Our summer plans fell into place so easily this year. We planned a 3-week long home exchange in Bruges a long time ago, maybe as far back as winter. Then we got our flights. Our return flight stops in Copenhagen, so we decided to make a day/night of it there because it’s our favorite city to visit. We want to go back to Reffen and Tivoli, of course. Then we had to figure out what else we wanted to do.
We looked at the cities that we could get to via train from Bruges/Brussels and started looking for some home exchanges in those places: Brussels, of course, Antwerp, Ghent, Amsterdam, London, etc.
We eventually landed on home exchanges that we could use guest points for in Amsterdam and Brussels. This works out perfectly because it allows us to break up the length of our stay in Bruges. We’ll do a few days there, then a few days in Amsterdam. Back to Bruges for a while, then off to Brussels for a few days before flying back home with an day long layover in Copenhagen, giving us just enough time for a day and night of fun there!
As we do with any trip, we have come up with a bucket list of activities for each destination. Normally we would have made a ton of reservations for places by now, but we are slacking this summer! The only reservation we’ve made so far is for me to get a tattoo in Brussels. (Long story, one for another post!)
Other than that, here are the things we’re hoping we get to visit/see/do on our trip:
Beer. Waffles. French fries. Stroopwafel. Obviously. That should go without saying. This trip is basically going to be one giant carb binge.
Bruges:
Lago Brugge Olympia – a giant indoor water park
We Can Dance festival – this is a giant EDM festival on the beach that takes place over two of the weekends we are in Bruges; obviously not sure that we can take the kid, but he digs EDM music so if we can get anywhere close where he could hear music, that would be so cool!
Also just making it to the beach would be nice.
Checking out the windmills.
Brewery tours and tastings.
Maybe a chocolate making class? That would be pretty sweet. Ha!
Amsterdam:
Visit the Vondelpark.
The Van Gogh Museum. All the museums!
Rent a boat and scoot around the canals.
Brussels:
Maybe check out the Atomium?
Check out the Royal Palace?
Copenhagen:
Lunch at Reffen so I can get a hot dog.
Tivoli Gardens! This time we are getting the wrist bands so we don’t have to mess with tickets! Now we know.
Dinner at Tivoli! We absolutely love Tivoli Food Hall. There are a bunch of restaurants and food stalls to choose from. BUT – we have only ever eaten at the bar at La Baracca. We have eaten there multiple times. We have sipped many aperol spritzes (and then gotten on rides afterwards! Wooo!) and talked with the owner and his wife. We will definitely be going back there.
And for now, that’s it. We still have to get our house ready for our Belgian visitors and pack our suitcases. I have a feeling we’ll be winging it on this vacation a little more than usual – and that’s not a bad thing!
I will report back when we return!
Go with the Goodwins 