A rainbow every day - Sea air holidays Dutch waterways cruise

The gray clouds began to thin, allowing patches of blue to peek through as we left Amsterdam harbor aboard the Queen of Holland. After our "Welcome Aboard" reception and briefing in the lounge, we adjourned to the dining room on the Main Deck, where we were served a dinner that set a high standard for the week's meals to follow a standard that did not falter all week.

Zuid-Holland

The flat, green countryside unfolded before us as we ate. The sun broke through and a rainbow appeared, one of many we would see during that week in early April.

Fortune surely kept by our side, for although we had rain, it usually cleared up when we were on walking tours, and the clouds were magnificent - huge rolling heaps of white and gray that brought to mind the skies in the paintings of the old masters.

I had yearned to take a tulip-time cruise for many years, so when Sea Air Holidays offered me an opportunity to go as their guest last spring, I jumped at the chance.

The M.V. Queen of Holland, of Dutch registry, has three decks and is about 36 feet wide and 350 feet in length. She has a passenger capacity of 146, and our cruise was nearly full at 144. Following the four one-week Dutch Waterways cruises from early April to early May, Sea Air Holidays and the Queen take passengers on two-week cruises Amsterdam/Vienna and Vienna/Amsterdam from mid-May through October.

We arrived at our first stop, Schoonhoven, at about 11 p.m. and the next morning, after a buffet breakfast, trudged up to the nearby parking lot to meet our bus drivers.

The group was divided amongst three buses, each with its own assigned guide and driver. The cruise director, Joannie Herbst, and her two assistant cruise directors, Anita Ford and Guido Guillson, rotated among the three buses each day.

One of the special things Sea Air does is to offer a special "taste treat" characteristic of the area in which we were traveling each day. Some days it would be a special cookie which would be offered to us when we were riding on the bus, and other times it would be something at a restaurant or bakery in the town we were visiting.

Gelderland

Our first day's excursion was to the "high country" to the east. We drove around Arnhem and over the John Frostbrug (of "A Bridge Too Far"), passing by many stately old homes.

Willem, our guide, told us that in the old days, raw sewage in the canals of Rotterdam and Amsterdam made the hot summers in the city rather fragrant, so the moneyed fled to the high country for the summer, where the air was fresher.

We entered the Hoge Veluwe National Park to visit the KrollerMailer Museum, famous for its collection of 19th- and 20th-century art. In addition to a large van Gogh collection (many of them dark, from his earlier works), it also has a lovely sculpture garden.

Our group opted to explore the sculpture garden before we went through the museum and thus escaped a brief rain which fell while we toured the inside of the museum.

The park itself, once the private property of the Kroller-Muller family, is the largest national park in the Netherlands. It has miles of rolling heath as well as forested areas. There are walking paths for hikers, or you can go wherever you like.

White bicycles are available free of charge for exploration of the park. They can be found at the park entrances, the Visitors' Center and the Kroller-Muller Museum. For the less athletic, a drive through on the roads is most enjoyable.

Our very elegant midday meal was at Doorwerth Castle, a moated 13th-century structure which was enlarged around 1600. Trumpeters in medieval dress astride horses announced our arrival, and our superbly presented food, served by costumed wait persons, was enhanced by the light of hundreds of candles.

On our afternoon excursion to the Netherlands Open-Air Museum we saw original buildings from all over the country and different eras, brought together to depict the rural Dutch life of the past. We were there a week ahead of the regular season, but Sea Air had arranged to have it open for us. During the regular season there are "living history" demonstrations on site.

We returned to our ship at Schoonhoven in time for dinner, after which some of us walked through the town. A central canal runs through the shopping area, with narrow streets and walks on either side and a row of shops and houses rising from the narrow walkway. We paused to look in the shop windows. Schoonhoven, a silver center, has many stores with silver items.

The houses also had large windows overlooking the street, and families were gathered around the television. I was greatly intrigued with the windows in the Netherlands. They seem to be such an important part of the architecture of the houses, and they were always spotless!

(Willem, our guide, told us that in the well-regulated Dutch schedule of daily living, Friday is the traditional day to wash windows. No wonder they gleam so!)

Noord-Brabant

About 5:00 the next morning I briefly awakened, realizing the ship was in motion as we set sail for Willemstad. We arrived at precisely 8 a.m. Captain Jack Boef is a very punctual man, and when he said we'd leave or arrive at a certain time, we did - a lesson some of the passengers learned the hard way when they failed to return to ship on time and had to transport themselves to the next stop.

