Zeeland con't, March 31

Here are a few more photos from today.....the 5km. long bridge we crossed between two of the Zeeland islands, the ferry docked at the village of Veere (which means ferry), and it's marina, owned by the local yacht club after the decline of the fishing industry. The village of Veere is very picturesque and has several shops with high quality goods, a wonderful bakery, and several small restaurants, a large church now used as a concert hall, and lots of green space. Our last stop was at the Delta Works - huge dams across the mouths of the rivers that form the Rhine delta. Quilt an engineering feat!

Monday, March 31, Delta Works, Flood Museum, Veere

Interesting day today.....first stop was the Flood Museum on one of the islands in Zeeland in the Rhine delta. This small museum is housed in concrete caissons like those that are used to build dikes along the shoreline, particularly after the huge flood on 1953 in Zeeland. As you can see in the first photo, the local Rotary Club supports the museum (est. 2001) generously. The museum has a few paid staff, and over 100 volunteers, a sizeable gift shop, and much archived materiel, as well as an amazing art installation by a local artist who uses her own sheep's wool and natural dyes to make these large hangings as pictured below.

March 30, Bruges

A lovely, warm day weatherwise made our visit to Bruges worthwhlle. However, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is very commercialized.....shop after shop selling chocolate and lace articles lures the thousands of tourists who spend hundreds of dollars in this town. While the many churches and picturesque squares are beautifully restored, there is something that bothered us about the commercial aspect. However, it didn't prevent us from purchasing our portion of chocolate! Best of all was the temperature-about 22C (72F).

More Antwerpen pix, Mar. 29

Photos: Cathedral in old town; Alleyway from time of the Plague; child's dress in Belgian lace shop; our guide inside the cathedral; Rubens painting in the cathedral. Photo of the cathedral does not do justice to the elegant spire.

Antwerpen Surprise! Sat. Mar. 29, 2014

Hello!
Many surprises in Antwerpen today! First the castle right near the dock, then the walking tour of this beautiful old city, which was totally unexpected! In my mind Antwerp was visualized as a huge port which we passed by last night on our way to the dock. However, there is much, much more to this Belgian city which makes us consider a second visit in the future. The huge market square, bordered by 16th-17th century buildings which appear to combine architectural styles from Netherlands, Germany, and France, the laid back cafe-goers, the incredible Gothic cathedral with Rubens paintings, the Belgian chocolatiers, and the Plantin-Malteus (sp??) museum of printing and book binding - all combined to make this one of the highlights of our trip.

Our city guide was superb. She had vast knowledge of the cathedral's Rubens collection of paintings, and her presentation was a mini-lesson in Art History. In addition she pointed out good restaurants, the market hall, small exclusive chocolatiers, and even the scarce public toilets! We had time on our own in the afternoon to wander, and Robin and Edla hit paydirt at the printing museum which was in a 1600's elegant home with 19 Rubens sketches and portraits among the collection. Bryant and I got our Chinese fix when I purchased a couple of scarves from a Chinese shopkeeper from Beijing, and shared a few words in Mandarin and French about his brothers who still live in Beijing.

The surprise continued when a couple of passengers were not on the ship when we set sail for Ghent around 8:30 pm.....we hope they are on a bus to that city as I write!

The photos in this post include: castle near the canal, brick market hall, buildings surrounding the market square (2 photos), and a small cafe where B and I had a beer this afternoon.

More photos in a second post.

Kinderdyk text

For some reason this text did not get included in today's earlier post.  Hoping it will go through this time!

Kinderdyk  Mar. 28

After sailing on the Rhine and its associated canals overnight, we arrived about 8 am at Kinderdyk, very near Rotterdam.  Kinderdyk is home to a collection of 19 very old (300 years I think)  windmills, (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), that still operate to help keep the sea out of the Netherlands.  Nowadays they are supplemented by modern pumping stations, but the mills still have human caretakers, and we were lucky to see one such fellow putting the sails on the arms of his mill this morning.  We went inside the mill, former home to a family with 13 children many years ago.  The mills almost looked like large toys and are very picturesque.  Here are a few pix, to be followed by others in a separate post.  

Today we are sailing again, on our way to Antwerp, to arrive later this afternoon.  I went up on the sun deck to take a peek at the bridge, and found the Captain (one of 3 on board) and his assistant explaining the ins and outs of navigating the canals.  Much like our GM Adventure, the Viking Jarl has thrusters which enable the ship to turn 360 degrees in one spot.  Our speed in the canal/river was 12 knots this afternoon.  We pass through locks from time to time; earlier we sat very close beside a commercial ship as the lock filled up  with water.


Sent from my iPad.

Sent from my iPad.

Kinderdyk cont'd

REAL wooden shoes; sewing machine inside the mill; pottery for family use in the mill; inside the bridge, view of modern windmills from the bridge.

Kinderdyk, Mar. 28, 2014

March 27. Arnhem

PHOTOS:  Audrey Hepburn's family home near Arnhem, (large white house); two brick houses on the way to Peleis Het Loo near Appeldoorn.  Fourth photo taken at entrance to the Palace of the royal family, fifth is of part of the gardens at the palace.

Today we were tied up in Arnhem, made famous Operation Market Garden in WW2, and by the movie A Bridge Too Far.  It seems to be a quiet town on the lower Rhine (Rijn) which appears to be a canal here.  The canal is busy with river longships like ours, as well as commercial barges.  We passed through several locks on our overnight sail.

This am we did a tour of the old palace of the Dutch royal family, an imposing building beautifully furnished - and with magnificent gardens which are being renovated/restored.  On the way we passed Audrey Hepburn's family home and other elegant homes, as well as a Dutch/Canadian monument commemorating the Canadian liberation of this area of Holland in WW2.  The afternoon found us wandering Arnhem, with a special stop in a to-die-for kitchen/housewares store that had a million interesting things.  This evening a folklore show is planned for our evening entertainment after dinner.  Please check out my continuation of today's photo record to follow.

Sympathies to those of you in NB who may not even have hydro back on yet!  It sounds dreadful!

a

Sent from my iPad.

Sent from my iPad.

March 27 cont'd.

PHOTOS: Part of Peleis Het Loo garden. Hedges trimmed with lasers!
Two rooms inside the palace
Viking Cruise Passengers.....after dinner/before dinner

March 26 cont'd.

Two couples in the center of Hoorn this morning, Edla with a feline friend on the windowsill, a Hoorn house tilting forward, and the herring.

Wed. March 26

Though it was cold and damp this morning, the afternoon turned sunny so the low temperature was easier to take. We had a tour of the old town area of Hoorn, north of Amsterdam on the Isselmeer, and inland lake cut off from the North Sea by dikes built in the 1930s. Though the lake used to be salt water, and home to a thriving herring fishing industry, now the water is fresh, and only two families continue to fish, with a very abbreviated season. In the afternoon we joined a visit to a herring shop, where we tasted salted raw herring garnished with chopped onions. Though it is an acquired taste, it was delicious for those of us who like herring. Edla and I continued into the town, (home to the Dutch West Indies Company in the 17th century), and did some shopping.

Below there are photos of our ship (to the inside by the wharf), the Hoorn lighthouse, half white facing the sea and half brick, less expensive toward the town, a house gable adorned with a pretty cow painting, and some street and canal scenes. We visited the home of a Hoorn resident this morning and had coffee and dutch apple pie, along with good conversation and a short musical presentation.