Are you worried about AI taking over the world? Well, we decided to let AI take over our vacation! Both Joel and Steve are obsessed with ChatGPT and its amazing capabilities, so they came up with the bright idea to let the program plan an entire day of activities for us.
How did that turn out? Well, let’s see!
We gave the AI the parameters that we didn’t want to drive more than 30 miles from our location and reminded it that we are pretty frugal, so we didn’t want to spend a lot of money. We each tailored our prompts in our own way, which worked for some and not others.
[I tried to get to ChatGPT to plan a day that included mini golf and dinosaurs. It obliged by telling us about this amazing dinosaur forest that also included mini golf and also was completely made up. It did not exist in real life. It totally should, though.]
I can’t remember if it was Joel or Steve’s prompt we initially went with, but we decided we would do one activity, then prompt it for the next, and so on until we were tired and ready to head back home. So we started off by heading to the town of Wijk bij Duurstede. This journey involved a ferry - which was a first for Joel and me! Had we been on our own we totally would have driven out of our way to skip this, but Steve convinced us to go for it.
I’m sure this is a normal everyday experience for plenty of people, but it was exciting for us! We ended up being first in line which was a bit scary as Joel had no one to follow. After waiting for the ferry to cross back to our side, we were waved onto the boat and parked at the very front. During the very short trip (about five minutes) an employee came around to take our payment (about €3) and then when we got to the other side we just drove off!
The town was just on the other side of the river, and once there Chat GPT told us we could explore a castle, walk along the sea wall, and told us to be sure to eat the “famous pea soup” at the restaurant under the windmill. We parked the car in a lot just outside of town and started with a walk to the castle.
It was a beautiful walk that took us over the river and through the woods until this small but lovely castle appeared amidst the trees. I love that it had a real moat and everything!
Unfortunately, ChatGPT was wrong about it being open to the public. I was excited to climb those turrets and get the view, but when we wandered into the open courtyard space we were asked politely by some grounds workers to leave. Whoops!
From there we just went for a wander around the town, slowly making our way back to the sea wall and the windmill. We found some beautiful homes, but everything was eerily quiet. We are used to small British towns pretty much always having some hustle and bustle, so this one being dead silent was a bit strange to us.
Just to the left of that house, we found a cool “secret” passageway that took us into the main street. (It’s not really secret but it’s more fun to think of it that way!) The boys had to duck to get through!
Even the shops on the main street were very quiet - half of them weren’t open yet (at 11am) and the ones that were didn’t really have any customers. (I guess that could explain why the rest didn’t bother to open.) It was a pretty place, but not much to do.
So we went back to the sea wall that ChatGPT recommended and made our way towards the windmill. It was neat to walk up on the wall overlooking the water to the right and the town to the left.
We did indeed find the restaurant ChatCPT recommended - and it was right underneath the windmill as it said! Unfortunately, it was not open to the public that day, they were closed for a private event. We learned that by talking to the owner when she stepped outside for a bit. Joel took the liberty of asking her about the “famous Dutch pea soup” that ChatGPT mentioned, and she looked at him like he had two heads. Eventually we learned that they do serve a pea soup, but don’t consider it anything special - also, apparently April is a ridiculous time to be asking for soup - they would only ever serve it in the winter months.
Thankfully she was able to recommend a different restaurant to us, one just down the way and actually on the sea wall. We sat outside even though it was chilly so we could enjoy the view of the water.
I would actually highly recommend the food we had here. They weren’t serving lunch until noon, so we started with coffee and dessert. The apple pie was pretty darn good but the almond cheesecake was my absolute favorite. I had a hard time sharing with the guys.
For mains we went with a grilled ham and cheese (meh, I can make better at home) and a loaded fries that were the best ones we had on the trip! I can’t remember what all was on it now…definitely shredded chicken, cabbage, some kind of sriracha like sauce, and you can see it was topped with sesame and poppy seeds which added an amazing crunch. I would eat this again in a heartbeat.
While we ate, we asked ChatGPT where to go next and it told us about the wonder that is the Pyramid of Austerlitz. It was only a 15-minute drive away so we decided to go for it. What we found was a very strange remnant of history! This pyramid was built in 1804 by the French army that was encamped in the area. Basically, the soldiers were bored and their general wanted to keep them occupied, so they set about building this in the middle of nowhere.
The obelisk on top was originally wooden, but it deteriorated quickly and was demolished in 1808. The current stone obelisk wasn’t added until 1898. The whole thing began to fall apart and was nearly in ruins by it’s 200th anniversary in 2004. The surrounding municipality undertook a restoration (and some modern technology to reinforce it) and it was opened to the public again in 2008. It costs €5 to go up, so Joel and Steve went up without me. If you squint you can probably see them in this photo!
After that fascinating bit of history, ChatGPT took us another 15 minutes down the road to Amerongen Castle. The original medieval castle on this site was burned down by the French in 1673, so the building you see here now was built between 1674-1680. I really wanted to see inside but unfortunately, it is closed on Tuesdays (something ChatGPT failed to mention.)
We wandered the grounds a bit then decided to move on. We did try one more destination ChatGPT suggested, but by this time I was getting very tired and a little cranky. We parked and started to walk into yet another small, sleepy Dutch town, but when the boys saw how exhausted I was they agreed it was time to go home for the day and we turned around.
We went back to the cabin to have dinner (I can’t remember what we ate this night) and Steve tried to enjoy some wine on the patio. Don’t be fooled by his smile, the wine was not good!
We were booked into the cabin through the night and in the morning it would be time to move on, so we planned out the next couple of days and then went to sleep. So next time I post we’ll be on the move again!
XOXO, Bethany