EUROPE - tour narrative - Brief Article

In June '99 I took a very enjoyable and relaxing 14-day escorted tour with Grand European Tours (Lake Oswego, OR). The tour, which included LuxEMBOURG, HOLLAND, BELGIUM and a Rhine cruise, cost $2,849 per person, including airfare.

I selected Grand European because they feature two to four nights per hotel. Thus, the tour was not as hurried as some offered by other tour companies that require "bags out every morning."

The first part of the tour was aboard the river cruise ship m/s Italia. Although the ship has a capacity of 192 passengers, there were only 50 at the time of our sailing (39 of whom were on my tour).

We boarded the ship in Frankfurt, GERMANY, and sailed north on the Rhine, with stops in Rudesheim and Koblenz. Our ship then sailed up the smaller "misty Mosel" River. We stopped at some of the small resort villages and toured old castles before disembarking at Trier.

River cruise ships sail during the day and dock at night, allowing passengers the opportunity to walk around the town in the evening. Although most shops are closed at night, beer gardens are abundant in these small German villages.

The remainder of the tour was via motorcoach through Luxembourg, Belgium and Holland. Many tour companies bypass "little Luxy," but I enjoyed our visit to one of Europe's ministates. An overnight stay in Luxembourg allowed me to relax in the evening and send a few postcards from this unique country, as well as visit the impressive 10th-century citadel and even pay my respects at General George Patton's grave.

Grand European Tours is one of the few tour companies which includes Bastogne (of World War II Battle of the Bulge fame) and Waterloo (where Napoleon was defeated by the Duke of Wellington) as well as sufficient time for a cruise on the canals of Brugge in Belgium.

The 3-night stay in Brussels was a gastronomic delight. Our tour director recommended the steamed clams ("mussels in Brussels"), and he was right! For less than $20, I was served a large pot of steamed clams (I stopped counting after 35) plus a large plate of the ubiquitous fritas (French fries).

Our last four nights were spent at a hotel in Utrecht, Holland. Using this "hub-and-spokes" tour method, we visited Amsterdam (including a canal boat ride), the Rijksmuseum, the Royal Delft Pottery Factory, the Aalsmeer Flower Auction and the fishing village at Volendam.

I have been on a number of more adventuresome tours, but once in a while it's nice to take a relaxing trip with enough time to stop and smell the Belgian waffles.

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