Breda: the city

Breda is all of half an hour away from the manic centre of Rotterdam but in terms of ambience you could be a world away.

It's a peaceful city – in the daytime at least – with a charming historic centre encircled by canals. Once you're over a bridge, you are in the middle and all there is to see is a manageable walk away.

Striking: Breda's cathedral in the heart of the town.

The chances are you will arrive at the train station and from there it's no more than a 15 minute walk into the heart of Breda. Simply go straight ahead from the station along Willemstraat towards the park. Once you reach the park, where bizarrely cockerels are clucking around the grass, bear  left past the monument and then go right when the path splits. If you go straight ahead you end up at Breda Castle (we're not talking Windsor here but it's a sturdy and imposing enough building), and left across the square into the old town.

If in doubt follow the signs to the Grote Markt, which is the centre of it all.

The beautiful Onze Lieve Vrouwe Kerk (church) towers about the square, which is a cross between a square and a street – more of a long rectangle really.

Market squares aren't rare in European cities but this one is quite unusual because, after centuries of thinking about it, the conclusion has been reached that the best thing to have in a market square is a market. So there's a proper town market of fish, cheese and meat stalls, along with the obligatory traders flogging cheap t-shirts and socks - packing out the centre of a morning. Having said that the Grote Markt buildings are largely taken up with cafes and restaurants, so no change there.

The square: The Grote Markt, when the market had gone.

To the west side, past the castle, you will find Breda's small harbour which these days is lined with bar terraces. There are boat trips on the canal – the Singel – in summer but not in chilly March when I visited.

Shops take over the south and the east of the centre with the western quarter coming alive as night falls.

The busiest part of town at night is centred around the Havermarkt Square, the other side of the main church to the Grote Markt. Here around School Straat and Vismarkt Straat you'll find the liveliest music bars, with one further street to the west dedicated to discos and nightclubs.

There's a couple of museums - the town museum, and the cutting edge national Museum of the Image, the national museum dedicated to design, which is worthy of an hour of your time. And there's the random Beer Advertising Museum - Bierre Clame Museum - which I somehow managed to miss when I was there, that'll teach me to book a trip last minute and unprepared.  it's open on Sundays and there's beer involved too. You'll find it at Haagweg 375.

Museum of the Image: Or MOTI for short.

Breda's historic sights and architecture can be taken in over an afternoon and all of them in walking distance – the city centre is less than a mile across. The charm of Breda is in the laid back feel and cosy bars – most are full of locals, there aren't that many tourists although English is of course widely spoken - that make it a pleasant place in which to spend a day or two.

By the canal: Breda.