Trains, Planes, and Vino

Read more about my Self Care Sabbatical and the other places I’ve visited! 

After I left Amsterdam, I spent another 24 hours or so in the Netherlands visiting a few different cities: The Hague, Delft, and Rotterdam. I chose to spend the night in Delft as it was en route to Rotterdam and made an easy stop along the way. From Rotterdam, it was easy to get to my next location (Antwerp). You could easily visit The Hague and Delft as day trips from Amsterdam. Rotterdam was not that impressive to me so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend spending your time away from Amsterdam to visit.

The Hague – Within an hour of Amsterdam by train, lovely city to walk around. There are some museums to check out as well. I did a self-guided walk around the town that I found online which was an easy 1.5 hours and I got to see most of the main sights, as well as stumbling onto a few Sunday markets. I visited the Prison Museum which was somewhat interesting, though I had just missed the English language tour by 30 minutes (2:15 on Sundays). You must take a tour when visiting the museum (takes about 1 hour). The tours are conducted in Dutch though there is an audio guide for other languages.  I think there was a lot of added info lost not being able to understand the guide and just using the audio guide so take the in-language tour if you can!

Next to the museum is Instock which I would recommend for lunch. They use all rescued food from local supermarkets for the menu. Smallish portions but very yummy, not expensive. 

Shakshuka & Iced Coffee

Delft – Known for its blue and white pottery (which I didn’t see at all while I was there). You can take Tram 1 from The Hague here, very easy 20-minute trip (you can buy an all-day pass for 6 euro). Popular with day-trippers, the town seemed quite busy with tourists after mid-day. I spent the night in town (at Hostel Delft which was not that great, but fine for one night) and there was not much going on. There was a local parade I saw, but otherwise pretty sleepy. I spent my evening having a lovely dinner and seeing Mamma Mia 2 at the local movie theater! In the morning, I was out at 9am and barely saw anyone! Seemed like most of the shops and restaurants don’t really open before 9:30/10am. While you’re there, visit the central square, wander the streets. It’s a very lovely town.  Easy walk to main train station from town if you need to get elsewhere in Holland.

Happy Tosti – I had a great inexpensive breakfast here (5 euro for ½ toastie, yogurt w/ fruit, juice, and coffee)

Hills & Mills – Great spot for dinner. Not very large, but totally packed. Healthy options (including veg friendly), Pakistani fusion. There are a lot of options to try, I recommend the chicken 🙂

Rotterdam – I spent about an hour wandering around here between trains. Not much to see though – if you do walk around, I suggest heading to the Cool District and the area near the Witte art museum. It’s about 15 minutes from the station. There are some nice cafes/bars here for a snack/lunch/drink. I chose King Kong (which is also a hostel) – nice place for sandwiches, salads, baked goods, coffee.

Netherlands Note: You can buy your rail tickets online, but you MUST bring a printed ticket with you to the station (you cannot use a mobile ticket to access). I did not know this and had to visit a print shop across from the Delft station to print my ticket. There is a 1 euro surcharge on the tickets at the station, but if you don’t have access to a printer it’s easier to just get them from the machines at the station.