After a smooth nine hour flight, we arrived at AMS with our Uber van waiting to take us to Efteling. After weeks of racking my brain between the choices of renting a car, reserving a taxi service, or ubering, I decided that Uber was the most reliable way to go. I had been in contact with a few taxi companies but they either wanted payment upfront or seemingly ghosted or rejected our reservation citing that I was asking too many questions. By the way, I was asking very basic questions like "how do you handle arrival delays with the new digital system at EU airports"... "what happens when the driver has an emergency and can't show up?" Anyway, Uber worked really well for us and on the return, we had Efteling arrange our taxi van back. It cost more but it was a guarantee that the van would be there.
Next up, we took the train to Antwerp, Belgium. A city not on many people's radar but it absolutely should be! Antwerp is a beautiful old city with beautiful architecture and so much culture. We happen to be there during the tail end of a heat wave and the Tall Ships race. We spent our days walking the waterfront looking at the ships, took an electrical carriage ride through the town, and my favorite, touring the world's first stock exchange building circa 1500s. Not many cities in this world can say that they have a still have a standing official gate to the city or can they say that they've been brewing beer for over 950 years. We went to Bruges the year before and while Bruges was charming, I found Antwerp to be a great hang out city with lots of restaurants, grounds to walk, buildings to explore, and various areas to spend time in.
After a few days in Antwerp, we took the train back to AMS, stayed at an airport hotel and took an early flight to Newcastle where we rented a car for our two week trip in the Lake District. We planned to split our time between Bowness at Windemere and Keswick. We spent the lakes revisiting my hubs childhood memories. Highlights were Grasmere Lake, a small town called Cartmel which has an unassuming Michelin star restaurant. My kids climbs Catbells in Keswick which seems to be the Lake District's right of passage. I spent two weeks driving on the other side of the road on much too narrow two way lanes. The most frustrating was probably the abrupt road closures with nowhere to go but backwards because there isn't even space to make a 3 point turn! Having spent time in both areas of the Lake District, you can really feel the difference between the two towns. Bowness was packed with sightseeing tourists while Keswick was full of travelers ready to hike the mountains. We probably won'y return to Bowness but we will definitely go back to Keswick at some point in the future.
We ended our trip with a few days in London. On our list this year was the Paddington Experience and the Royal Mail Museum and Train ride. I had very high expectations for the Paddington Experience because he is just such a cute bear but I must admit that I found the experience to be a bit underwhelming. I am glad that we did it and we won't have to wonder about it! One of our favorites was probably the splash pad playground at Parliament Hill during our exploration afternoon of Hampstead. Our morning breakfasts were had at our favorite Dishoom location in Covent Garden where I am convinced that I purchase the last physical Dishoom logo baseball cap! It was a nice memorble block of summer we had. The kids are growing so fast and I hope to instill in them a sense of adventure and courage through these experiences. Until next time!
