I think that people are usually split into two groups. People who love the city and everything it has to offer. The ones that couldn’t live in complete silence because they would miss the sounds of cars hooting at each other or people shouting ‘Hello’ from across the street. They would miss the life that those cities offer. And then there are the others. The ones that crave finding themselves a small cabin in the middle of the woods somewhere far from civilization and creature comforts.
I’m definitely in that second group. I love to camp. I love being in nature and hearing nothing but the birds in the trees as the sun sets in the distance. I also love getting to explore small towns instead of cities. They just have a different vibe. There is still life in them, but the life is far more relaxed. You can feel the excitement building on a street when they know their neighbours are expecting their first child. Never have I found this more so than in Mook. People actually put a lovely wooden stork outside their homes when a new baby has arrived and it is usually painted blue or pink with the baby’s name on the top.
I never grew up in a small town, but always wished I had. My mom came from a ridiculously small town and hated it; so I think it is very much a want what you don’t have kind of situation. So, when we started planning our trip to Europe, we knew that we had to visit some lovely small towns as much as we needed to see the big cities. Lucky for us, my aunt and uncle actually live in Mook and no holiday would be complete without staying with family for a bit.
I also love to stay with people who know the area because they can show you to all the cool places and you don’t spend most of your day planning your route on Google Maps like we always had to do.
It just made sense that we would start and end off our trip here, so that if all else failed, we would have a few good nights sleep before we headed home. My aunt and uncle truly spoilt us and we got to see every town within an hour’s drive of Mook and trust me there are a lot.
We got to pick out fresh asparagus from a farm and cook it up with the best hollondaise ever (we still want to import it here in South Africa) and some smoked salmon. We walked around the beautiful Mookerplas (a huge park with beach, water, restaurants etc) and it felt as if we were back in a forest in Sweden again. We even found ourselves acting like kids again and ziplining across the sand. It was so relaxing.
We also ate a lot. I don’t know what it is about the food overseas, maybe it’s just the different environment, or maybe it’s just better in Europe; but all I can say is that I’m glad we were walking so much that I didn’t pick up any weight. We tasted the most incredible savoury pancakes which were so huge that we all felt ill afterwards. We also had amazing food at Plantaan which actually felt like somewhere we’d been to our whole lives and that they already knew what our regular order would be.
We borrowed bicycles and although I’m terrible at cycling, we still managed to find our way around and Luch fell in love with the electric bike. He still drove down the one hill with so much speed that he set off the speed camera. 🙂
We also travelled through to Nijmegen one of the days to see what it had to offer. Although it is a beautiful place and we thoroughly enjoyed the historic architecture that we mainly found in the Grote Markt, like De Waagh which apparently used to be a weigh house and is now a popular restaurant. We also got to see Stevenskerk which we didn’t know at the time but it is apparently the largest and oldest church in Nijmegen. We also walked along the Waal River and marvelled at the huge Casino where my uncle actually works.
We managed to get stuck in gale force winds and rain and cut our trip short by hopping the bus home to Mook. It was actually better because after spending time in Nijmegen, it felt like we were back in a busy touristy area again and all we wanted to do was head back to the peace and quiet that Mook had to offer.
I can honestly say that throughout the trip we both started to appreciate our peace and quiet more than anything else. We looked forward to those few minutes (sometimes hours if we were lucky) where we could just sit on a park bench and eat our lunch, or go back to our accommodation; sit outside in the sunlight and have a glass of wine. These small things ended up being the moments we remembered. These were the moments that truly made our trip.
The Netherlands truly stood out in our minds as one of the main places we would like to spend more time in. Even as we were preparing to go back home to South Africa, we were both talking about how great it would be to come back the following year and just spend an entire month or two travelling to all the small villages throughout Holland.
All in all, our trip around Europe was truly a once in a lifetime trip. No, scrap that, I don’t want it to be only once in my lifetime. I want to do it again and again. I want to visit as many countries as I possibly can and only settle down when I’m good and ready. Maybe never 🙂 Maybe I’ll just end up being one of those nomadic people that take their kids on all their travels with them and home school them as they go. I could see myself doing that.
I reckon, why settle for a life that is boring and ordinary. I want to be that friend that people always whisper about and say: “have you heard that she is travelling again, that girl can’t sit still”.
Thanks for reading our travels through Europe – next up are definitely some more adventures. Some closer to home and others in faraway places yet to be decided on. Anyone up for a game of throw a dart at a map and travel to wherever it lands? I know we are! 🙂
