Tulips and Windmills, 2026
April, 2026 - Viking Tulips and Windmills cruise- Day 1 - Arrival at our hotel around 10am after 9 hour flight. We've been up for 24 hours or so by this time.
- Amsterdam on our own - We arrived at the hotel midmorning with nothing to do but put our luggage in storage until our room was ready and hit the streets in a sleep-deprived stupor. Also included in this slide show are pictures from early the following morning.
- Day 2 -
- Amsterdam walking tour - More canal views, monuments, the royal palace and the Begijnhof
- Rijksmuseum - Here is a 4K video slideshow of some of my favorite art from the Rijksmuseum. This video shows nicely on a large screen TV.
- Day 3 - Boarding Day
- Walking tour - Yes, yet another walking tour, this time around the neighborhood near where our ship was docked. For me, the most notable features were the hand operated drawbridges and some of the architecture.
- Canal tour - An opportunity to see the city from a different angle.
- Day 4 - Our ship remains at dock in Amsterdam, departing late for Enkhuizen
- Delft is famous for its blue on white Delftware. It was also the home of Johannes Vermeer, where he lived until he died in 1675. In 1654, an inspector's lantern ignited 80,000 pounds of gunpowder, leveling much of the city and burning hundreds of homes, injuring a thousand people and killing at least 100, including painter Carel Fabritius.
- Day 5 - Partly sunny, light breeze, occasional showers. Pretty decent day.
- Enkhuizen is a beautiful old town with a rich maritime history of wooden ships. An historic center of Dutch trade.
- Munster Tulip Farm distributes tulip bulbs world wide. Flowers are cut as soon as they open to promote bulb growth, so, not a display garden. Interesting insights into the world of commercial tulip cultivation
- Day 6 - Arnhem and the Netherlands Open Air Museum
- Arnhem was the point of failure in the WWII Market Garden offensive. One of the goals of the offensive was to secure bridges along the Rhine river, and Arnhem was central to that strategy. The city was heavily damaged during the war by forces on both sides. Due to the damage sustained in the war, the city retains little of its previous historic character. Historic references of Arhnem go back over a thousand years.
- Netherlands Open Air Museum is a collection of old and historic buildings gathered from around the Netherlands. It is similar to other collections, such as Skansen in Sweden, Greenfield Village in Michigan, and the Kern County Museum in Bakersfield, Ca. These collections give a great perspective on the historic lifestyle of the region. My inadequate record keeping prevents me from giving more detailed descriptions of some of the photos.
- Day 7 - Kinderdijk and Rotterdam
- Arnhem to Kinderdijk affords an opportunity to view the landscape as well as the traffic around us
- Kinderdijk was one of the highlights of the trip. A UNESCO World Heritage Site 15 km east of Rotterdam with a total of ninteen 18th century windmills.
- A very brief stop in Rotterdam. We took the opportunity to lay low and take it easy for a couple of hours.
- Day 8 - Brussels and Antwerp. The walking tour in Antwerp included the art exhibitions at the Cathedral of our Lady. I split them into two separate events.
- Brussels - great chocolate and waffles!
- Antwerp walking tour
- Cathedral of our Lady is mostly an art museum today, though services are also held.
- Day 9 - Bruges - an all day event. And an amazing one at that.
- Bruges is an attractive medieval city that took on the Golden Age with a flourish. Our boat was supposed to park in Middleburg, but we ended up in Veere due to a malfunctioning lock, extending our bus ride a little. We traversed the Western Scheldt Tunnel which passes beneath the Scheldt estuary for a distance of 6.6 km (4.1 miles). Just before we arrived I discovered I had left my camera batteries back on the boat, so had to use my camera sparingly, backfilling some with my phone.
- Day 10 - Zierikzee, The Delta Project, and Watersnoodmuseum
- Zierikzee - Zierikzee is another quintessential Dutch town, replete with a Windmill, Gate and Tower with a carillon, canals and drawbridges. It's pretty cool.
- Delta Project and Watersnoodmuseum - now, I will be the first to admit I might not have paid the closest attention in school, but I think I would have remembered breached dikes that flooded 10% of the country and killed more than 2,000 people. This was a horrific event, beyond anything I can imagine. The impact is still being felt 70+ years later.
- Transition back to Amsterdam through several locks, then as the sun sets we cruise past Kinderdijk as twilight wanes.
- Day 11 - Keukenhof and Haarlem
- Keukenhof Tulip Garden is a 79 acre landscaped garden devoted almost entirely to Tulips. What can I say? It's amazing! We spent several enjoyable hours exploring. Be aware, the weekend crowds build as the day goes on. The entire season is only 8 weeks out of the year, so expect a crowd. This is an international event, and actually all of the Netherlands is overwhelmed with tourists in April.
- Haarlem festivals and canals. After walking miles at Keukenhof we were ready for an easy afternoon.
- Day 12 - Transit to the post extension in The Hague, with Walking tour and a trip to the Mauritshuis Museum
- The Hague Walking Tour
- Mauritshuis Museum video slide show
- Day 13 - The Hague on our own.
- Mesdag Panorama - OK, wow. Just Wow. Never seen anything like this, can't adequately describe it. Just, if you ever get the chance, it is a must see! A mid 19th century attraction, kind of like what OmniMax would be today, these panoramas would be constructed as public attractions, then torn down when their popularity waned. Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915) was a marine painter - all things ships, sails, weather, and drama. The panorama is a 'Cyclorama' oil painting more than 14 meters high (45 feet, 4 and 1/2 stories!) and 120 meters (almost 400 feet!) in circumference, with a viewing platform in the center. The scene, set on the top of a high sand dune, complete with real sand and artifacts scattered about, with the painted scene stretching away to the horizon that includes a small village, a fleet of ships, some at sea and some on the beach, all hand painted with great detail. It is carefully constructed so you cannot see where the props end and the painting begins. The effect is startling, for a 150 year old tourist trap! I took a panorama video and it failed to even begin capture the effect, so my best suggestion is to go see it for yourself... All that being said, there were more typical paintings by Mesdag on display, and I took a few photos to try to capture what it is all about, but still no way to begin to capture the overall impact.
- Escher in the Palace - A few of my favorite prints by M. C. Escher.
- The Hague on our own as we walked from our hotel to the Escher in the Palace museum to the Peace Palace and the Mesdag Panorama. Then our last dinner on this wonderful holiday.
- Day 14 -
- Finding our way home through one of the world's busiest airports - no photos!
Video index
| Subject | Start time: | Duration: |
|---|---|---|
| Rijksmuseum: Shylights | 0:00 | 1:14 |
| Open Air Museum: Tower Mill | 1:17 | 0:13 |
| Rotterdam: Fireboat | 1:33 | 2:02 |
| Kinderdijk | 3:36 | 1:45 |
| Zierikzee: Oldest Carillon in Netherlands | 5:22 | 0:25 |
| Bruinisse Harbor: Jellyfish | 5:48 | 0:10 |
| Krammer Locks | 5:59 | 0:14 |
| Keukenhof: Street/Barrel Organ | 6:13 | 0:45 |
| Haarlem: Draw Bridge | 7:02 | 1:55 |
| Haarlem: Swing Span Bridge | 8:58 | 1:00 |
| The Hague: Street musician | 10:31 | 0:25 | The Hague: Peace Palace carillon | 10:55 | 0:30 |