Bike and Barge in The Netherlands for Tulip Season

Today you board and check in between 1PM and 2PM local time. Late afternoon, the barge leaves the harbor towards Haarlem. Today's ride will be in Spaarndam. After dinner on board, we will take you on a town walk through the beautiful city center of Haarlem.

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After breakfast, get on a trip through the oldest tulip fields of Holland, including a visit to the Keukenhof Gardens. This is the most beautiful bulb park in the world, with an outstanding blaze of colors; seven million flowering tulips in a magnificent 80-acres background of traditional and modern gardening architecture. In the afternoon, you ride to the city of Leiden. Dinner will be on board tonight. Post-dinner, we can all go on a walk through the town.

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After breakfast today, we will ride out of Leiden and travel through Holland's 'green heart.' Visit a cheese farm near Zoeterwoude to taste and learn about cheese-making and explore Gouda, the famous cheese town where we visit the town's market square and the Gothic town hall. The main church of Gouda, devoted to Saint John, is world-famous for its stained glass windows. Post dinner, we can once again walk through the town.

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We are staying in Gouda this morning. Take advantage of some shopping for local memorabilia. Visit the market square with its cheese weigh house or explore the St. Johns church. We sail around noon and have lunch on board. From Alphen aan den Rijn, you cycle through South Holland via river Drecht and Amstel-Drecht channel to Kudelstaart.

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This morning, cycle to the flower auction of Aalsmeer, the largest in Europe. Here, vast quantities of flowers are trucked in, sold daily, and distributed all over Europe. Return on board for a late breakfast while the barge sails to Amsterdam. You will enjoy a lovely cruise through the city of Amsterdam. Ride from Amsterdam to Zaanse Schans, a unique hamlet where people live and work, with original houses and windmills. The oldest windmill was built in 1673 to grind mustard, spices, paint, and oil and saw wood into planks. Walking through the village, you will visit a clock museum, an old-fashioned grocery store, a house with period furniture, a clog maker, and a cheese farm. We will bike to Purmerend after the visit, where we spend the night on the barge.

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We ride to the Hortus Bulborum this morning, a unique garden museum dedicated to preserving rare and historic bulbs. More than 4,000 tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and other flowers are planted here. We continue biking to Egmond at the Northsea through the dunes to Alkmaar, a Dutch cheese city. As you wander the streets, you'll be amazed by Alkmaar's Old Town's beauty, well-preserved 17th-century buildings, and narrow, winding canals. Dinner is on your own today.

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After breakfast, we ride to the former windmill complex of the Schermer Polder. Here we visit the Schermerhorn Windmill Museum before heading to the beautiful town of De Rijp. Centuries of history remain evident in De Rijp's wooden facades, church, lock, and town hall. From here, we ride back to Amsterdam for a canal tour through the city's famous canals.

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After breakfast , disembark in Amsterdam around 9:30 AM.

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