Brielle: A tourist gem in South Holland
The road to Brielle (Den Briel) from Rotterdam is a sight full of power plants and the many industrial buildings located in the great Port of Rotterdam. The smell of this industrial part of the Netherlands is inevitable, so is the view of the the ships going in and out of the port. It is quite hard to expect, that in the middle of this modernity, lies an old, enclosed town that played an important role in the war between Netherlands and Spain.
The capture of Brielle, as it is known today, started the support of the Dutch to their king Willem of Orange against Duke de Toledo of Spain.
One of our Christmas gift to my parents-in-law is a book called 52 wandelingen met schrijvers naar hun jeugd. They love discovering new places during weekends (mostly Sundays) that they are free and every time they come over to our house, one of our agenda is to go wandelen (leisure walking). At first I didn’t like it because I am not use to talking for several hours without a destination but after a while, I began to look forward to these weekend walks.
Despite the grey skies and biting cold of that Sunday afternoon, we agreed to visit Brielle for our Sunday wandelen. And what an exciting discovery it has been.
Just like any other fortified old city in Europe, entering Brielle would mean lining up in the small gate where only one car is allowed to enter or leave. There is a separate entrance for people, one with a blue roof which on a gloomy Sunday gives you a happy glow.Since it was wandeling afternoon, we decided to leave the car at the nearby Jumbo parking lot. From there you will see a man-made lake made pretty with swimming ducks and swans but you have to watch out for the poop they leave on the road.
Brielle is a town true to the sense of a real Dutch dorp (village). It has a small canal running in the middle of the town where boats and yachts of different sizes were parked. This kind of panorama makes Netherlands unique and unlike in Amsterdam where you have to wrestle your way in a place where you can take good photo without somebody blocking your view, in Brielle it is just you and the tranquility of the canal. Of course, a canal without a bridge is not complete and there you have two, a stone bridge and little further from Albert Heijn is the original (restored perhaps) wooden bridge.
There are interesting statues and buildings in the city centre, like the small monument of Queen Wilhelmina pointing to the sky (which actually looked very funny to me because of its size) the beautiful Hoofdwacht building which is now a restaurant and facing it is the building of Libertatis Primitae (First in Freedom) an event that is celebrated in Brielle every 1st of April. At the back of the center, you can find St. Catherijne church towering over the whole village and before it was a small square with a canon and guillotine, reminiscent of the times gone by.
“I want to live here,” I told the husband while looking inside an old house with a wooden chair on its front window.
“We will need two cars for that and we will be stuck in traffic everyday,” he said completely dismissing the idea. To be able to go to Brielle, one must brave the horrendous traffic during rush hour in Europortweg and race with intimidating cargo trucks on their way to the port. It might not be a very good idea but how nice would it be to come home to such a peaceful town like this one, where you can take evening walks on its dimly-lit narrow streets and you won’t be bothered by the noises of the city.
The lovely thing about old cities un-touched by modernization is that there is a different feel when you are walking on their cobbled stones. Brielle seemed to have been sheltered from the fast-changing cities surrounding it. The names of the establishments retained a hundred-years-old feel on them like the Cafe ‘het Melkmeisje and the ‘t Poorthuys Pool Cafe. While walking past the old adobe houses and buildings with their unique stepped gables and red roofs, you can’t help but imagine the way people have lived here centuries ago. The architecture in Brielle is very well-persevered that seeing the names of big supermarkets like Jumbo and Albert Heijn attached on these old buildings seemed to be out of place.
During its glorious years, Brielle is a self-sufficient town, with its own harbor that is trading with the Baltics until it was added as part of Holland in 1371. It’s close proximity to Europoort, the largest seaport in Europe, provides travellers who dare to climb the 318 steps of St. Catherijne’s tower a magnificent aerial view of the port and charming little villages around it.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to visit any museum or even enter the church. I would have wanted to climb the narrow stairs and enjoy the panorama on the top of the tower but it is beginning to drizzle. So we left after a hearty late lunch at the Hoofdwacht.
But I promise to be back in the summer when I can take my old oma Gazelle and bike around the village.
Thank you very much for this nice article about Brielle.
I was born and raised in Brielle, and we are very happy with each piece of positive news about our town.
visit our website http://www.brielle.nu (sorry but until now it is only in Dutch) but at the tab “Brielle in beeld” you can see a webcam situated in the centre of Brielle. Also there are some video’s and pictures on the site.
Grtz Leen van der Reiden
Hi Leen, you’re very much welcome. I enjoyed my short visit to Brielle and hoping to come back soon when the weather is better (just like today, if only I dont need to work). Brielle is such a charming village and I hope that a lot of travellers and even the locals will discover it.
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I would love to explore a place like this, walking on cobblestones with old laid back charm. (great article!)
Any European country has their own offerings of cobbled-stoned streets and old towns. I hope your next travel destination would be Europe. It’s so easy to hop from one country to another.
Thanks for visiting The Weekend Traveller. You have a terrific site as well, would love to go cruising and that Macau Tower is awesome. Followed you in Twitter too 🙂
I’m English and lived here for many years, and still stay/visit here very regularly. It feels to me, with no hyperbole, to effectively be, my second home. I simply love so many facets of Brielle – March 31st and April 1st are both great days, where there is so much merriment. Likewise with Brielle Blues Music Festival. Great independent shops, a diverse range of bars and restaurants – good boating and great views from the top of the Cathedral.