the best day...

...during our Spring Break vacation was Monday, March 12th.

I awakened after a restful night's sleep in Amsterdam (although it was on the roll away cot intentioned for our daughter- ha!) to this view:

We arrived into Amsterdam around 9am on Sunday and hoofed it through the city all day, our jet lagged and airplane~grimy selves made it until about 8pm. We were thrilled to have a modern and brand new hotel room to crash in on our first night.

The roll away bed was actually quite comfy and was strategically placed in front of our floor to ceiling windows (image of our room below). The images above were literally captured from bed on Monday morning. What a way to start the first full day of our trip!

The bedroom.
My bedroomThe living room with large windows overlooking the city. Nothing beats coffee in Europe, even if it is just the instant stuff. ☺
At the train station in Amsterdam, awaiting our train to Bruges.
One of the smaller commuter trains.
You've already seen these images (post here) of the windmills, as seen from the train just outside of Amsterdam.


It was a one hour plus train ride from Amsterdam to Antwerp...


...and an hour plus from Antwerp to Bruges.

From the station in Bruges we rolled our small bags along the cobblestone streets to our hotel.


With our city map in hand and bright blue skies above, we ventured out to explore Bruges, Belgium. That's the Bellfort Tower in the distance. You can climb to the top to take in the city view from above, which we didn't do.
The Church of our Lady tower above, Market Square below.
So many beautiful old churches and historic sites.
A fabulously unexpected large shopping area. Hema is their Target-type store.
The belfry above, market square below.
The main square in Bruges, market square. As I told you here, we were coerced into taking a horse drawn carriage tour.

We rolled along the narrow, cobblestone streets of Bruges in our carriage and stopped here for a rest.

All of the restaurants had shaped boxwood type plants out front with chalkboards. Very uniform yet chic and inviting.

My traveling companions and favorite peeps at the entrance to my heaven on earth, the Begijnhof (detail here).

My little peep, satisfied with herself for begging us to go on the tour.

Had we not given in, we might have missed all of this. This little spot in Bruges was so special, it kept calling me back.

Our horse was well rested, fed and watered during our break in the Begijnhof area.

The pathway to the Begijnhof with another cute restaurant on the right.

Inside the Begijnhof.

At the end of our carriage ride we set back out on foot to explore more of the beauty of Bruges. To the left of this vacant space lies a secondhand store filled to the brim with designer handbags and shoes. It was a pretty amazing shop but I didn't see anything I had to have.

A quaint side street off the beaten path.

Canals around every turn.

School groups touring the historic sites.

We spotted several cool antique stores in Bruges. I browsed in several but didn't find any antique treasures. It's too hard to focus with an antsy husband and 7 year old in tow. I did pick up a few things for the house, which I'll share in a future post.

Strolling back to the hotel at the end of a long yet dreamy day in Bruges.
The Bellfry Tower at night.

City hall building at night.

Market Square at night.

I'll be back with more on Bruges and a full post on Amsterdam.

xo~

Tricia

PS~ I was able to sneak away to Round Top this week and came home with some fun stuff, I can't wait to show you!

in bloom {Holland & Belgium}

We missed the tulips blooming in the outskirts of Amsterdam by just a few weeks, but there wasn't a shortage of blossoms during our somewhat chilly visit last week.

The Bloemenmarket in Amsterdam:

Filled with spring blooms and lots of bulbs.This was my favorite seller.

Look at the size of these bulbs! They were at least the size of a softball.
The Bloemenmarket is the world's only floating flower market. Here you can see the back side of the booths, lining the Singel canal. There are quite a few touristy souvenir shops mixed in but it's worth a stroll just to see/smell the flowers.

Trees were budding with sweet shades of green and some bushes were starting to burst with color after a few sun-filled days in Amsterdam.
A peek into Amsterdam's urban park, Vondelpark. The grass is green and you can see the various hues of green and yellow amongst the branches. Aside from the flower market in Amsterdam, I wasn't expecting to see many blooms in either country during our visit. In fact, the forecast called for rain and temps in the low 40s so I wasn't expecting sunshine, not a drop of rain OR temps in the mid 50s either! Ha, we lucked out.

Just beyond this gate lies a heavenly spot in Bruges, one that totally caught me off guard and drew me back for a second visit during our short stay.

Welcome to the Begijnhof. This area was founded in 1245 and is currently a monastery for the Benedictine sisters (more info here). Upon first glance, I was intrigued by the beautiful white brick houses inside.

I noticed the soft green courtyard to my left...

...but once I fully turned to see this, my jaw dropped open and I felt goose bumps all over.

A large green pasture with centuries old, moss covered poplar trees all leaning in unison. Birds softly landing on the thin grass covered with bright yellow daffodils. The original church was burnt to the ground in the late 1500's so this church was rebuilt in 1609. Signs inside the grounds asked for visitors to be silent and not to take photos, but several people were taking photos and I just had to snap a couple. The grounds and surroundings here are exactly how I envision my 'happy place', you know that place you go to in your mind in a meditative state {or when you're late and get stuck in traffic and just want to scream at the world to "get out of my way!!!", but you take a deep breath and force your mind to shift gears} This is it for me, right here in the Begijnhof in Bruges. Ah...one last peek.

Do you ever get sad looking back at photos from happy times? We had such a nice time on our trip and the day I snapped these photos was my favorite day overall. We talked about how fun it would be to buy a small place in Belgium, giving us access to so many other European cities that we'd love to visit. There were so many beautiful, small brick homes on the outskirts of Bruges {as seen from the train} that I found myself daydreaming about what it would be like to live there, a slower pace of life and surrounded by so much history and culture. Ah to dream. ☺

We have bright blue skies and the temps are supposed to be in the low 80s this weekend so life is good here in Houston right now.

Hope your weekend is filled with sunshine and blooms!

xo~
Tricia