By the seaside

I’ve been meaning to write this blog so that I can finish up with the day trips we took while the kids and Frank were on vacation…so here it is…

I finally made it down to Zeeland, granted I didn’t get to see everything I wanted but as least I made it there.  We took the train down to Vlissingen and Middelburg, and that was another 3 hour trip.  One bonus about train travel is that  get to read until my little heart is content.

Our first top was Vlissingen, located right on the North Sea.  The day started off pretty crappy, the weather was just miserable, cold, rainy, grey.  Also for some reason, the train station isn’t located near the centre of the city so we had to take a little walk along the dijk to get to our destination.  But I’ll be honest, this was a poorly planned trip, it was a last minute thing, as in like I have 20 minutes to hop on line and get some sort of info on Zeeland, make lunches, get on the bikes and cycle are tired butts to the train station.  So once we arrived in Vlissingen, it was a free for all.  The walk along the dijk would have been really nice if the weather was a bit better, but going against the wind and then it started to rain, pretty much turned me a bit grumpy.  I hate the feeling of wet clothes, and by the time the rain stopped my jeans were wet *ugh*.   We found the VVV of Vlissingen (tourist centre)  and got some information on what we could do, which wasn’t really much in a short amount of time.

The first stop was to Sint Jacobskerk, a beautiful Protestant church built in 1308.  We were one of the first ones inside and I was able to get a few good pictures.  Unfortunately I lost the information sheet that was in English to give you more details about the church.  So if you can read Dutch then the link will be helpful.  If I find the paper then I’ll update the blog.

After the church, Frank took the kids to some Pirate/Aquarium thing that cost a small fortune, and I headed over to the MuZEEum.  I thought that it would be something that I could zip through and learn about the history (basics) of the sea with Vlissingen.  I am not a huge museum fan but an hour and a half later I had to drag myself out to meet up with Frank and the kids.  This place was worth the 7 euro fee.  Located partly in the Lampsinshuis.  It has about 6 floors of artifacts and then you can go to the roof to get and amazing view of the harbour.

We didn’t have much time to spend in Vlissingen, because I wanted to go to Middelburg.  So after the museum, a quick bier, and the long trek back to the train station it was already 5:00. Luckily for us the weather was clearing and it was going to be mostly sunny, which meant the walk back to the out of the way train station wasn’t too bad.

As for right now, I’ll post a few more pictures here of Vlissignen, or you can take a peek at the flickr account to the right and there is a set labeled “Vlissingen”.  I’ll continue about Middelburg on another post… right now… it’s time for bed!