May 15 – 31 2013
Click the photo above to
see an album for Amsterdam. Close the window to return to this page.
Who cares if the Netherlands was experiencing the
coldest May in 100 years! It only rained for a short time each day and
biking the quiet roads and visiting the historic villages in the
Netherlands made it all worth while.
Ray’s bicycle accident in mid-April put an end to
his plans to bicycle in the Netherlands, but Joan Potter gladly accepted
our invitation to be my room mate on the river barge Angeline. Joan left
her husband Ric taking care of Ray in our home in Ottawa and flew to
Amsterdam the same day I arrived in the city by train from Bruges. We
had two days to explore the city before switching from our cozy
Amsterdam condo to the Angeline to start our two week bicycle tour. We
were busy. We joined a walking tour of Amsterdam, visited the newly
renovated Rijksmuseum, the Van Loon House, once the home of an East
India company director, Rembrandt House and the Aalsmeer Flower Market.
We were never at a loss for places to visit.
Click the photo above
to see an album for our bike tour. Close the window to return to this
page.
The two week bicycle tour worked beautifully. Joan and I shared
a compact, well designed cabin, with our own bathroom, one of 14 on the boat. It was a real
Can-Am trip, with 12 Canadians, all friends of Al and Liz Robinson, who
suggested the trip to us, and 15 friendly Americans. We shared our meals
in the onboard dining room, seated around four circular tables. The
food, prepared by our chef, Daniel, from Malta, and his assistants, Mary
and Jeff, from Australia, and our trusty Dutch Captain, Jeroen, was
varied and excellent. Our buffet breakfast included the makings to
prepare a picnic lunch to take on our bike ride that day. Each dinner
brought a tribute to the cuisine of another country.
Our two Dutch guides, Josée and Willemina,
were excellent. We had a choice of two tour lengths, one a bit longer
than the other. The first day we were fitted out on our sturdy, well
maintained Dutch bikes. With mostly flat terrain, we didn’t need our
lighter road bikes. The Dutch bikes rolled along very well. Each day the
Angeline motored down the rivers to our next overnight spot while we
toured a different section of the roads and villages bordering the
IJssel River and other bordering rivers. Some of the stops we made were
to Utrecht, Arhem, De Hoge Veluwe National Park, Zutphen, Deventer,
Appledoorn, and Geithorn. The
itinerary was varied and well paced. We even had time in the evening for
a guided walking tour of several of the villages. Before we knew it, our
two weeks were up and we pedalled back to Amsterdam for a last visit in
the city before flying home.
Joan and I would jump at the chance for a return
visit to the Netherlands. We highly recommend the company that arranged
our trip.
For more information see
Bike
and Barge and browse the IJssel Tour.
Read
Bruges May 2013
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Netherlands
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