trip Report: tulips and windmills

[micked10@earthlink.net]

We arrived back home yesterday afternoon from our awesome cruise. Left home on april 13th and flew to Amsterdam,where we spent 3 days before boarding Uniworld's ship the River Queen.

We stayed at the Marriott Hotel in Amsterdam which was within walking distance or tram ride to all sights. since we had been there before our main purpose was to attend the Keukonhoff Gardens on our own since I knoew the excursion from the ship would only be a few hours. That was a wise decision since we spent 6 hours walking around the AWESOME Gardens. Almost 80% of the tulips were in bloom ( according to the lady in the bulb house when we purchased some bulbs). I would have thought more than that since the flowers were in abundance everywhere--hyacinths, daffodils, tulips etc. It is a spectacular sight.

We went to the Resistance Museum, the Van Gogh Museum and Van Gogh's Home, The excursion from the ship included the Rikj. Museum. We had seen the Anne Frank home and taken a canal cruise on a previous visit. All of these are worth seeing, in my opinion.

We boarded the River Queen on Apr. 16th and I can't saw enough good things about it. the rooms were small--we were on the 3rd deck, but I looked into some other rooms, and other than the suites all rooms are the same size and configuration. Don't know if I would spend the extra money to upgrade if we went again. There is plenty of storage space and the beds were very comfortable.

Food was good ( not excellent) and the desserts were heavenly!! Breakfast and lunch were buffet but you could order eggs, omelets etc. off the menu. Plenty of choices at both breakfast and lunch. Dinner was sit down with 3 choices of entrees, two choices for starters, 2 for soup and 2 for dessert, plus ice cream.

People were very friendly and everyone mixed well. We made many good friends.

Our cruise director was Wouter, but he said to call him Walter. It was easier. He is originally from Brussells, now lives in Rome and has been in the tour business all his life. His parents also did tours. He was young and very knowledgeable. Always with a smile and very gracious. He went out of his way to make our tour enjoyable. For example-- the first night while we were docked in Amsterdam he announced that he would take a group of anyone that wanted to on a tour of the Red Light District. This was without charge and lasted about 2 hours. Very informative for a person from the conservative Midwest!!

All of our tours were well organized and started promptly. We were divided into 3 busses and then into 5 small groups when we arrived at our destinations. Vox boxes were used for all tours and were very helpful. You could walk away from your group to look at something and still hear them easily. All local guides were very good.

Nightly entertainment consisted of local singers, bands etc. They were all enjoyable and good.

It would be hard for me to pinpoint one highlight of the trip because it definitely exceeded our expectations. We loved the Netherlands and thought the K. Gardens were awesome. The Delta works is an engineering marvel, the windmills were a sight to behold and all of the little towns with their market squares were delightful.

We especially loved Brugge and had a full day there with plenty of free time. I thought the pace of the trip was just right--walking tours in the AM and then plenty of free time to walk, shop, stop for coffee etc.

If I had anything negative at all to say it would be that the organization of the buffets could have been better. The River Queen has a 2 level dining room and the buffet was set up on both levels. Soup, cheeses and bread on the lower level and then salads, entrees and dessert on the upper level. The flow of people was very awkward--some getting soup and going up and down the few steps and then some starting with entrees and trying to make their way down the steps to their table. personally, I think they should let a woman design the organization and we could get it fixed in no time!!

This is pretty long but I hope I have given you some idea of our cruise. It was so much better than I even hoped for. We docked in Brussels so spent 5 days there. It was the end of a great trip.

I did forget to mention that the age range was from around 50 ish to 80's. Most of the couples seemed to be in their 60's or 70's. There were several peple with canes and one with a walker. Our cruise director tried to accommadate everyone and walked at a reasonable pace.

micked10