Clogs, Cheese and Windmills! Oh and Tulips.

As most of you are aware, I recently went on a River Cruise on the MS Bellejour through Amsterdam’s Waterways.  My blog this week is all about the excursions that are included with the River Cruise.

On our 2nd Day we visited Hoorn, which is a lovely little quaint village, we were not here for long, so didn’t get a chance to explore too much.  But the next day we were in Enkhuizen, and this for us to visit the wonderful Keukenhof Gardens.  This was a very long day, as you get picked up around 9am on the coach, the ship provides you with a packed lunch, it is then an hours drive to the Gardens.  We did get to spend a good 4 hours walking around the Gardens, which are much bigger than I had anticipated (got my FitBit steps in).  They had just had their Flower Power festival, so a lot of the displays were still up and stunning.  After our day out, we headed back to the coach in time for a quick drink and dinner.

The next day we sailed through to Zaandam, for our trip to Zaanse Schans for the Windmill village.  This one was an afternoon excursion so we had a chilled out morning, had lunch then made our way to the coaches.  The village was only a short half hour journey, and it was lovely, all the old buildings and seeing people working away.  And it turned out that people actually lived in the village, it wasn’t just a tourist attraction.  So, we saw how clogs were made, and how they made their cheese.  We even got to taste different varieties (including pesto flavoured and curry flavour), some were very nice and some (sheep’s cheese) not so nice.  Picked myself up some Gouda and some chocolate for my wife, then it was back to the ship, as tonight was Gala night (instead of Friday).

After dinner, the captain introduced all his crew, with the Baked Alaska, which was really nice, as we knew the bar staff and the restaurant staff, but it was nice to see the other crew members behind the scenes and for them to be recognised.

The last but one day (Friday) was a City Tour of Amsterdam and a Canal Cruise.  With this is was a coach tour, and they took us around Amsterdam, talking but the different museums and other talking points (Red Light District), after the cruise and tour, we were left to our own devices so a couple of us just continued to walk around Amsterdam with a quick pit stop on the way.  Then it was time for our final night, which we were all gutted about as we had all got on as a group really well.

All in all my first experience on a River Cruise ship will definitely not be my last, I can definitely see the attraction, smaller ships, more intricate ports of call – more of the world to see.   So if you have ever wondered what its like on a River Cruise, give it a try – you won’t be disappointed! Check out a couple of my photos below!