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Published: April 29th 2024
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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 4
th biggest freight and the biggest Petro-port in Europe, so there was plenty to see . Our shipmates were from the US, Canada, and Norway. 10 or 15 miles outside Amsterdam lies beautiful countryside.
In Zaandam, we got our bikes fitted, and took a test ride. About ¾ of the guests took the e bike option, while some of us took the standard bikes. The bikes were city bikes built in Holland.
After dinner and a briefing of the
itinerary for the next day, we walked around downtown Zaandam. It is mostly contemporary architecture. My understanding is that it was part of urban renewal. They did a nice job.
The next day, we cycled to Zaanse Schans, a historical park with windmills and traditional houses. After spending an hour, we started biking again,crossing the main ship channel by ferry, heading to Haarlem. We were provided with maps, but following the guide was most pleasant, not having to look for directions. The two on our trip were very informative and helpful.
Haarlem is a wonderful historic city with 16
th and 17
th century architecture. The cathedral is in the center of town, around which are shops and cafes. We left our bikes in- where else- the municipal bike parking garage. Parking for bikes is free. It was a beautiful spring Saturday, and the cafes were loaded. We spent a couple of hours shopping, and then headed back to the ship.
The next day was the highlight of our trip, cycling through the tulip fields on the way to Keukenhof Park, a flower nirvana in the spring. There’s a reason that Holland has those windmills- there were strong winds
on 2 of the 3 riding days. Even though the terrain is flat, that made pedaling hard work. As with spring in most places, rain was on the agenda, although we lucked it out- it didn’t rain on our riding days.
Keukenhof was packed with tourists. I spoke with a German, who said it was 2 hours from their house, so the park is easily accessible to lots of Europe.
Our final full day commenced with a 6:30 a.m. bus visit to the biggest flower auction in the world at Aalsmeer. Comprising 20 football fields, there were thousands of employees steering carts tugging trolleys of flowers to legions of trucks. In addition to what passes through here, the market functions as a clearing house for buying and selling flowers all over the world.
We returned to the ship and had breakfast, and around 9:30 a.m. set out biking- along dykes and through farmland. We stopped by a goat cheese farm and park not far from Amsterdam Airport. Surprisingly it was still scenic even in a rather industrialized area. We passed by the Feadship plant with a superyacht sitting out front getting readied for sea.
After meeting
the ship ,which had moved, we started threading our way back to Amsterdam. The canals became narrower and the bridges became lower. The captain quite skillfully navigated through the maze. Traffic over bridges stopped when they opened for us. We spent the last night in Amsterdam at Mineralhaven, a commercial docking area. The harbor activity loading and unloading ships was fascinating to watch.
There was a farewell dinner on our last night. By the end of the trip, we’d bonded with the other passengers, and it felt that we would have enjoyed another couple of days.
The staff of 8 was terrific. They had long days, from morning to night. It was amazing to me that the captain and 1 seaman ran a ship of that size by themselves. The chef cooked and the waitstaff doubled as cleaners and bartenders. The captain told me that the typical work schedule was 2 weeks on and 1 week off for the crew.
After disembarking in Amsterdam, we spent another couple of days in town going to museums and walking around the city. As with Keukenhof, the town was loaded with tourists from everywhere.
Everywhere we went we felt
safe, Holland was clean, and lots of flowers were blooming. What could be better than that!
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