Blogs from Netherlands, Europe

Spring in Holland might be described as bikes, boats, and tulips. Nancy and I booked the 5-day trip through Boat Bike Tours, a Dutch company. Our floating hotel was a converted river barge with 18 staterooms, a dining room, salon, and outside space to lounge and store bicycles. The night before boarding, we stayed at the Kimpton DeWitt hotel, a 5 minute walk from Amsterdam Central Train Station. A free ferry took us across the main channel from the train station to reach our ship. Upon arrival we checked in to our stateroom, checked out the ship, and at around 4 p.m., we set sail through the Harbor for Zaandam, maybe an hour away. Amsterdam is the 4th biggest freight and the biggest Petro-port in Europe, so there was plenty to see . Our shipmates were ... read more

Made only in exceptional years, vintage Champagne is a rarity, and rosé versions are even scarcer. Produced exclusively with grapes from Grand Cru sites, this ballet slipper–colored sparkler is composed of 70 percent Pinot Noir and 30 percent Chardonnay. The yield was very small but exceptional, a result attributable to not only the harvest but also the more than 12 years the Champagne spent aging in chalk cellars dating to Gallo-Roman times before being exposed to light. This elegant cuvée—just 450 bottles of which were reserved for the U.S.—exhibits persistent effervescence with a frothy mousse cap. It has great mouthfeel and is incredibly lively on the tongue with flavors of red cherry, pink grapefruit, tangerine peel, and dried sage. Vintage Champagne only gets better with age, and this will mature beautifully for another 15 years. $400 ... read more

Had a great sleep and breakfast and off on our Canal cruise around Amsterdam Old Town a great way to get around the city … quirky houseboats parked up and people living aboard as in England… back at lunchtime and enjoyed more amazing food …. We pulled out of Amsterdam as we were having lunch and headed up the Rhine … lots of barges and boats to and fro as this form of transport and cargo still seems very popular… had a snooze after lunch and back up to the lounge bar for some music and couple of Prosecco’s and Pina Colada. A talk from the cruise director and toast to the capitan and cruise and down for dinner … finished at 9 and crashed …. Sleeping on the move with faint drone of the engines ... read more

Early start again, breakfast and off to the pick up point for the Tour. Hopped on the double decker bus and out to Zaanse Schans …. A quick tour of the windmills used for all types of work …. Sawing wood, Grinding wheat, pumping water, making paint etc ….. carried on across flat land as far as the eye can see below sea level and at Marken saw a Clogg making demonstration. Made the short walk to the ferry and a ride across the biggest man made lake in Europe to Volendam, we watched a cheese making demonstration and sampled lots, had some time here and our sandwiches made at breakfast, returned to Amsterdam by 2 pm …across to the hotel and a quiet afternoon, headed out about 5 pm and had dinner KFC and a ... read more

Up early again in keeping with our new routine and down for breakfast….at 9 am with bags we got out to the Taxi which delivered us to St Pancras station a huge train station in Kings Cross London ….checked in and went through security as it is an international journey…waited for an hour then up onto the platforms found our train and carriage and boarded ….nice seats and soon we were off, very smooth quiet but travelled at up to 300 km an hour was an amazing experience …have now pretty much travelled on any sort of transport on this trip buses planes boats cars etc went through the Eurotunnel / Chunnel after about 40 minutes took 20 odd minutes to get through the Chunnel and first stop was Lille in France. Onto Brussels in Belgium ... read more