Wednesday, May 27
Evening departure from JFK, New York

Thursday, May 28
Morning arrival in Amsterdam.  Check into hotel
Guided city walk in Amsterdam

Friday, May 29
Full day in Amsterdam to visit museums or day trip by train to visit Kroeller-Mueller Museum and Sculpture Gardens where we can also do some countryside bike riding. 

Saturday, May 30
Amsterdam museums or morning on your own.  Boarding begins at 4 PM.   Bicycles are distributed. Optional cycling through quiet parts of town.   12 mi (20 KM).  
Dinner on board. During the meal, the plans for the rest of the week are discussed.

Sunday, May 31:  Amsterdam - Haarlem, ± 26 mi. (42 km)
You leave the boat and take the ferry across the IJ, before cycling through the peaceful streets of Amsterdam-Noord. Quite quickly you are outside the city and riding through the recreational area of ‘t Twiske to the “Zaansche Schans”. This is a unique residential/industrial area with different museums, mills, crafts, restaurants, a visitor center, and boat trips. It gives you an excellent impression of how the Zaans region looked in the 17th and 18th centuries.  Once you have seen all you want, you continue on your way and pass the typical green-painted wooden houses of this area. You cross the IJ again, and then cycle via Spaarndam (where the boy who put his thumb in the dyke, Hans Brinker, is said to have lived) to Haarlem. Haarlem offers you many interesting sights from the seventeenth century. Haarlem lent its name to Harlem in New York, while another claim to fame is that Mozart once gave a concert in the St. Bavo church (1390-1520) on the Grote Markt (market place). There are many 17th century monuments: the weighing house, the Town Hall, and the Vleeshal (meat hall), which houses a part of the Frans Hals Museum with its 17th century old masters.
You can find works by Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raphael, and many others in the Teylers Museum on the River Spaarne. In the town centre you may find it interesting to  visit the "hofjes" where old folks live out their remaining years. These social and architectural phenomena are a common feature of 17th century towns and give a refreshing feel of peace and quiet in our bustling 21st century.  The boat is moored in the center of town, so you can see the St. Bavo church and take a leisurely stroll to the beautiful market with sidewalk cafes.

Monday, June 1:  Haarlem - via the dunes or the Keukenhof (April/May) - Lieden, ± 28 mi. (46 km)
The morning ride brings you through the center of Haarlem to see some of the typical almshouses. Then, if you like, you can visit the “Cruquiusgemaal”, one of the three steam-powered pumping stations that drained the Haarlemmermeer between 1849 and 1852. Now it is a museum and gives a good picture of the Dutch “war against the water.” In the spring, you can ride through the bulb-growing area to the Keukenhof, while in the summer you ride through the dunes to the beach. The boat is expecting you in Leiden. Leiden is an old city with many little courtyards, facades, and historical buildings built between the 15th and 18th century. Leiden, meaning ‘built on waters’, came in to existence around 800 AC as a market place at the confluence of the New Rhine, the Vliet and the Mare. It was a centre for the medieval linen industry. For a long time it was second only to Amsterdam in political importance. Leiden was a centre for resistance against the Spanish occupation in the 16th century. During the siege in 1574, six thousand of the inhabitants died from starvation and the plague. The Spanish siege was eventually broken by a combination of deliberate inundation and a storm. Shortly afterwards the Protestant fleet called the "Geuzenvloot" entered the city with provisions. This fact is still celebrated on October. As a reward for its courage in face of the Spaniards, Leiden was given the right to found a university in 1575. There are 14 museums in the town: The State Museum for Cultural Anthropology with many valuable exotic exhibits; The Municipal Museum (de Lakenhal 1640) which houses works by many famous Dutch painters: - Dou, Steen, Rembrandt and van Goyen; The State Museum of Archaeology with, among other artifacts, a well-stocked Egyptian wing. It is also the birthplace of Rembrandt van Rijn. The famous 400-year-old Hortus Botanicus, with its countless exotic plants and trees, is also well worth a visit. The town centre has many shops to browse through and you don’t have to look far for a cup of coffee.

