As mentioned in my previous entry, day 2 of our amazing road trip charrozcaldo was Netherlands!
This was another out of the blue moment. Going back to 2015, we went to the Netherlands around the last week of May, aiming to catch the field of tulips but WALEY! Their festival ended 17th of May but we got there the next day! As in, literal na latak nalang of tulips yung naabutan because everything were already harvested. So I just promised myself that I’ll come back.
2018. Eto na yung chance ko. Because we had an extra day from our Belgium trip, we decided to go ahead and see the tulips cause why not, we were only 2 hours away.
Same as the first time, we went to Lisse where they house Keukenhof- Dubbed as THE Garden of Europe. The festival has already started and there’s loads of tourists everywhere as in sold out mga besh. I was only after the actual fields but since there was a hint of curiosity of what is going on inside, might as well!
Getting into the garden costs €18. In all honesty mga besh, I felt like it was a total rip off. Di sulit. I mean the whole place is nicely done, but for the price and the volume of people coming in, I thought it could be a bit cheaper (plus they charged I think €6 for the parking). The whole place was so crowded!
The best time to go to see the fields would probably be towards the end of April, before they start harvesting all the flowers. And if I were to decide, I would just pass on the garden and just hire a bike/car to go around instead. The fields were everwhere but the challenge was to find one that wasn’t harvested yet. Luckily, through the help of instagram locations and some online searching, we’ve managed to find some spots!
It was really worth it going around to look for the fields. It was truly a feast for the eyes, my pictures/videos wouldn’t do justice and I’m glad I’ve got it ticked off my bucket list.
PS! Here’s my Belgium with a bit of the tulips video! Ü
It’s been a while mga beh but heto nanaman po tayo sa mga talak series ko and this time, I will make chika about my latest lamyerda… Belgium!
From the usual flying, we tried to explore our options- in short, kung saan mas makakatipid! Honestly, the flights at the time would cost around £120 each and hindi pwede yang mga ganyang ganap! We also went to see if we could hop on a train instead but it would cost aroung £80-90 each and I still found it a bit pricey. I was aiming for around the £50-60 range so mega hanap si auntie until, tiiiiing! I had a revelation char! Why don’t we just drive?
Driving from England (Port of Dover) to France (Calais or Dunkirk)
I learned na you could do this two ways: drive yourself through the Euro Tunnel or ride the ferry (RORO levels) and just start driving when you get to the other side. The first one did sound appealing cause it’s much faster BUT it’s a £120 charge (for two na to so pasok na sa banga). The latter naman, would take us 2 hours to cruise the English channel BUT, it would only cost us a tumataginting na SEBENTY SEBEN POUNDS ONLY! Oh di ba? Winner! The catch though, is that when you’re driving around EU, there are certain requirements like making sure your insurance covers that country and that you have mandatory equipments that is available in your car (fire extinguisher, hazard jackets, road triangles, etc) which you can buy a complete pack in Halfords.
The are also buses from London to Belgium/France/Netherlands which is also cheaper but of course would take around 8 hours or more. Worth a try for some who don’t mind.
The English Channel
There were actually a variety of ferries to choose from but I opted for the DFDS company. Just make sure that you book on their actual website cause when I compared with like a travel site, they do have the same initial price pero tadtad sa hidden charges when you check out. Also, perstaym ko to so talagang napasigaw ako pagka angkas namin ng “Shakay nah!”
I think what I liked about this mode of travel is there were no strict allowance ecklavoo. Kahit magbaon kapa ng 5litres of shampoo keri lang. Parang ang chill lang promise! Daan daan ka lang sa booths, they will quickly inspect and swab your car for safety; they also have immigration there so may tatak padin yung passport.
We originally booked for 10pm kasi we will still come from work and anticipated traffic since it was a long holiday. Luckily, we checked in around 7:45 pm and they just offered us of we’d like to ride on the 8pm one so gora! It was the perfect time cause we get to catch the golden hour while cruising the English channel.
They had a communal area in the ship and they had restaurants (not much to offer but keri nadin), small shop to buy essentials (careful cause prices are doubled); they also have a number of slot machines and currency exchange booth. Upon booking, they did offer me if I wanted to avail the lounge (additional £12 /person/journey) but since the theme is tipid travel, I just refused which was a good call. Looking at the open area, it was actually not that bad. And the journey was just for 2 hours anyway so keri boom boom na.
