bucolic Dutch countryside filled with tulips and windmills appealed to me enormously. Instead, we took the Keukenhof Express back to Schipol Amsterdam Airport and boarded the train to take the fast route to Bruges.

But first, we spent the night in Lisse at the charming Hotel De Duif .

After taking a wrong turn and lugging our bags up the stairs not once but three times, we finally located our room and discovered it occupied two floors; the sitting room and kitchen were downstairs with a bedroom above, so we lugged our bags up one more time. Exhausted by this unexpected strength training after an overnight flight and a full day exploring Keukenhof, we wanted nothing more than dinner and bed asap.

We set off on foot to the main square just a couple blocks away to find a restaurant. Notoriously indecisive when it comes to picking restaurants, we chose Restaurant Den Ouden Heere after the usual amount of hesitation. Always a fan of outdoor seating with heaters, we sat outside with a view of the square. Our friendly and helpful waitress advised us that the special for just 9.50 euros would be a tasty choice and we were pleased with her suggestion.

It was early to bed and early to rise for us. The following morning, we enjoyed a tasty buffet breakfast at the hotel before one final walk back to Keukenhof to catch the bus to Schipol.

We stopped at the bench below for a photo of a bulb field and farm across the road from Keukenhof.

When I clambered onto the bench to get a view above the fence for my photo, a local curmudgeon accused me of having no respect if I would come to their country and stand on the bench. I was embarrassed and apologized profusely while I wiped the spot where I stood on the bench with my hand. Later, however, as Jim and I discussed the event, we decided that outdoor benches are built for sitting, standing, bad weather, bird droppings and a myriad of other events and this fellow was just having a bad day. Every other Dutch person we’ve met has been friendly and hospitable so this experience was unusual, to say the least. It made for a memorable story, however.

We were the only passengers on the double bus back to Schipol and when we arrived, we were astonished to see a huge crowd waiting for the bus’s return trip to Keukenhof. We appreciated the short line to board the bus on the previous day all over again.

We easily located the ticket counter in Schipol for the train to Bruges and headed straightaway to our platform. With hardly any wait at all, we boarded our train and sat back to view the countryside.

We switched trains at Rotterdam to head to Bruges via Antwerp. We would return to Rotterdam in two days to board our cruise ship so we looked around to familiarize ourselves with this station.

At Antwerp Central Railway Station, amazingly, we encountered our friends, Lori and Rick, who arrived that morning from the U.S. and we had planned to meet that evening at our hotel in Bruges.

We could see why this station is reputed to be one of the most beautiful in Europe and we wholeheartedly agreed. Built at the turn of the 20th century, the glass vaulted ceiling allows light to bathe the stone and marble interior. The overall impression is both historic and majestic. We also felt quite safe with the Belgian military patrolling the station so soon after the March 22nd bombing of the airport in Brussels.

When I originally checked train connections, I wanted to avoid backtracking to Schipol in Amsterdam and find connections directly from Lisse to Bruges. When I couldn’t make that work, we settled for connections from Schipol to Rotterdam, Antwerp, and finally Bruges with several stops in smaller towns along the way. In the end, surprisingly, our train journey to Bruges turned out to be the scenic route.

Next time: Bruges.

Based on events in April 2016.