IES Abroad Day Trip to Den Bosch

Day trips around the Netherlands have been some of my favorite days while studying abroad. Sometimes I’ll go by myself and explore new cities or I’ll go on group trips, like the one I went on through IES Amsterdam to Den Bosch. Two staff members, Irina and Cathleen, took about ten of us to the south of the Netherlands for the day. We took a train from Amstel Station to 's-Hertogenbosch, which was about an hour. That’s the nice thing about being in Europe, public transportation is great and you can basically take a train anywhere. 

The first stop of the day was Coffee Lab Den Bosch for breakfast and coffee. I had mint tea and scrambled eggs on pita toast with feta, pesto, and avocado. Now, before traveling to Europe, I would’ve said that people who prefer fresh tea rather than bagged tea were pretentious. However, I would like to formally apologize to anyone I may have offended with this opinion because I was absolutely wrong. I don’t know how I’m going to go back to bagged tea in the US.. because fresh tea is incredible. My favorite has been mint tea and now for the rest of my life I need to have a mint garden so I can make myself tea everyday (jk but not really). 

After that we took a bus to Camp Vught Memorial Monument, which was a concentration camp during WWII. The museum itself was very well done and respectful of what occurred there. They take you through the history of the concentration camp, the perpetrators, they show you some of the objects that were left behind at the camp, and there’s a place to sit and remember the lives that were lost. It was definitely a hard museum to get through and took a lot of emotional energy. I don’t think anyone has the brain capacity to understand what occurred during WWII unless you were actually there because the loss of human life was devastating.

One thing that was really interesting to me was the section at the entrance of the museum that held a number of books written about survivors' experiences from WWII. One of the books was about how a woman used dance to survive. It’s called Dancing with the Enemy and it was written by her nephew. As a dancer and someone who had family living in Italy during WWII, I thought it was simultaneously heartbreaking and beautiful.

We then stopped at a bakery for Bossche Bollen, which is a round pastry covered in chocolate and filled with whipped cream. As we ate our Bossch Bollen, Irina took us through the city to show us the highlights. She lived there for a year so she was able to show us the popular spots and the places tourists wouldn’t think to find. She showed us a beautiful spot to see the cathedral, where no one else was and there was no construction in sight. The artist, Hieronymus Bosch, who painted the Garden of Earthly Delights, is from Den Bosch and throughout the city there are statues of some of the different figures. They can be hard to find but Irina showed us one by a canal. 

The last stop was going into the cathedral and I love cathedrals. The architecture was beautiful and I about died when we walked into the cathedral and the light was shining through the glass window, creating a rainbow on one of the pillars. I’ve included it below and I’m requiring everyone to stare at it for at least five minutes and contemplate the purpose of human existence (lol). 

Overall, it was a fantastic day trip and I highly recommend going there if you get the chance. I also recommend going on the IES Abroad field trips because it’s a great way to bond with everyone and travel to places you wouldn't normally. The staff are super caring and definitely take the time to make sure everyone is having a good time. The trip was amazing and the best thing about a day trip is that once you’re exhausted, you can go back to your own room.