We had been advised to return to the buses 10 minutes before departure time and to be aware of the place where we would be meeting the ship, as it ofttimes sailed to a different location from that where we had left it. Because of the rigid schedules of the locks the ship had to pass through, the Captain had to be punctual or he would lose his reservation.

We departed the ship for a walking tour of Willemstad, an old, fortified, star-shaped city named for William of Orange and dating from 1583. We had the streets practically to ourselves as we walked in an early-morning drizzle. The octagonally shaped church, acclaimed to be the first Protestant church in the Netherlands, is surrounded by a cemetery and a moat.

The spring gardens in front of some of the newer houses in town were all abloom with magnolias, forsythia, daffodils, hyacinths and some early tulips.

Zeeland

Zierikzee, another old medieval town, was our next stop, via a short bus ride. As the rain cleared, another glorious rainbow appeared beyond the cows grazing in the fiat, green countryside.

Once a prosperous trading town and the residence of the Counts of Holland and Zeeland, Zierikzee's economy declined in the 16th century. The ebbing of prosperity resulted in the town remaining much as it was, thus preserving many of its 16th- to 18th-century houses. Our taste treat for the day was a huge, dinner-plate-sized pancake served with a thick molasses syrup.

The Queen of Holland backed up a long, narrow passage into its mooring at Zierikzee and we boarded for lunch, after which we returned to the buses for an afternoon's adventure at the Oosterscheldekering, an engineering marvel.

After the terrible devastation of the 1953 floods, the monumental Delta Works project was designed to hold back future disastrous invasions from the North Sea by erecting gigantic barriers containing floodgates, which allow tide and storm waters to be controlled.

After viewing a film on the planning and construction of the barriers, we walked out on the barrier for a closer view. The wind and rain cooperated again for a short time, giving us a mild taste of the potential ferocity of the North Sea.

Riding back to the ship on the bus, the clouds cleared and the second rainbow of the day appeared - this time a double one!

We reboarded the ship in Zierikzee and set sail for Middleburg, slated to be our first excursion for the next morning.

The buses deposited us in the center of Middleburg and we toured the historic old square, restored from the destruction of heavy German bombing in 1940. We ended up at the very colorful Stadhuis, dating from 1452. Partially destroyed in May of 1940, it too has been rebuilt.

When we were there, a construction crew was putting the finishing touches on rebricking the main market square. We explored a busy shopping street, hopped on the buses and were off to visit Goes (pronounced Hoose, rhymes with goose) for our taste treat and their weekly open market day.

The taste treats (two different kinds) were from a bakery - hot, rich and I'm sure only 1,000 calories apiece. The market was most interesting - fresh flowers; fish; jewelry; books; a man (straight from an infomercial) demonstrating a utensil that dices, slices and does a thousand other things; cheeses; baked goods; rugs; crafts; clothes, and a lot of bargain-basement-looking articles.

Many other little streets fed into the market square with fascinating little shops. I found a charming little bookstore and was able to purchase a map and a bird book so I could identify some of the avian life we were seeing.

We lunched aboard the ship, which had picked us up in Zijpe, and headed for Rotterdam. Crafts people aboard the ship that afternoon demonstrated the making of lace, dolls and wooden shoes and the painting of traditional Dutch scenes in watercolors. We passed through several series of locks (some of them very tight) and as we approached Rotterdam the waterways became more and more crowded.

Zuid-Holland revisited

We docked in Rotterdam almost under the Willemsbrug, a lovely, red, cable-stayed bridge opened in 1981 to replace the old one destroyed during the war. One section of the old bridge remains standing. Within view of the Willemsbrug is the Erasmusbrug, a very modern-looking bridge completed in 1996, consisting of a single tower at one end from which the cables are suspended.

Rotterdam is a very busy city and has many modern-looking buildings. Willem, our guide, said nightlife in Rotterdam is pretty dull - people mostly go home after work, and it lacks the "naughtiness" of Amsterdam.

An hour's bus ride (traffic was terrible) took us outside Rotterdam to a stable where we enjoyed a medieval feast (sans eating utensils - they did give us a sharp knife, though).

The next morning we left on the bus, driving through Rotterdam, The Hague (a beautiful city) and into the countryside where the rainbows of the day were flowers - ribbons of color blooming in the fields.

Because of the mild winter (I heard several people say there had been no ice skating all winter because it had been such a "soft" winter), nature's blooming schedule was ahead of itself by a week or two. Willem also said there were things in bloom at the same time that one would usually never see blooming together.

The daffodils and narcissus in the fields were on the wane, the hyacinths were at their peak, and the early, short, generic red and yellow tulips were just beginning. Next to houses where they were protected from the wind, we saw pale, pink rhododendrons in bloom.

