We spent a few days in Holland last month. It was mostly for family reasons, rather than a holiday, so I don’t have a lot of photos, but here’s some of the things we got up to.
It was especially nice to be back in Zaandam, where my mother is from and we spent many childhood holidays. I haven’t been back for 15 years and it’s very different. A lot of the buildings have these new facades in the style of traditional houses, which is a little touristy but very charming. It makes up a bit for how industrial the city is now, as it’s being swallowed up by nearby Amsterdam.
The Inntel hotel is especially cool, though it almost looks AI-generated! It is very real though and we stayed there for one night as a special treat.
All the rooms are themed around local products and mine was biscuits! My mum and Nicolette’s had a chocolate theme. It had a really nice view too.
We spent a day in Egmond, which has a lot of happy memories for my family, especially my late aunt. My mum and dad also met here. We were lucky to have escaped from Storm Eowyn back in Scotland but it was still pretty bad here and not the best day day for a walk. We got thoroughly sand-blasted and I was finding sand in my pockets for days.
We also found Nijntje (Miffy)! Such a cute design, though they should have put her in front of the mast as it blocks her face when we had our photos taken with her.
Another day we spent walking in Het Twiske, a nature park, and even found some coos! We had pancakes for lunch at Pannekoek de Appel, which were amazing. Always go in pairs so you can split a sweet and savoury topping!
We found a little bit of time for shopping too but I’ll share my purchases in another post. You can get a sneak peek and see all my other photos on Flickr.
