Euro Roadtrip 2026 Day 10: Zeeland, Bruges & the Long Road Home – Our Final Day in Europe with Kids
Updated: Oct 25
After nine days of travelling around northern Europe, exploring medieval cities, war museums, castles, caves, waterfalls, forests, beaches and theme parks, it was finally time to head home. Well, almost.
We still had one more city to explore, another country to revisit and, as it turned out, a considerably longer day ahead of us than we'd planned.
Our final stop was Bruges, Belgium, which we'd decided to squeeze into the journey in order to break up the journey back to Calais before catching LeShuttle home that evening. But first, we had to get there!
The scenic route through Zeeland
Rather than taking the most direct route south from Wassenaar, we decided to head through the Dutch province of Zeeland, following a series of islands, bridges and reclaimed landscapes towards Belgium.
There was traffic on the more direct toll roads anyway, making the alternative route comparable at around two hours and forty minutes. This would be the longest single drive of our entire trip, so we figured we might as well make it interesting.
And I'm so glad we did - the landscape was absolutely extraordinary.
Huge expanses of impossibly flat wetlands, farmland and tidal mudflats stretched out in every direction, punctuated by wind turbines, waterways and enormous skies.
There were birds everywhere, and the farmland was beautiful. One thing we'd noticed repeatedly throughout the Netherlands was the way agricultural fields were bordered by strips of wildflowers and biodiversity planting, often full of sunflowers, cornflowers and other colourful biodiversity. It made even the ordinary farmland look extra lovely.
We also kept noticing solar canopies covering service station parking areas, providing shade while generating electricity. Such a sensible use of space, and something I'd love to see more of at home.
We crossed several enormous bridges linking the islands and reclaimed stretches of land, sometimes with water or wetlands extending as far as we could see on either side. We observed kids investigating the silt left behind by the retreating tide, armed with buckets and enthusiastically collecting winkles and other little discoveries. Not exactly a major tourist attraction, but precisely the sort of random stop that makes having your own car on a road trip so enjoyable.
Even the toll barriers were entertainingly mysterious. We'd approach expecting to pay, only for the barrier to open automatically and display a charge of €0. I'm still not entirely sure why, but we certainly weren't complaining!
A slightly emotional journey
There was one part of the drive that caught us completely off guard.
We'd had music playing throughout the trip, but somewhere among those enormous Dutch skies the playlist shuffled onto several songs Andrew and I had listened to while clearing out my dad's house, the weekend after our beloved housemate of 21 years Jebs died. It brought everything flooding back.
After everything that had happened earlier in the year, we'd been enjoying this holiday so much that it was easy, for a while, to feel completely removed from it all.
But grief doesn't really work like that unfortunately. Suddenly we were driving through these beautiful, enormous landscapes with tears streaming down our faces, remembering two people we loved so much.
It was a strange mixture of sadness and gratitude. Sadness that they weren't here, and gratitude that we were able to be here, together, making new memories with the kids.
I don't think I'll ever forget that particular stretch of road.
A few thoughts on driving in northern Europe
One thing I won't miss, however, is trying to decipher the road signs.
I generally found driving in northern Europe really easy, particularly because the roads were so quiet, but the sheer number of signs and changing speed limits was occasionally baffling. Different limits on different roads, changes between towns and rural areas, and in the Netherlands even motorway limits that depend on the time of day. There were moments when I genuinely had no idea what speed I was supposed to be doing.
Thankfully, the roads themselves were generally excellent and remarkably quiet. Which brings me to one of my biggest impressions of this entire trip.
Where is everybody?!
I know Britain has a relatively high population density, particularly in the southeast, but travelling around these parts of Europe really brought home just how crowded our little island can feel.
Roads with barely any traffic. Shops that weren't packed. Beaches where families had enormous amounts of space between them. Villages and towns that seemed almost deserted. Even during the summer holidays!
Obviously, we were travelling through some fairly rural areas, and I'm sure the experience would have been rather different in the middle of Amsterdam or Brussels, but the contrast with home was striking. It was one of the things I enjoyed most about the trip.
Bruges – our final Belgian adventure
We arrived in Bruges at around 1pm. I'd been looking forward to visiting Bruges for years, and it seemed the perfect place to finish our European adventure.
Rather than drive into the historic centre, we parked at the fantastically named Waggelwater Park & Ride, on the northwestern edge of the city. This was an excellent discovery. The car park was free, and almost as soon as we'd parked, the number 1 bus appeared to whisk us into the centre.
The journey took around 15 minutes and was wonderfully straightforward. We paid €24 for our bus tickets for the five of us, which wasn't quite as cheap as the parking, but still saved the hassle of navigating, clean air charges, and parking in the historic centre.
We got off at Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk, close to the Church of Our Lady, and headed off in search of lunch.
