Belgium + The Netherlands Stationery Haul

Happy Wednesday!

I recently took a trip to Ghent, Belgium, The Hague, The Netherlands, and London, England where I found some gorgeous stationery, and visited a pen lover landmark (or two). Tomorrow I'll post my haul from London, but for now here's the goodies I picked up in Ghent and The Hague.

GHENT, BELGIUM (GENT)

I was only in Ghent for a day and a half, and most of it was spent wandering around and taking in the sunshine, architecture, and incredible history of the city. I took a boat tour, and was the only person on said boat tour, so had a friendly chat with the tour guide about the city. He kept saying it's a "living city," which I can see, but to me, it seemed more like a city that has been lived in and loved, adjusting and changing along with the people who inhabit it. I only went to one shop, but I found two beautiful little goodies.

First, I found this notebook which is adorable and has a Z on it, which is perfect for my name, Zoe. I can never find anything with a Z on it in the USA, so I snatched this notebook up as soon as possible. The paper is a little toothy, but it has a nice texture that I think will agree with pencil. The pages are also a muted yellow colour, which looks nice with the sage green cover. 

The second thing I picked up was this ruler/tab set. The tabs were so fun, as the three different styles feature patterns instead of regular colours. I thought it would be good for dividing the months in my Bullet Journal, and the colours of the tabs look great with the yellow notebook. Plus having the small, flexible ruler is nice for planning on the go. I keep this in the back pocket of my notebook.

THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS (DEN HAAG)

I knew that alongside the historic and political significance of this city, as well as the proximity to the coast, The Hague was also home to important Dutch artworks, and a sort of paradise for fountain pen lovers. As I walked from the train station to my hotel, I actually found P. W. Akkermann, which is an amazing pen store that is really well known for their collection of inks in beautiful bottles. I wanted to buy all of them, but that was logistically not a great plan as they were unlikely to fit in my tote bag. Instead, I was content to buy my Lamy Al-Star Pacific and matching ink, as well as a mini Rhodia dot-grid top-bound notebook which is perfect for tossing in my smaller bags and testing inks. Plus, I met the dog which was fun.

I had also received some advice to go to another stationery store closer to the Peace Palace called Damen/Papier Royaal. This store was a more typical stationery and paper store, as they had notebook, sets of cards, greeting cards, correspondence sets, etc. The owner was nice and I found a beautiful blank notebook that I want to use as a commonplace book, and a correspondence set. The notebook has a beautiful patterned cover, and is stitch bound. It's sturdy and beautiful (and it photographs really well). Truthfully, I used all of the cards already because they were so darn pretty so I wanted to send them everywhere. They were gone before February ended, as I ended up using them for InCoWriMo. They were very high quality paper, and I used fountain pens on them with much success. 

My final stationery purchase were these large Lyra coloured pencils from Dille & Kamille, a chain store popular in Belgium and The Netherlands. I was looking for napkins for my mom and ended up buying pencils. So it goes.

I did not buy a lot of things in Belgium and The Netherlands, but I am totally in love with the things I found. Tomorrow I will share the goodies I picked up in London, and lemme tell you, I got some great stuff. 

À demain!