Tuesday, June 2: Leiden - Delft, ± 28 mi. (46 km)
You head south out of town and cycle along the Vliet canal to cut through to the coast at Voorschoten. At the Wassenaarse slag you can have a rest at the beach before you head off via the dunes to The Hague.  In The Hague you can stop for a short visit to the Vredespaleis (houses the International Court of Justice) and the Binnenhof: the Dutch center of government.  Close by is the Mauritshuis, a former palace, now a renowned museum with paintings by Vermeer and Rembrandt. The route to Delft rides along water again. The painter Johannes Vermeer has made the town famous, but it is also known as the town of William of Orange. William of Orange lies buried in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft, the church where members of the House of Orange are still buried. Time permitting, you can visit a factory where the blue Delft ware is produced.

Wednesday, June 3: Visit Delft, cycling to Rotterdam, ± 15 mi. (32 km)
If you didn’t have enough time yesterday, you can still have a look around Delft this morning. The old city center is well worth visiting. The view from the tower of this church is impressive. On a clear day you can see pretty well the entire Southern route from here. In the afternoon, you bike through the Vlietlanden on narrow bike paths to Schiedam. Here you see the tallest windmills of The Netherlands; Schiedam is also the source of Dutch gin. You follow the bike paths along the Nieuwe Waterweg (New Waterway) to the modern center of Rotterdam, where you reach your floating hotel via the splendid Erasmus bridge.  Rotterdam was originally a small village built on the dike (dam) on the small Rotte River. The town was still of little importance when Erasmus was born there in 1469. From 1576 to 1602 ports were constructed which were used by the Sea Beggars’ fleet and became the second largest town in Holland. Nevertheless, when Rotterdam was captured by the French in 1794, its trade severely suffered. It was only after Belgium and the Netherlands separated in 1830 that Rotterdam once again became a transit port for the Rhine.  On May 14 1940 Rotterdam suffered German bombings that destroyed almost all of the old town. Only the town hall, the central post office, the stock exchange, and Erasmus’ statue were spared.


Thursday, June 4: Rotterdam - sail to Kinderdijk - cycling to Vianen, ± 31/38 mi. (50/60 km)
The first part of the route takes you through the center of Rotterdam so you get the best views of the modern architecture of this port. The sailing trip ends in Kinderdijk. You will bike east past well-preserved windmills. Cycling on, you pass through the picturesque meadow and watery region known as the Alblasserwaard towards Kinderdijk. In the past, land subsidence and frequent inundation made some kind of water management essential and so canals and ditches were dug. Between 1722 and 1761 many windmills were built and nineteen of them are still to be seen at Kinderdijk. After visiting one of the mills, you continue biking.  Via the Groot-Ammers stork sanctuary you cross the Lek to Schoonhoven, famous for its silver industry. Olivier van Noort, the first Dutchman to sail around the world (in the 17th-century) is buried in the Barholomeuskerk. The bells in the open clock tower of the town hall were cast from his ship’s cannons. On the street, in front of the town hall, you can see a stone circle where a witch was once burnt to death.  The short route follows the Lek river quite closely up to Vianen; the longer route follows the idyllic Vlist river via Haastrecht to Oudewater. In Oudewater you can visit the witch’s stool, where people were weighed in olden times; if they were too light, they were accused of being a witch.  It’s off to the river again, to follow the dyke as far as IJsselstein. Here you cross the river to spend the night in Vianen, an old fortified town.

Friday, June 5: Vianen - sail to Breukelen - cycle to Amsterdam, ± 24 mi. (38 km)
During your sailing breakfast, you cross the river and pass the impressive locks of the Amsterdam-Rhine canal. In Breukelen you disembark.  Brooklyn in New York is named after this charming little town. The last stage takes you along twisting water courses through large and small villages. This route is extremely picturesque with striking contrasts in landscape. This placid river is lined with handsome 17th century villas, each with its own waterfront gazebo, some with thatched roofs, others resembling classical stone temples. These villas were built by the wealthy Amsterdam merchants of the day. You pass through Vreeland, Loenen, certainly one of the most attractive villages along the Vecht, and Nieuwersluis, known for its military prison at the Willem III barracks. Riding along the Amstel river, you enter Amsterdam almost without noticing it. Thanks to the extensive network of bicycle paths, it doesn’t take you much trouble to visit some prominent places in the town center.  In the evening, you can take a round trip by boat over the canals, and then go for a walk through town.

Saturday June 6:  Amsterdam - Day of departure
Breakfast as usual from 8-9 AM, and then departure from the ship by 10 AM.