And I'm slightly ashamed to admit where we ended up.
McDonald's.
I know.
Our final afternoon in Belgium, surrounded by beautiful little bistros, brunch cafés, chocolate shops and tempting restaurants, and we went to McDonald's.
But we'd spent nine days eating our way around Europe, had already enjoyed plenty of Belgian treats, and by this point the prospect of spending €140 feeding five people just wasn't particularly appealing. We did a lot of research into cheap and well-reviewed thai restaurants, local Belgian spots, even sandwich cafes but everything was just too expensive.
So €43.40 at McDonald's it was.
Quick, easy, everyone happy, and we could get on with exploring.
Although I did begrudge the additional €1 toilet charge.
Honestly, Europe.
Markt and the Belfry of Bruges
Suitably fed, we began our walking tour at Markt, Bruges' magnificent central square.
We sat enjoying our McDonald's ice creams on the steps of the monument, people-watching and admiring the beautiful buildings surrounding the square. Horse-drawn carriages clip-clopped across the cobbles, tourists wandered between cafés and the enormous Belfry of Bruges dominated the skyline.
Opposite stood the wonderfully elaborate Provinciaal Hof, looking like something straight out of a fairy tale. Bruges really is ridiculously pretty.
After the modern holiday-park surroundings of Duinrell, it was lovely to be back among medieval buildings and cobbled streets for one last afternoon.
Burg Square and Rozenhoedkaai
From Markt we wandered over to Burg Square, another beautiful, cobbled plaza surrounded by historic buildings, Gothic architecture and ornate façades.
There were little chocolate shops, archways and narrow streets disappearing off in every direction.
We continued towards Rozenhoedkaai, one of Bruges' most famous viewpoints, where the canals curve between old brick buildings and picturesque bridges.
It was absolutely gorgeous. The combination of water, medieval architecture, boats and summer sunshine made it feel almost impossibly photogenic.
It's easy to see why Bruges is so popular. Although, after a little while, we sensed the kids were beginning to lose enthusiasm for admiring yet another lovely old building.
Fair enough. We'd dragged them around quite a few of those this week.
A playground break at Koningin Astridpark
We made a short detour to Koningin Astridpark, a peaceful little green space tucked away among the streets of the old city.
This was exactly what everyone needed.
There was a lovely playground with equipment suitable for both the older and younger kids, plenty of shade and, importantly, trees that were apparently crying out to be climbed.
After all the sightseeing, the kids were delighted to have somewhere to run around for a while.
And Andrew and I were quite happy to sit down and give our feet a rest.
One of the things we've learned from travelling with three children of different ages is that the best city days aren't necessarily the ones where you cram in the most attractions.
Sometimes a twenty-minute playground stop is the difference between everyone enjoying the afternoon and everyone becoming thoroughly fed up.
Minnewater and the Begijnhof
Once we'd exhausted the playground, we wandered south through the city towards the Begijnhof and Minnewater area.
This was probably one of my favourite parts of Bruges. We passed Wijngaardplein and the Sashuis, surrounded by beautiful waterways, little stone bridges and willow trees hanging over the canals.
Everything felt incredibly peaceful. The reflections in the water, the old buildings and the leafy surroundings were just lovely, particularly after the busier streets around Markt.
It's the sort of place where you could happily spend an afternoon doing very little beyond wandering around and admiring the scenery.
Unfortunately, we had a train to catch.
Or so we thought.
Boniface Bridge and the Church of Our Lady
Our next stop was Boniface Bridge, which might have been my favourite individual spot of the afternoon.
It's really just another beautiful little stone bridge over a canal, surrounded by historic buildings.
But by this point the sun had properly come out, the light was gorgeous and, somehow, we found ourselves there without too many other people.
It was one of those lovely little moments when everything looks exactly as you'd hoped it would.
We continued past the Church of Our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk) before beginning the walk back towards our bus stop.
And just as we were thinking the sightseeing was finished, we stumbled across a brilliant brass band playing outside a restaurant.
Saxophones and brass instruments were absolutely blasting out tunes, creating a wonderfully lively atmosphere in the middle of the historic streets.
A lovely final bit of unexpected entertainment.
We made it back to Waggelwater at around 5pm, having managed a really enjoyable four-hour visit without feeling we'd rushed too much.
Bruges had been a fantastic final stop.
Now we just had to get home.
LeShuttle – when everything went wrong
We'd booked an evening LeShuttle crossing from Calais to Folkestone, with the intention of eating our packed lunch/tea during the drive down from Bruges.
On the outward journey we'd been lucky enough to be offered an earlier train, so we were rather optimistic that if we arrived in Calais early, we might be able to do the same again and avoid arriving home at gone 10pm.
After all, we'd already spent ten days being remarkably lucky with pretty much everything.
Surely our good fortune would continue?
Absolutely not.
