Exploring More of the Low Countries

The best way to start a summer morning on a Belgian holiday is with homemade Belgian waffles. Ours at the hotel came hot off the waffle iron dusted with powdered sugar with a side of ripe juicy strawberries.

We took the intercity train to Antwerp. We had the coach almost to ourselves until a young mother sat down with her two preschool age boys and her toddler son. While the two boys sat quietly looking at TinTin books, a sudden shout went up from the passengers. . While tapping on her cell phone, the mother failed to notice that at one of the stops the toddler had run off and was headed right out the door. Thankfully someone was able to grab him

Haarlem, Netherlands is beautiful. The people here are very fit, but it could be that riding a bike for all ages is part of the culture and not a Tour de France outfit in sight. We have also noticed that no one uses a bike lock. 

There are gabled brick houses everywhere near our hotel. We explored a quiet cobblestone residential street and were surprisd at how peaceful it was when it's actually next door to a thriving business area with a lot of shops,  We are Nespresso coffee drinkers and in front of a Nespresso shop, a smartly dressed man was playing a saxophone. We ended up inside where a party was taking place complete with caterers to celebrate the opening day.

Tonight we walked around town and down to the Fran's Hall Museum in an elegant neighborhood. I loved looking at the tiny boats in the canal as we headed back to our accommodation, Right now it's 10:15, but we are so far north, it is not quite dark yet. Outside our window people are enjoying the ambiance. European holiday has begun!