We spent part of the morning at the Frans Roozen Tulip Nursery. Many of the varieties at the nursery had been forced, giving us an opportunity to view the gamut from early crocuses to mid- and late-season tulips.

Bulbs of all kinds were in bloom everywhere, inside and outside, and order blanks were strategically located so if you saw something you just had to have, you could read the label on it and check it off on the order blank. Although we couldn't buy the bulbs at the nursery and carry them back into the U.S., we could place an order for later shipment.

One of the featured "new" tulips had been named to honor Princess Diana. I found it rather disappointing - a garish bicolor.

The site of our lunch, De Beukenhof restaurant (touted to be the best in Holland), not only delighted our palates but was a feast for the eyes. The centuries-old building is charming inside - the crystal chandelier is magnificent.

Part of our group ate up in a loft, the others on the ground floor in a long, windowed room overlooking the walled gardens. Service and table settings were wonderful, and we had time to wander in the gardens after we ate.

For me, the high point of our trip was the afternoon we spent at Keukenhof. The sun cooperated, the temperature was in the low 60s and the flowers were unbelievable!

Open to the public from late March through late May, the 70-acre park has served since 1949 as a permanent showcase for the bulb and flower industry. Individual growers are responsible for different sections of the park.

Beds are planted in layers to insure a continual bloom during the springtime opening of the park, and everywhere I looked there were masses of color - deep-blue grape hyacinths; a bed of peach-pink tulips; an undulating, irregularly shaped cluster of pale yellow daffodils with short, orange trumpets; a splash of bright red tulips; majestic trees; wide pathways, and meticulously manicured grass - truly a peaceful place to stroll.

Down at the far end of the park is a woodsy area with bark paths, planted with masses of perennials and more uncommon bulbs. Even the bumblebees are larger than life. An old windmill stands guard down by the wooded area, and a climb up the stairs to the viewing platform affords breathtaking views of the park and the tulip fields beyond.

Gardeners with fiats of blooming tulips were busily scurrying around, assuring there would be no spot in the park where something had been allowed to go beyond its prime.

Formal arrangements and shows in the pavilions feature other flowers such as orchids, spring-flowering shrubs, chrysanthemums, roses, lilies, carnations and summer flowers at different times throughout the few weeks the park is open.

When the park is closed in late May, the foliage on the bulbs is allowed to die down. The beds are then dug up and prepared for the fall planting of the next glorious springtime symphony of color.

We drove past Schiphol Airport and through Amsterdam to rendezvous with our traveling hotel. We turned down a dirt road, wending our way to a riverbank - no pier and no ship in sight.

The bus drivers and cruise directors conferred on the bank, and Guido whipped a cell phone out of his pocket and called the ship. Then they all ran back to their respective buses, we turned around, went back down the dirt road, under the freeway, down another dirt road (there was a pier this time, though not another soul was in sight) and there, chugging into view, was the Queen of Holland.

Noord-Holland

The trip from Amsterdam to Hoorn was on more open waters than we had traveled before. As we ate, we passed many lighthouses, other vessels and lots of water fowl. Docking in Hoorn just about dusk, we scrambled off the ship to explore what both Joannie and Anita said was their favorite town.

Once a thriving seaport during the heyday of the Dutch East India Company, Hoorn is located on what was formerly the Zuiderzee (now the IJsselmeer, a freshwater lake since the 1932 completion of the barrier dam.) The old harbor was full of sailboats, and one could only imagine what a busy place it is on summer days.

Our walking tour the next morning took us past many fascinating antique shops and into a charming little restaurant where we forced down our apple kuchen "taste treat" of the day. We then headed down to Rode Steen, a square bordered by two remarkable buildings: the Westfries Museum, dating from 1632 (and very, very baroque) and the Waag, also dating from the early 1600s. In the center of the square is a statute of Jan Pieterszoon Coen, a Hoorn native who made his mark as Governor General of the Dutch East Indies.

Enkhuizen, also an old Zuiderzee port important for herring fishing houses the Zuiderzee Museum, a reconstructed group of over 100 shops, houses and workshops from the late 19th to the early part of the 20th century grouped to depict village life as it was before the completion of the Afsluitdijk, the dam which turned the Zuiderzee into a freshwater lake.

Costumed docents go about their daily work much as people did in those bygone days. Children touring the village can dress up in costume, complete with wooden shoes.

A wonderful blend of past and present, the town of Enkhuizen itself has many lovely, old, 16th- to 18th-century buildings, and a stroll down the shopping streets brings one right back to the 20th century, tempting the shopper with contemporary household items and clothing.

