Delightful Holland and the Floriade

We travel to Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands, and enjoy a relaxing evening onboard our ship.

This morning, there’s the opportunity to join our optional excursion to the Van Loon Museum in Amsterdam.  In the heart of the Amsterdam canal district lies the Museum Van Loon, a magnificent private residence built in 1672 by the architect Adriaen Dortsman. The first resident was the painter Ferdinand Bol, a pupil of Rembrandt. The interior of the house has remained largely intact during the last centuries and still evokes the splendour of the 17th century. In 1602 Willem van Loon co-founded the Dutch East-India Company and since 1973, the family has opened their home and garden to the public so you can get a glimpse of the life of the family in one of the finest canal house in the city.  In the rooms, you’ll see a large collection of paintings, fine furniture, precious silver and porcelain from different centuries on display. Behind the house is a beautiful garden, an oasis of quiet in the modern inner city. The garden is laid out in formal style and is bordered on the far side by the classical façade of the coach house. This original unity of canal house, garden and coach house is nowhere else to be seen. If you want a glimpse of the world behind the façades of the world-famous canals, a visit to Museum Van Loon is a must! We return to ship for lunch onboard and this afternoon cruise onwards to Hoorn.  We arrive into the atmospheric city of Hoorn later this afternoon and have free time to explore this wonderful little city full of history and interesting architecture.

We arrive in the unique town of Den Helder this morning which is situated at the northernmost tip of the province of North Holland. After lunch, why not join our optional excursion to the Medemblik Bakery, a quaint two-story museum where you’ll see how traditional Dutch specialities are made, including ‘gevulde koek’, which is an almond paste cookie and ‘speculaas’ which are delicious gingerbread cookies. We return to the ship in Den Helder for a relaxing evening on board as we cruise towards Harlingen.

This morning you can join our optional excursion to De Kruidhof Botanical Garden which is the largest botanical garden in the Netherlands. It features seventeen themed gardens each with their own plant collections. Themed gardens that can be visited include: medicinal herbs, cloister garden, butterfly garden, rose garden, woodland garden, fruit garden, ferns, paint and dye plants, garden with plants mentioned in the Bible, wildflowers and a garden for meditation. The Ice Age Museum is also housed in the gardens which illustrates the prehistory of the Frisian Woodlands. We return to the ship at lunchtime and sail onwards to Kampen arriving later this evening.

This morning you can join our optional excursion to Het Loo Palace.  Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn is a Dutch Baroque palace built for William, Prince of Orange and later King of England, Scotland and Ireland. Members of the House of Oranje-Nassau lived and worked at Het Loo Palace for more than 300 years. What began as a hunting lodge for a stadtholder became a palace for a king, as William ascended to the English throne as William III. There were refurbishments and modernisations, art was being collected and a garden designed. The gardens were used for strolls and to enjoy exotic flowers and plants; royal dinners took place, with food served on beautiful china. This rich and generous past is still to admire here.We return to the ship at lunchtime and sail onwards to Lelystad where there’s time to explore this lively little port as we are berthed here overnight.

After breakfast, we are taken by coach to the Floriade World Horticultural Expo in the town of Almere where you will have plenty of time to enjoy this horticultural delight.  Floriade Expo 2022 will be an extraordinary expo. For six months the attention to the theme ‘Growing Green Cities’ will be focused on the cities of the future. Visitors will have a unique and meaningful experience: while visiting the expo they will be invited to ‘explore, touch and change’.This expo will also be the start of a new city district close to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Almost everything that will be built for the exhibition will become part of the legacy of Almere and the structures will remain and become part of the community.  The expo site will be developed as a Green City Arboretum, serving as a model for green structure development in cities. This arboretum will consist of a variety of trees, shrubs, perennials, creepers, hydrophytes and flower bulbs, all of which contribute to a green, healthy and sustainable city. Around 3000 species have been selected that contribute to the green city in terms of biodiversity, air purification, food production and city climate management.   We return to the ship in Lelystad and enjoy our last night on board as we sail onwards to Amsterdam.

We bid farewell to our captain and crew after breakfast and set off on the return journey.