Alright. Raise your hand if you thought doing a road trip with a toddler who hates car journeys was a good idea?
Yes, okay, we live and learn.
This slightly bonkers idea came about because we wanted to go and visit our family in The Netherlands. I refuse to fly such a short distance, the Eurostar prices were obscene and I last approximately three minutes on a ferry before I’m hurling up my lunch over the side. So, we reluctantly accepted that we would have to drive and the only way this seemed bearable was to stop off somewhere along the way because a) sleep deprivation and b) toddler-who-hates-car-journeys-and-likes-to-scream-a-lot.
And then, well, my travel bug raised her little head. Because if we were going to break up a journey through Europe, it would be just plain silly to not make the most of it right?
It’ll be fine, we said. We’ll time each journey with his nap, we said. Reader, we were naïve. Would I do it again? No. Did we have a great time? Yes. (Mostly.)
Leg 1: Home > Folkestone, Kent
Our first leg was very functional. We surprised Alfie by picking him up from nursery at lunchtime (alright, you can’t really surprise a 16-month-old, but you get my drift) and planned to drive the three-hour journey to Folkestone in Kent all in one go. The nursery had followed our stern instructions not to let him nap with the idea he would fall asleep soon after we set off and wake up with perhaps half an hour to go. Alfie, however, did not get this memo. So naturally we had to pull over twice and the journey took at least an hour longer than intended. We hadn’t left the country yet and we were already having serious reservations, if only for the sheer amount of breadsticks we had already got through.
But then we made it to Folkestone, and we could see the sea, and we stopped for coffee in a cute book-lined café and it was actually super lovely us all being cosied up in a Premier Inn hotel room together. We were up bright and early the next morning to squeeze in an underwhelming Premier Inn breakfast and head off to the Eurotunnel down the road. We passed the wait at the tunnel by book shopping (me) and having some milk (Alfie) and then after a bit of a queue which required me to jump into the back seat to placate my inpatient child, we were driving onto the train and on our way to France.
Leg 2: Folkestone > Lille, France
Our first stop was Lille, Paris’ quieter and more friendly sister. Alfie hadn’t slept the entire way of course but had been in reasonably good spirits until he decided to time the ultimate meltdown (roughly translated as
get me out of this freakin’ car seat) just as we were trying to navigate Lille’s one way system and unexpected road works. So that was just marvellous. Anyway, we made it to the hotel only slightly frazzled and grumpy. We were staying at
Hotel L’Arbre Voyageur and I would highly recommend. Not only were the prices really reasonable, the staff were friendly and full of decent recommendations for us and our hotel room was upgraded which has never happened to us before. We ended up with a suite and a jacuzzi bath which was hilarious to bathe a toddler in. Also, large fifth-floor hotel windows + nearby roadworks make for great toddler entertainment. I’m pretty sure he would quite happily have spent hours watching the diggers going back and forth.
Lille was a lovely city to potter about in for 24 hours. There’s not masses to do so I personally felt like 24 hours was enough although, equally, I’m sure I could have easily passed another day mooching between coffee shops and bakeries. It was very pretty, full of v expensive boutique shops which I wished I could afford to shop in and just had this really nice, relaxed atmosphere. We spent our time wandering between the main sights and stopping off at whatever bakery or eatery that took our fancy. We enjoyed a wholesome diet of croissants, frites and crepes and even braved a meal out in the evening where the locals laughed at us because we sat outside in April like classic Brits abroad (although I would like to add that sitting outside makes a meal out with a toddler who likes to throw food on the floor feel so much more manageable).
Leg 3: Lille > The Netherlands
By far the best journey and, quite frankly, the only journey that went to plan; Alfie fell asleep ten minutes after leaving Lille and slept all the way to The Netherlands. So that was bloody dreamy. Whilst we were in The Netherlands, we had to do four car journeys and had a 50/50 hit rate. Two were awful, two were fine. And I guess we were learning that even the awful ones, you come out the other side (although not with much desire to repeat I will admit). We spent four nights staying with family which included lots of lovely family time and Alfie basically getting his two older cousins wrapped around his little finger, but there are a couple of more touristy highlights I’ll tell you about. The first is a major food highlight which, as you know, is my favourite kind of travel highlight. We had the most gorgeous meal at
Café Clementine, a semi-permanent ‘pop-up’ restaurant on the outskirts of Barendrecht. Essentially set within a giant greenhouse filled with greenery and serving delicious small plates, this place is special. We managed to time our visit with a beautiful golden hour which meant we could a) enjoy a drink outside in the sunshine before eating and b) experience the joy of eating in an all-glass building with the sunshine streaming through. Oh, and there was a lovely outside space that Alfie could charge about in under the keen eye of his cousins, so we essentially got to enjoy the benefits of an all-adult meal with only the occasional little-person interruption.
