Blogs from Netherlands, Europe - page 3

We started the day with a wonderful breakfast before leaving to be on our way. It was a lovely sunny day for heading south east. It was 15° at 9.00am. Soon after leaving Dortrecht we had to cross the Hollandsch Diep on a very long bridge. It seemed to go on for ever. At first we were on cycle paths through crop growing land and in and out of villages. We passed enormous green houses the size of factories. The last 32 miles were on the Wilhelmina Kannal which passed through lots of different landscapes and places including Tilburg and the top of Eindhoven. Some canals can be incredibly monotonous and feel like being on a treadmill. The path was busy with cyclists and walkers it being a Saturday. At one point we saw a field ... read more

Monarch Empress remained docked overnight in Amsterdam. Morning sightseeing began at 9:00 a.m. Neils, the local guide, narrated a brief coach tour around Amsterdam. Susan and I recognized many landmarks from our 2014 visit to Amsterdam: the Rijksmuseum, Concertgebouw, Vondelpark, and the RAI Amsterdam exhibition complex. New sights appeared: a residential area of fine houses, the former German Synagogue, now the Jewish Museum, and the seventeenth-century Munttoren. Then we made a stop at the Die Riekermolen. I did not know Amsterdam had a windmill! (It has more than one, actually.) This one was built in 1636 on the city's outskirts at that time. It is a pumping mill intended to pump water from the polder into the Amstel River. It is still occasionally used for this function. Now it was time for the Amsterdam canal tour. ... read more

Medemblik is a coastal town on the IJsselmeer just before it opens into the North Sea. Our Cruise Director arranged to stop here so we could experience, if for a brief time, a traditional North Holland village. (The municipality dates to the 13th century.) Docking in Medemblik was also a reminder of the intricate inland waterways of Belgium and the Netherlands. We had traveled from Amsterdam south down as far as Ghent and back up north through Dordrecht and Amsterdam out into the man-made Markereer and IJsselmeer, all via interconnected rivers and canals. The IJsselmeer is a freshwater lake created out of the saline Zuidersee by dike and drainage. Some passengers explored the town in the early evening drizzle while I stayed close. From my vantage point, I could see Sint-Bonifaciuskerk (1404), the Medemblik railway station, ... read more

Monarch Empress made a morning stop at the delightful Dutch village of Willemstad. Founded by William of Orange as a fortified town in 1583 Willemstad remained a part of the Dutch North Sea defenses until 1926. The view from the harbor was of a peaceful pastoral setting. Yet we were looking at the remains of one bastion of a heptagonal star-shaped fort. One can still make out the seven-point-star fortress shape of the town. Now sheep safely grazed on the ramparts. Teena was our local guide for the walking tour of the village. The group began at the gateway to the village. Adjacent was the Arsenal of 1728. A large windmill anchored the opposite end of the village waterfront. All over town were linden trees that had been severely pruned. Teena explained that this was probably ... read more

We traveled by motorcoach from Dordrecht to Kinderdijk, the land of windmills. This was the second visit Susan and I have made to this town of windmills. The first was in 2019, and you can read my blog entry from that visit and compare. Then we arrived by river, as Viking maintains a dock here. Gate 1 Travel does not, necessitating the motorcoach transfer. Arrival by road also meant we were given a view of the town of Kinderdijk itself. The windmills of Kinderdijk form the Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout UNESCO World Heritage site. There are 19 windmills to see here, the earliest dating to the 17th century. They are positioned along two rows. The Overwaard's wooden mills and Nederwaard's brick mills of 1798 use wind power to move water from the polders to the basins. ... read more