Travels with SleepSwag - Dutch Edition

Hiya SleepSwag community! We are finally abroad again for some fun new adventures in the Netherlands. This travelogue comes to you from the charming villages of North Holland, a place known for its tulips, canals, windmills, and stroopwafels. And of course, our silky sleep masks and crystal sleep mist are packed and ready for this Dutch edition of Travels with SleepSwag. We are all set to make some awesome new memories and to write home about them.

On this trip, we decided to go with a tour group, one that arranged sightseeing around a soccer experience for our kid. Rather than our usual, meticulous travel planning (see the Irish Edition), we liked the idea of simply following a predetermined itinerary with lodging already booked, most meals catered, and all transportation provided. But that also meant a week of unfamiliar bedrooms. We had entrusted our fates to someone else that didn’t know all about my penchant for comfortable, uninterrupted sleep. More on that later…

The voyage began with a coincidental discovery. As we arrived at the airport gate, I happened to sit by an Asheville guidebook, left behind and free for the taking. What a way to start our Travels with SleepSwag! Right before taking a short, restful nap, I could read all about a favorite city and the home to this amazing woman-owned small business. It would only be fitting, as a loyal customer, to then slip on my luxurious silk sleep mask, made in that very same place. 

With the Twilight Tuxedo sleep mask over my strained eyes, I entered a portable sanctuary, free from all of the bright screens and ambient glows of the plane. Unlike neighboring passengers with their flimsy, unflattering, standard-issue sleep masks, I was able to immediately block out all light while looking good in polka dots! I felt refreshed and alert enough to survive the second leg of a long travel day, thanks to SleepSwag. Upon our arrival and a bus ride to rural Holland, I set up shop and took another short nap with all of the nightstand essentials. They would be getting plenty of good use during this jam-packed week of Dutch activities.

Our agenda included lots of soccer and daily jaunts to local towns. We also explored nearby villages by bicycle to get the full Dutch experience. Of course, we paid an obligatory visit to Amsterdam for a boat cruise on the canals, but we mostly lived with the locals and enjoyed the calmer pace beyond the city. Highlights included sampling some fresh fish in the traditional sea town of Volendam, as well as getting up close to the olde-style windmills of Zaanse Schans. We rounded out the trip with a day at the Egmond aan Zee beach. 

Overall, we came away satisfied with the tour group. Much to our surprise, we enjoyed going with the flow of our guides and counselors. Yet we somehow felt local with a taste of everyday life. The days were long, but we still went at a relaxing pace. There were some surprises and challenges with the hotel rooms, mainly the lack of air conditioning on hotter days, but I adapted and decided to forgo the routine pajamas. Here are some other takeaways from our time in North Holland:

• Explore Villages by Bike: Amsterdam is nice, but if you really want to see the “lowlands,” then embrace Dutch culture and get on two wheels! Luckily for us, our hosts provided a fleet of bicycles for local trips around the countryside. Not only was it enjoyable, but it also gave us a view of the region that most visitors don’t get to see. Two months earlier, and we would have been riding in a picturesque sea of colorful tulips.
  

• Shop at Local Grocery Stores: Don’t sleep on this one. European grocers tend to be well stocked and reasonably priced, with all of the provisions that will make any vacation extra nice. Even the mainstream ones have great bakeries with fresh croissants! Like the locals, we made a grocery run by bike and stocked up on gourmet cheese, quality beer and wine, Belgian chocolate, flavorful fruit, and other snacks.
  

• Eat Many Stroopwafels: Speaking of baked goods, we highly recommend this quintessentially Dutch treat. The stroopwafel is a disc of honey/caramel sandwiched between two thin waffles. Fresh from a food truck or a ready-made package, it’s perfect with coffee. And it’s even better when you place the stroopwafel over your hot coffee mug for a few minutes to achieve pure gooey goodness. It’s undoubtedly better than the raw herring, Holland’s other signature delicacy. I tried both and can attest to the one clear winner!

• Pack a Sleep Mask (and ear plugs): Our SleepSwag was a must-have on this trip, an absolute necessity. Early Summer in Holland meant late sunsets, well past 10 o’clock. And with minimalist curtains, our hotel windows glowed endlessly through the night. Every morning, our fellow travelers would complain about their struggles to sleep because of the daylight still shining into their rooms. They all needed to invest in a SleepSwag sleep mask for complete darkness!
  

 

• The hotel environment would also bring unease to any light sleepers. One place was a dorm-style farmhouse with paper-thin walls. Another was a nearby hotel with tiny rooms above a café, facing the main street. A pair of ear plugs went a long way to block out most noise, especially when forced to open the windows for some cooler air. 

• Rather than panic, I took solace in my routine to get some deeper sleep. With ear plugs in and a few sprays of crystal sleep mist, I immediately relaxed to the snug and comfy fit of my SleepSwag sleep mask. And just like that, it was lights out and night-night! We never leave the house without these bedside companions and for good reason.