Old World sights and brilliant blooms highlight a springtime cruise through the Low Countries. The itinerary includes Amsterdam, Antwerp and Keukenhof Gardens.
By Randy Mink, Senior Editor
Seeing Holland at tulip time and exploring the Dutch countryside had always been on my Europe checklist. So had drifting through the Old World on a luxury river cruise.
Happily, both dreams came true last spring upon boarding Emerald Cruises’ 182-passenger Emerald Star in Amsterdam for a week afloat on the rivers and canals of the Netherlands and Belgium.
With the blooming of tulips and other flowers, April and May are the big months for cruises in Holland and neighboring Belgium. A visit to Holland’s Keukenhof Gardens, a horticultural showplace famed for its tulip fields, would be the trip’s color-splashed climax.
The first two nights of my very first European river adventure, titled “Holland & Belgium in Bloom,” were in Amsterdam aboard the ship, a welcome feature that gave passengers without pre- or post-cruise plans a chance to tour the Dutch capital and vicinity.
Exploring the Canals of Amsterdam
An Amsterdam highlight for me was a canal cruise, which I initially thought would be too touristy. But the relaxing, one-hour circuit provided the perfect introduction to Amsterdam, a city laced with 165 canals threading 90 artificial islands. We passed the city’s trademark gabled houses from the 17th and 18th centuries and, on the Prinsengracht canal, glided by the Anne Frank House, a four-story building where Anne’s family and other Jews hid from the Nazis during World War II. Views of Amsterdam from the water offered a great perspective, and it was nice to be away from the car and bike traffic.
Cycling is a common way for locals and tourists to get around Amsterdam, but pedestrians need to be vigilant, cautioned our guide as we hopped off the bus near the boat docks. The biggest danger for tourists in Amsterdam, she said, is straying into a bike lane. The Dutch may be a friendly people, but once on a two-wheeler, she confided, “the beast in us comes alive….We feel like kings and queens on our bikes.”
Antwerp French Fries
Getting a Taste of Belgium’s Second-Largest City
In Antwerp, Belgium’s second-largest city and Europe’s second leading port in terms of tonnage, we awoke to industrial scenery on the Scheldt River. Underrated as a tourist city, Antwerp was one of my favorite ports of call.
After an hour-long, guided walk through the medieval core of Antwerp—an enchanting, tourist-friendly quarter just steps from our ship—we had the whole day to poke around on our own. Many passengers went inside the magnificent Cathedral of Our Lady to admire its Gothic glory and paintings by Antwerp’s own Peter Paul Rubens. The Rubens House, where the painter lived and worked, was another focal point. Besides checking out tourist sights like these, my group was determined to sample the food and drink specialties of Belgium—beer, chocolate, waffles, french (or Flemish) fries.
At the Groenplaats, a cafe-filled square behind the massive cathedral, we grabbed a seat and went local with an amber-hued De Koninck beer, the signature brew of Antwerp customarily served in the brand’s goblet-shaped glass. Nearby, at Friteur No. 1, we treated ourselves to piping-hot frites (fries) served Belgian-style with a generous blob of creamy mayonnaise, one of many choices for dipping.
A few blocks from the cathedral and cobweb of medieval lanes, we dove into the Meir, the main shopping street. At a former palace we popped into The Chocolate Line to admire the vintage artwork and architectural flourishes as well as treat ourselves to truffles. Operated by Dominique Persoone, a TV personality and co-founder of the Guild of Belgian Chocolatiers, it’s one of many Antwerp chocolatiers that upholds Belgium reputation for producing some of the finest chocolates in the world. And you can’t go to Belgium without trying a freshly-made waffle, so before heading back to the ship in late afternoon, I went to Queen of Waffles, a tiny place near the cathedral, and ordered one slathered in Nutella.
Antwerp’s Old World trappings were just what I was looking for, but it was always good to get back to the ultra-contemporary Emerald Star, a regal beauty sporting a neutral color scheme accented with mirrors, chrome, and touches of black and white. A unique Emerald Cruises feature: an indoor swimming pool that converts to a theater at night.
I always looked forward to the dining room’s extensive lunch buffet—eight hot dishes, salad bar, meats, cheeses, breads, desserts—and couldn’t wait to see what Dutch or Belgian specialty would be featured each day. Regional dishes included Dutch poffertjes (light, fluffy mini pancakes with egg liqueur sauce to ladel on) and bitterballen (small, deep-fried balls of meat and bread crumbs with mustard and mayonnaise for dipping). My very favorite was the kirschenplotzer, a Belgian bread pudding-like dessert made with sour cherries and topped with warm vanilla sauce.
In the eastern Netherlands city of Arnhem, our ship docked right next to the Rhine River bridge that figured in the largest airborne operation in history, when in September of 1944 thousands of British troops parachuted onto fields near Arnhem. Our shore excursion included a brief visit to Arnhem Oosterbeck Cemetery followed by an hour at Airborne Museum Hartenstein, where dramatic exhibits and eyewitness videos describe battles and how Dutch civilians endured the German bombing and looting of their city.
Holland’s Keukenhof Gardens
Holland’s Keukenhof Gardens Dazzles Visitors with Springtime Splendor
After returning to Amsterdam, we boarded buses for famed Keukenhof Gardens, 16 miles to the southwest. The largest bulb-flower garden on earth is tulip time central. Open for only eight weeks from late March to mid-May, this horticultural showplace is a staple of springtime river cruises in the Low Countries. We had time to roam Keukenhof’s curving paths through stunning flower displays bordered by vivid green lawns, gawking at the beds of colorful blooms artfully designed by 100 bulb growers and exporters; gardeners were hard at work planting and grooming as we walked by.
Keukenhof boasts more than seven million bulbs in some 1,600 varieties of tulips, hyacinths, crocuses and daffodils. An 1892 windmill provides additional picture-taking opportunities, while pavilions offer more contrived photo set-ups.
Keukenhof’s pavilions feature flower shows, historical exhibits and artworks, not to mention gift shops—17 of them—selling wooden shoes, Delftware, chocolates, cheese and other souvenirs. Visitors can choose from a variety of cafes and snack stands offering Dutch treats like pickled herring, apple pie and croquettes. I enjoyed watching the vendor make my stroopwaffel (syrup waffle), two thin waffle disks stuck together with warm caramel sauce.
Emerald Cruises offers three spring 2024 departures of its “Holland & Belgium in Bloom” itinerary. The roundtrip from Amsterdam will include port calls at Rotterdam and The Hague as well as Antwerp and Arnhem.
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