We arrived at LeShuttle around an hour before check-in was due to open for our booked crossing, approximately three hours before departure.
And discovered that the entire operation was running around two and a half hours late.
Every train. Many cancellations.
Two and a half hours minimum.
Oh, brilliant.
I was absolutely distraught.
We'd had such a fantastic trip, everything had gone so smoothly, and now we were facing hours of waiting before we could even begin the final two-and-a-half-hour drive from Folkestone back to Berkshire.
And everyone had to be up early the following morning.
Not ideal.
Thankfully, this wasn't our first rodeo.
One of the enormous advantages of travelling in our own car is that we'd packed it with enough entertainment and emergency supplies to survive a minor apocalypse.
Card games. Biscuits. Drinks. Sweets. Crisps. Tablets. A media adapter. Battery packs.
We had everything.
We spent around two hours in the terminal building and car park, playing games, eating snacks and trying not to dwell on how late we were going to get home.
Eventually we were called through passport control.
Excellent!
Progress!
Except that once we'd crossed through the border controls, we were effectively trapped in another enormous queue of cars waiting to board.
For another two hours. This was considerably less enjoyable.
There was nowhere to go, nothing to do and absolutely no indication that things were going to improve any time soon.
But somehow, remarkably, we got through the entire experience without a single argument or any serious whining.
I genuinely couldn't believe it.
And I have to give LeShuttle some credit here.
The atmosphere was completely different from the miserable experience of being delayed at an airport.
Rather than leaving everyone sitting around wondering what was happening, staff were walking up and down the queues of cars, chatting to families and handing out boxes of sweets, crisps and drinks.
It didn't make the trains run any faster, but it certainly made the whole experience feel a little more human.
Combined with our own frankly ridiculous supply of snacks and entertainment, it helped enormously.
Eventually, at around 10:15pm French time, we finally boarded, departing at approximately 10:25pm.
By this point we'd been at Calais for hours and were thoroughly fed up. But at least we were moving.
We eventually arrived home at approximately 12:30am British time – or 1:30am on the clock we'd been using in France.
An absolutely outrageous time to finish a family holiday, but not without precedent when you’re a shoestring backpacker of course.
Will LeShuttle compensate us?
Naturally, before we’d even arrived back in the UK, I started looking into whether we might be entitled to compensation.
LeShuttle has a policy of offering vouchers towards future bookings for certain delays of an hour or more, although eligibility depends on the circumstances.
We weren't given an explanation of what had caused the disruption, so there was ambiguity over whether we would qualify. I had my suspicions about how the exceptionally hot weather may have affected operations, but I don't know whether that was actually the cause.
If we manage to secure a voucher towards another trip, I'll update this post.
***UPDATE***
After a short email to LeShuttle describing the circumstances – we were awarded a £135 voucher for our next trip, with expiry a year from the date of the email (September). Given how much we've enjoyed travelling around this part of Europe, I suspect we'd have absolutely no difficulty using it!
1,059 miles, four countries and one enormous family adventure
And with that, our European road trip was over.
Ten days. Four (sort of five if you count the short drive through Germany) countries. 1,059 miles.
France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
And what a trip it had been.
One of the things I loved most was having our own car.
Our enormous eight-seater Seat Alhambra gave us plenty of room to spread out, transport everything we needed and generally slob around in comfort between stops. Efficiency surprised us with only 1.5 tanks of fuel, the cars’ ability to cruise some serious miles-to-the-gallon (or more appropriately, kilometres to the litre!) was a great relief.
Andrew and I could swap the driving whenever we fancied, we didn't have to worry about hire-car charges or luggage restrictions, and we could change our plans whenever something interesting appeared.
And change them we did.
We abandoned Luxembourg City because we were having too much fun at Hu Birkelt. We missed Aachen because our Mullerthal adventures took longer than planned. We found wonderful little campsites almost by accident, stopped to explore places we'd never heard of and spent considerably more time doing absolutely nothing than I'd originally anticipated.
And I'm so glad we did.
The kids experienced everything from Second World War history and medieval castles to scrambling through pitch-black caves, paddling beneath waterfalls, climbing enormous rocks, hurtling down rollercoasters and swimming in some of the best water parks we've ever visited.
Willow even had a solar eclipse for her fourth birthday.
Not bad for ten days.
It also reminded me how much I love this sort of trip. The freedom to go where we want, change our minds, find unexpected places and discover that some of our favourite moments weren't actually the things we'd planned at all.
There are still plenty of places we didn't get to see, not least Luxembourg City and Aachen, so I definitely think we'll be back in this part of Europe again.
And if LeShuttle would like to contribute towards that with a delay voucher, all the better.
Next up: the final budget breakdown, our complete route, accommodation costs and whether a ten-day European road trip for five really can work out cheaper than a week on the Spanish coast.
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