April 2015 - Bike And Barge - The Netherlands Tulip Tour

I follow a FB page called I Love Cycling and found a link to various cycling tours in Europe and the 4 night/5 day Tulip Tour by Actieve Vaarvakanties caught my eye and it was on sale - BOGO - buy one get one free - total of €499.00 for the two of us.  This was a very last minute trip, booked quite quickly without a lot of thought - very unlike us! I paid for the tour on the 30th March and the tour started on the 13th April.    But it turned out to be one of the best trips we have taken since living in Europe (Germany).

Biking in The Netherlands - this is what one must do once in their life.  The words bicycles and The Netherlands go hand in hand - you will see.......

We left Erlangen, on the 10th April with our bikes all strapped to the car and headed for the northern German city of Münster, where we would spend our first night.

After checking in at Hotel Landgraf, we hopped on our bikes and rode into the Altstadt of Münster - about 8 km.

Münster is a university town and very bike friendly - see the one or two bikes behind me?

The architecture is lovely.

After our afternoon in the city, we had a beer on the hotel's patio and then had a wonderful dinner.

As we were arriving in Amsterdam a couple of days early, we had arranged with the owners of the barge (La Belle Fleur), Els and Sander, to stay on the barge which is located about a 10 minute walk to Amsterdam's Altstadt (only €100/night including breakfast in downtown Amsterdam!  A great deal.

La Belle Fleur is a former cargo ship, built in 1929.  In 1993 the cargo ship was turned into a passenger ship.  The interior was renovated in 2011-12.  On board there are 8 double and 1 single cabins each with their own bathroom and closets.

It is beautiful - as you can see.......




Once we parked the car and checked in, we walked into 'town'

Bicycle garage!!

 The next day we had breakfast and then we jumped on our bikes and rode - not sure where we were going, but got there  lol

First stop, the village of Durgerdam.

I guess Tim and I were looking a little lost when this lovely lady asked us if we needed help.
She guided us to one of the dyke paths and told us to go to Marken and then to Volendam.

Riding on the dyke!

Next stop....Marken

Village of Marken

Once in Marken we made our way to the boat, 'The Marken Volendam Express,' that would take us over to Volendam.  We loaded our bikes and enjoyed looking at the 'tall ships' that were sailing around the bay.

Arriving in Volendam

After a quick ride through Volendam (very very busy with bus loads of tourists), we headed home.

After 50km of very windy riding, we arrived back at the barge.

That afternoon we walked into town again.....

THE TULIP TOUR

Monday

Cycling distance approx. 35 km

Once everyone was on board (there were 11 of us - 7 Americans, 2 Germans and 2 Canadians plus 2 crew/owners and one tour leader), we had lunch and then set sail.  We were dropped off in a little village and Sitza, our biking guide lead us through villages and fields and ended up at Zaanse Schans, a wonderful collection of well-preserved windmills and houses.  Thirty-five houses have been moved here, from the surrounding area, since 1961.

Zaanse Schans

At the end of the day we rode back to the barge in Zaandam.

Zaandam


Tuesday

Cyclng distance approx. 25 km

Every morning, just after breakfast, Els brought out all the ingredients for our lunch. We each then made our own sandwiches and packed our lunch bag for the day.

After breakfast we set sail for Spaarndam.  After we got through the locks we got 'dropped off' and started our cycling day.

 Cycling through the countryside of this part of The Netherlands is lovely.

We cycled through the sand dunes to the North Sea beaches where we ate our lunch.

Then it was off to Haarlem

 thThere you have the time to enjoy a beach walk and afterwards you bike to the city of Haarlem.  This old city is famous for it’s courtyards.  Many of these you can visit and by doing this you will get a view of the typical dutch way of live.  But Haarlem is more then that… It's Frans Hals museum, it's monuments and old houses are a beautiful side to see.

Wednesday

Cycling distance approx. 45 km

Today your bike trip starts in the direction of Lisse, you can visit the most famous garden of Holland, the Keukenhof.  There you can enjoy the tulip fields in all forms, shapes and colours. 

Afterwards you continue your cycle tour to Leiden.  In the afternoon you can stop by one of the many tulip fields and enjoy a walk through it.  You can play with the tulip leaves that are left behind on the fields and make the most beautiful pictures. 

Leiden is the city where Jayne's Mum was born.  Tim, Wayne and I left the group shortly after lunch and headed to Leiden on our own.  Once there Wayne went to find the barge and Tim and I went looking for my Mum's birth house - 

Leiden is a very beautiful city.  So beautiful that it received the UNESCO protection title for the complete old city, which contains the oldest university of Holland, but also the birth houses of many of the Dutch masters like Rembrandt, Lucas van Leyden and Jan Steen.

Thursday

Cycling distance approx. 35 km

When you say Holland, you say more than tulips, so today we are going the Dutch way. During the bike tour we stop at a cheese farm, where you can learn everything about the process of cheese making and live on the farm. We spend the night at Kudelstaart, a small village near Aalsmeer.

Friday

Cycling distance approx. 22 km

We had an early start today as we had to visit the flower auction in Aalsmeer at FloraHolland. It is the world's largest trading center for flowers and plants in the world.
It is a pretty amazing place.  A few facts:

⚘ Turnover:
€4.4 billion per year
€9.6 billion per day

⚘Volume: 12.5 billion flowers and plants sold annually, 34.5 million per day
3.7 billion roses
1.7 billion tulips
117 million phalaenopsis
77 million kalanchoë
20 million hydrangea

⚘>100,000 transactions per day
⚘3,739 employees
⚘4,700 members - of which 600 are based abroad
⚘2,500 customers
⚘total area of FloraHolland is 1,297,813 ㎡- that is 220 football fields
⚘38 auction clocks
⚘direct and indirect employment within the sector provides 250,000 full-time jobs
⚘top 5 import countries - Kenya, Ethiopia, Israel, Belgium and Germany
⚘top 5 export countries - Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Russia

After our tour of FloraHolland we cycled back to the barge (now parked in the outskirts of S. Amsterdam) and we sailed on the Kostverlorenvaart canal, on the west side of Amsterdam.


Once docked, we got a group photo, said our good-byes to some of the passengers and therest of us joined Sitza on a walking tour around Amsterdam, and enjoyed the beautifull old canalhouses or “grachtenpanden”, and explored the small streets of the old city centre. 

We ended up back at the barge, where we originally boarded. 

After a coffee, we all said our goodbyes.

Tim and I stayed another night on the barge and headed home the next morning.

We loved this trip!  We will definitely be back to Leiden to do some more exploring.