A great way to see Belfast’s political hot spots is in a black taxi. At very moderate prices, a cab will show you the famous political murals, Falls and Shankill Roads and the Peace Walls. Moreover, these rides are usually often highly entertaining, depending on the driver you chance upon. Tours of this type are offered by several competing companies. Some will even pick you up at your hotel.

The beguinages of Flanders and the Netherlands are always oases of calm and stillness, where you might still expect to see an old beguine mumbling her prayers in a doorway. Two of Ghent’s three beguinages have been included on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Although the Old St Elizabeth Beguinage, in Begijnhofdries in Ghent, is no longer enclosed by a wall, making it simply part of the city, it still has a unique atmosphere. Today the Old St Elizabeth Beguinage is known as ‘holy corner’, a place of religious tolerance, because it has no less than three different churches: one is Roman Catholic, one is Orthodox and the other is Protestant. From bleachfield to orchard This open beguinage grew into something of a ‘beguine city’ in the 13th century, with a church, the ‘Grootjuffer’s House’, an infirmary, a chapel, more than a hundred houses for beguines, a bleachfield (a field where linen was laid out to bleach) and an orchard. After the French Revolution, with increasing industrialisation, the inhabitants moved to their new beguinage in Sint-Amandsberg in 1873.

DierenPark Amersfoort is just a 10-minute drive away from the city centre and is the most child-friendly zoo of the Netherlands. The zoo has a genuine dinosaur forest and a huge birdhouse. The zoo is easily accessible by public transport or car.

Museum Spakenburg is a modern museum about the past of the town of Bunschoten. The museum is housed in eight different buildings and is both an indoor and an outdoor museum. It is situated on both sides of the Watersteeg, one of the historical alleyways in Spakenburg. There is a museum cafe. The museum complex comprises various homes, a small shop, a farm with a haystack, and a smokehouse. All in all, its grounds are 1,500 square meters. There are ten exhibitions in addition to several permanent exhibitions and a few temporary ones. In short, Museum Spakenburg is not a collection of old items, but a location where living history can be experienced.