Our Trafalgar Tour Through Benelux Begins.

Our Trafalgar Tour through Benelux.

It is Friday the 23^rd of May and today we leave the Eurodam in Copenhagen and join the Trafalgar Tour Group in Amsterdam. It is going to be a busy day.

We share a taxi to the Copenhagen airport with a mother and daughter from Texas America. It is quite a long trip and our driver’s top speed on the auto barn gets to 143km per hour.

When we get inside the airport we discover that our flight has been cancelled and we now have to go to Amsterdam via Stockholm – this means we are an hour behind our original time of arrival in Amsterdam and we miss our transfer connection. But this is compensated by my wonderful travelling neighbour on the Stockholm to Amsterdam sector. Her name is Angelica and she was born in the Netherlands and now lives with her partner and twin three year old girls in Stockholm. She tells me all about her childhood and living in Belgium and the Netherlands. She recommends places to go and things to see. We do not stop talking for the full 90miniutes. She was just delightful and we got on together so well.

From the airport we get a hotel shuttle bus and arrive at the Hotel Hilton with only 10 minutes to spare before our tour group meets and our 10 day tour through Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) officially commences.

There are 27 of us in this tour group –all English speaking and mainly from America and Canada, with only one other couple from Australia. Our Tour Director is Patrick who is a young, vibrant, passionate and enthusiastic host who has lived in both the Netherlands and Belgium and who speaks 5 languages and who knows heaps about travelling through this area.

Our orientation consists of a Welcome Reception with dinner and drinks in a really nice restaurant in the centre of Amsterdam and then we get to mingle with our “new family” whilst enjoying a sightseeing cruise aboard a canal boat along the canals in Amsterdam. We have a really enjoyable late afternoon and night and it is a great start to the second great adventure of our holiday in Europe.

                                        Sites we see as we cruise the Canals Of Amsterdam.

 

Views down the Canals of Amsterdam.

Next day we are up early and we are off to explore Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a fascinating city which boasts art, architecture, canals, museums, bicycles and charming side streets. By bus we are shown the main sights and then we go to the Rijksmuseum to admire Rembrandt’s Night Watch and other wonderful art works of the 15^th & 16^th century. After this we have free time and Allan and myself spend the next 4hrs seeing as much of the old area of Amsterdam as we can.

                                                           Rembrandt's "Night Watch"

                                           Other Famous Paintings In The Rijksmuseum.

 

We walk through the older area of Amsterdam and end up in a beautiful flower market. We also visit a cheese shop and sample some of the local varieties.

 

 

The Flower Market.

 

 

The flowers were gorgeous and there were thousands of all different kinds of bulbs for sale.

 

 

 

                                               Cheese on a cart outside the cheese shop.

 



There are just so many people on bikes and they definitely have right of way. You walk the footpaths at your own risk and you are constantly looking out for the fast and weaving bike riders.

                       There are bikes everywhere - some are decorated so their owner can find theirs.

Later in the day we go outside the city to the seaside town of Volendam. This is a typical Dutch village built on a raised dyke and overlooking a large enclosed lake. We have time to walk around the town and small harbour and to have a local speciality for tea. It is a really pretty place and it was fascinating to see so many beautifully presented homes all below sea level. We had a great day but by the time we get back to the hotel we are exhausted.

                                   Some of the cottages protected from flooding by the man made dyke.

                                         Walking along the Dyke in the Town of Volendam.

 

The small harbour at Volendam.



 

Sunday we are all back in the bus and off to The Hague. We have a very informative drive around the City and we stop at the Peace Palace for photos. Our new family is now getting on together really well and we are enjoying the experience of being part of a large group.

                                                                 
                                                         The Peace Palace in the Hague.

 

Next we go to the Royal Delft Pottery workshop and have a guided tour and look closer at the manufacture of this local speciality, hand painted porcelain. We enjoy this stop and their shop was just so fantastic we just had to purchase a small hand painted plate to remember the experience. We then spend time exploring the beautiful little town of Delft on our own. It is just a small delightful town. We visit one of their major churches and then grab a light lunch and drink, and enjoy lunch sitting by the canal and watching the people passing by. The reflections in the canals are just beautiful and there are many ducks peaceful floating in the water.

Special commemorative plates.

Picture shows three different products that this factory makes: one is the genuine hand painted plate, one is a hand produced stencil and the other is a mass produced stencil product.

 

                                               The Church we visited in the town of Delft.

                                                       The Rose Window in the Church.

                                                         A view in the Town of Delft.

One of the Canals in the Town of Delft.

Back in the bus we continue on to Rotterdam, the most important river port in Europe. After an orientation drive around the city we visit and climb the Euromast Tower for spectacular views of the city and the famous harbour. Some of us venture higher by sitting in this circular glass lift that goes nearly to the top of the tower. It is a great and exciting adventure and something I would not have done if we had not been with the tour group.

                      The Euromast Tower in Rotterdam. I went right to the top of the spire.

 

View of Rotterdam from the Tower.

                               I will write a separate blog on our next stop because it is really special.