April 1, 2014-Keukenhof Gardens

Had another warm, hazy, somewhat sunny morning at the Keukenhof gardens, where the tulip is king.....and hyacinths, daffodils, and other bulb plants are princes. The tulip fields were only just coming into bloom on our way to the entrance of the gardens, but inside the gate the colours and blooms were quite spectacular, especially inside the glass houses. Holland has had a mild winter, so the plants are a couple of weeks ahead, luckily for us. Here are a few photos for your viewing enjoyment.

Last night was the "Captain's Dinner" - even more food and drink than previous dinners. There were about six courses including "Beef Wellington Deconstructed" whatever that meant, but it was delicious. The entire staff - all 52 of them- were introduced and walked around the dining room to applause. I don't think I mentioned that night before last they put on a special buffet, some of which was served in the galley, so we had a tour of that......quite something. The running of a ship like the Viking Jarl takes lots of coordination of services from housekeeping, food service, and docking to waste removal, fresh water procurement, and onshore tour guides and bus reservations. Tomorrow everyone must vacate their staterooms by 9 am so that all can be cleaned and readied for the next bunch of travelers who will board at 3 pm or earlier. The staff work long hours and for weeks at a time, and have about 3 months off in the winter. Our cruise is the first of the season for this particular tour.

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.