And the second was ticking off a big bucket-list item – going to see the tulips at Keukenhof. Let me tell you, Keukenhof is absolutely worth the hype. It exceeded my expectations. The sheer amount and range of tulips spread out as far as the eye could see was breathtaking. Yes, I did come away with 200+ photos of tulips on my phone which might be considered excessive, but I have a compulsion to take a photo of beautiful things and those flowers were stunning. The size of the park surprised me the most; you really can spend a whole day there. Plus, the patchwork fields of tulips surrounding the park (which you see as you drive in as well as from high viewing points in the park) were also quite the sight. I loved watching Alfie absorb all the colours and smells and my favourite moment was watching him run up and down between the flower beds, stopping to gently touch the tulips.
Leg 4: The Netherlands > Bruges, Belgium
Hard to know if the pièce de résistance of the journeys was this one or our final one (see below) – Alfie fell asleep ten minutes into the journey, woke up ten minutes later and was absolutely furious. Which is how we found ourselves parked up in some random Belgian industrial estate alongside a couple of lorries and several cranes, trying to placate our extremely pissed-off child. How did I bribe him back into his car seat? I gave him a bag of cheesy puffs bigger than him. I will not win any parenting awards but, quite frankly, I do not care because the sight of my toddler independently eating cheesy puffs from a bag bigger than his entire body with the enthusiasm and chilled-out vibes of a stoner post-spliff was probably one of the funniest moments of parenting to date.
Anyway, we made it to Bruges. Google maps took is into the city via the country roads and it was a gorgeous way to arrive. The city seemed to gently reveal itself to us as we rolled through sunlit, tree-lined roads and I knew immediately that I was going to love Bruges. What a beautiful little city. We loved the cobbled streets, the waterways, the gorgeous buildings, the horses clip-clopping around, the constant smell of cocoa wafting out from the chocolate shops on every corner. We stayed in a stunning apartment for two nights; a converted loft with high ceilings and tonnes of natural light, light woods and a standalone bath (which, of course, I made full use of). It was sunny the whole time we were there and the first thing we did after arriving was find ourselves a little cobbled square and order Belgian beer (plus wine for me). It was glorious. This trip was our first abroad since 2019 and I realised how much I had missed the privilege of sitting in the heart of a European city. After drinks and sharing pizza and fries between the three of us, we went in search of Belgian waffles because
of course. We ate them sat in the Markt as the sun set and Alfie toddled about having a great time, although he refused to try the waffles which was a catastrophic error on his part in my opinion. We spent our full day building up a hefty step-count exploring the main bulk of Bruges’ nooks and crannies, stopping for lunch at
De Republiek and chocolate shopping at
Olivier’s. I’d recommend both. The goat’s cheese and beetroot on sourdough toast at De Republiek was delicious. It’s easy to romanticise, so obviously the day also involved trying to juggle Alfie’s nap and his desire to wander into the road and his time-limited patience in cafes. And we also had to go back to the apartment to collapse for a bit because toddlers are tiring and ours does not sleep. But I guess that’s travelling with kids? There are plenty of stressful moments (sometimes really stressful) but there are also moments of magic that you wouldn’t change for a second. Speaking of which: for ease, we had dinner out in one of the restaurants in the Markt which once upon a time, we would have avoided because it’s touristy and yes, whilst the food was kinda average, the location was just brilliant. I mean, what a view. And Alfie was as good as gold, happily sitting in his high-chair, people watching for the majority of the meal. Afterwards, we headed back to the same place for waffles and recreated the previous golden-hour evening.
We were out early on our final morning for breakfast at
That’s Toast and I really would recommend this place. If the weather is nice, definitely sit in the little courtyard garden and I personal would recommend the The Classic: avocado salsa, poached egg, green asparagus, Grana paddno & mint on toast (seems to be a lot of toast recommendations coming out of Bruges which I wasn’t expecting). As I’m not a morning person, I’m very rarely out when a city is just waking up and yet, whenever I do it, I immediately wish I do it more because there’s something really special about the light and the quiet.
Leg 5: Bruges > Home
Our final leg was the longest and therefore the one we were
least looking forward to. We purposefully tried to keep Alfie awake during the
drive from Bruges to Calais which was successful but then we were delayed at
Calais and ended up too far on the other side i.e. dealing with a toddler who
is past the point of sleep but very overtired. Let me tell ya: this combined
with being confined to a car in a queue is not the one. By the time we
were back in England, things had escalated and we had our first proper
experience of being the people with a small child screaming the place down in a
service station just outside Folkstone. Half empty service stations really echo,
don’t they? I re-used the old cheesy puff tactic to get him back into his car
seat which worked, only he realised five minutes later that he had been tricked
and was FUMING. Honestly, in the end – out of sheer desperation – I searched
YouTube for ‘get my baby to sleep’ videos, found some trippy shit that involved
floating sheep and whether by luck or judgement, it worked and the bugger that
is my firstborn fell asleep and I could finally bang my head against the window
in peace.
And that’s a great note to end on don’t ya think?
Thanks for sharing your mini European road trip, it sounds like you had a lovely time, even though there were a few issues :)
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