Friesland and Overijssel

We sailed from Enkhuizen to Lemmer, and after being properly instructed on how to eat herring (hold the herring by the tail, tip your head back and start eating from the head) we adjourned to the dining room and dined as we sailed, arriving in Lemmer in mid-evening. The next morning we bused to Giethoorn, the Venice of the Netherlands.

Located in an old peat bog, the canals in Giethoorn were dug to transport the peat and now serve to transport everything in and out of the town. Thatched cottages border the canals, and the lawns sloping down to the water's edge are perfectly tended with abundant plantings of flowers.

We traveled the waterways in a windowed boat, gliding under footbridges which arched over the canals.

Our water journey continued out onto a nearby lake, edged with reeds. We passed an area with sticks rising out of the water (eel nets, we were told) and swans, herons and other water birds went about their business, not seeming to mind that we were interrupting the quiet of their morning on the lake.

After disembarking, we strolled the walkways for a bit, ending up at a restaurant for our morning "taste treat."

Flevoland

We boarded our buses for our last land journey, this time meandering through the Noordoost-Polder to Lelystad in Flevoland, the most recent of the Zuiderzee lands reclaimed from the sea, diked and drained between 1950 and 1957.

When the polders are first drained, they are planted with reeds for a few years to leech the salt from the soil. Now largely agricultural, the fiat countryside is broken by rows of linden trees lining roads, screening farmhouses and marking property boundaries.

We saw sheep and lambs grazing and some pigs, but very few cows had been moved out to pasture yet for the summer. The soil in the fields looked heavy and soggy, and the fields were edged with ditches in order to keep the water drained from them.

Return to Noord-Holland

The Queen of Holland was awaiting our arrival in Lelystad and we quickly boarded and set sail across the Markermeer, headed for Volendam. Upon reaching Volendam, we could choose to shop for the afternoon in Volendam or take a ferry to Marken. I opted for Marken.

A small island fishing village until 1957 when it was joined to the mainland by a dike, Marken retains its old Protestant traditions and dress of the past. The community is closely knit and wary of intrusion. We were asked not to photograph the inhabitants.

The small, raised, green houses, built on piles, used to be open underneath to allow for the rising tides, but since the building of the dikes, the tides are no longer the problem they once were and the houses have been filled in underneath. The houses and small yards are immaculate.

Shops by the harbor cater to the tourist trade, and Willem, our guide, chided us to choose carefully and not get taken in by "fake" Delft. He said, "I'll tell you when it's the good stuff."

Willem's caution was evident when we returned to Volendam and had some time to explore the shops there. An eel-fishing community, its souvenir shops line the long dike along the harbor, but if you wend your way back away from the dike there are charming houses and narrow, twisty streets and stores where the residents shop - not just tourist shops.

We sailed from Volendam to Amsterdam in the early evening, glutting ourselves on the sumptuous seven-course "farewell dinner" the chefs prepared for us. Surprisingly, all the marvelous food we had on the ship did no permanent damage. We walked it off as fast as we packed it on!

The Queen of Holland

Cabins on the Queen are very pleasant, each with a large window, color TV, good temperature control, telephone and two pull-down beds. Even with both beds down, there was enough room to walk around. Since I was traveling alone, the second bed in my cabin was left in the wall and I had a padded bench to sit on.

The single red tulip in a vase was a lovely welcoming touch in the cabin when I arrived. Each night, the bed was turned down, with a chocolate left on the pillow. The bathroom was roomier than the average ship's bathroom and had a wonderful handheld shower.

There are eight two-room suites, each with a sitting room, bedroom and two bathrooms.

The public areas of the ship are airy, spacious and very pleasant. Most of the top deck is open, with tables and chairs, and there is a partially roofed section with windows to allow for top-deck viewing with some protection against inclement weather. There are some lounge chairs and some exercise machines in the enclosed space.

The very comfortable lounge, located on the Promenade Deck near the reception center, is lined with windows to afford a good view in three directions. A library table in the lounge is stocked with a variety of beautifully illustrated books relating to the areas of the Netherlands through which the cruise travels.

The ship's library is well stocked with books, puzzles, cards and games. All the day trips are included in the cost of the cruise, but you can choose to sail with the ship if you prefer.

The Main Deck contains a health spa and the restaurant. Seating in the dining room is open. Almost all the tables in the restaurant are next to windows, so you don't miss a thing.

Aside from the very comfortable and pleasant physical surroundings of the ship, the best thing it has going for it is the wonderful, very competent staff. Every effort was made to assure that it would be a memorable, enjoyable experience for all, and for me it truly was.

COPYRIGHT 1998 Martin Publications, Inc.
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