Holland and Belgium through My Lens: A Photojournal of Coastal and Countryside Beauty

There is scarcely any writer who has not celebrated the happiness of rural privacy, and delighted himself and his reader with the melody of birds, the whisper of groves, and the murmur of rivulets.  ~Samuel Johnson

It is true: I love the countryside. My family came to America in the early 1900’s and settled in the wide stretches of land in the heart of the United States. The more I travel and the longer I live, I believe that we naturally migrate toward our roots and that our hearts feel most at home in places like our heritage. There are so many similarities in land and weather patterns and people between Western Europe and much of the United States. And we’ve never seen it so clearly as driving across middle Europe into the Coastal lowlands of Belgium and the Netherlands this past week.

For hours, we drove through checkerboards of farms, fields of golden colza, and hills of soft green meadows. Following, several photos that to me describe the staggering beauty of the coast and countryside in Belgium and Holland– the view through my lens:

Can you see in the photo above the people in the far distance standing near the surf? The beaches in low-lying Belgium and Holland go on forever!

I loved getting to see the region of so many of our closest friends here in Europe. It’s beautiful!

In what ways do you appreciate a break from the city by escaping to the countryside? Have you been to Holland and / or Belgium?