Because of the time difference, we arrived at Port Dunkirk ( yeap, that Dunkirk from the movie. A must watch!) at around 11pm and checked in and rested for the morning.
I am still in awe with the fact na you can be in two countries at once (Mandy Moore levels) here in Europe. From Dunkirk, France, it was just an hour drive getting to our first destination- Brugge, Belgium
Be, welcome daw.
Walking around Brugges
The city was so energetic yet chill at the same time. We were lucky cause we were blessed with a sunny weather so we had the chance to really roam around and appreciate it’s gothic architecture.
They also had canals where you can cruise and basically see around (only 7 euros each).
Of course, what is a trip to Belgium without an authentic truffle and waffle experience.
All in all, you can probably see all the sights for one whole day.
Break it to me GHENT-ly
From Brugge, it was another hour drive to Ghent. They had pretty much the same structures but some areas looked more metro.
Main reason why we suddenly decided to go to Belgium: this guy right here! ( JV, Hubby’s bestest friend).
After Ghent, it was another hour drive to get to Leuven where JV and his family is staying.
On our day 2, we had a side trip to Netherlands ( 2 hours drive) which I will probably talk about in another entry (para mas maayos).
Fast forward to day 3, we finally went to Brussels which was 45 minutes away from where we were staying.
Similar to most countries in the EU, I’ve noticed that most of these cities usually have their centre square which is usually their main paandar and then the rest of the tourist sites are spread everywhere.
I’m currently exploring taking candid photos of other people. Parang bet ko pang i-explore itey.
In fairness kay daddeeey
Cuteee children on their field trip! Random fact: I’ve always wanted to be a pre-school teacher
I did’t make any effort to research why pero bet nila itong si totoy. Sikat siya dito for some reason.
The Atomium – huge structure depicting atoms.
Honestly, ito yung pinaka highlight for me- the European Union Headquarters. Other than that, solb nako.
I think 2-3 days would be enough to explore its main cities and I would say Brugge was my favourite. Other must try is of course, their waffles and I love their legit Belgian truffles and my gad, I love the beer! (Sorry, no pictures na kasi nasa chanda ko na lahat plus, tipid memory din for wordpress!)
Anyway, I’m still editing our videos (I’ll embed it here soon) but see you soon on my next lamyerda diaries! Taaa!!
Update! From 150 raw videos to 20 minute clips to this!
We’ve kept this a secret for almost a year now (we were quite embarassed of our kashongaan), but I think it’s about time I share one of our major “Fail” in one of our travels.
It was my birthday trip to Italy right? We booked a cab going to Stansted Airport since it was an early flight and we didn’t wanna hassle ourselves with rush hour, train transfers and luggage. Arriving there I reckon almost 2 hours early, we got swayed by the displays and being the “tech-loving” people that we are, we spent most of our spare time at Curry’s where they had a massive sale. To cut the story short, we ended up buying a GoPro Hero 4 thinking it would be a good addition to our trip (even though I had my massive DSLR with me) and we could use it for our videos and later on in life. Hahaha. After the kaching kaching from the cashier, like two toodlers, we were excited to open our new shiny goody. We still had time we said, so yeah, we did the unboxing right there in the waiting room. We didn’t even bother to check which gate we’ll be in until…..
We snapped back to reality and checked the time. Holy F!!! It was just 5 minutes to our flight!!! We rushed to our gate which was a shuttle away from where we were. Had a marathon and yes, I would have loved this to end like the movies where we were able to catch the plane but nope, this is real life so yes my folks, we missed the flight. We missed the freakin’ flight!!! Gelo was obviously upset, I heard a lot of tsks and grunts and “dapat kasi di na natin binuksan eh” and “para kasing mga bata, masyadong naexcite eh” but what can we do? Having the talent of remaining cool on these kind of situations, I just kept laughing and smiling. I honestly found it funny. We evetually had to go back to the counter and of course, buy new tickets. My only worry was not getting a flight the same day but luckily, there was just 2 hours wait to the next one. Also, I had to close my eyes to 200 extra quid we had to pay for getting another flight. Haaaaaay! Breathe in, then out.
So yeah, major fail. While waiting for the new flight, we didn’t even touch the camera anymore. And yes we kept on checking the time and gate. And yes, after some cool down, Gelo was already laughing about it. It was a nice and expensive experience though, and never again were we late for our flights. Also, never again would we get distracted by these toys/gadgets.
Here’s our first picture with our GoPro named: Stansted. We made sure we used it again till boarding time. Majirap na!
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