April 27 – Hello from Bruges

Ok, Bruges may be my favorite city so far. We docked at the small town of Ghent this morning, with a short walking tour, and then took an hour motorcoach ride to the medieval town of Bruges. It was so adorable; I was clicking photos left and right. I have a feeling when I get home I won't know which spire is which, but those were fascinating to me, reminding me of every fairy tale I've ever read or seen in a Disney film.

The weather has finally caught up with us. Today was sunny, but very cold winds all day, and there was no way to hide from it unless we went inside. I actually had to wear my jacket. Tomorrow we go to Kinderdijk to see the famous windmills and they are predicting rain. Are you kidding me?! Not now, when we finally get to 'the good stuff".

Back to Bruges (pronounced broooozsh)...the market square was very entertaining. While a few of us waited while one of the girls climbed the 366 steps up to the bell-tower of one of the churches, I wandered around and watched the horse-drawn carriages prancing through the square. Most of the horses looked bored, but there was one chestnut horse with a white stripe down its nose that held his head up high and pranced so proudly, you would have never known it was a working horse; too precious. We also took a canal cruise after lunch, which was fun....30 of us sardined into a little boat.

Speaking of lunch, well food in general...today was a fun food day. Of course we had to try the Belgian chocolates, much to my amazement tasted much like the Belgian chocolates we get in the States. Oh well, chocolate is not my vice. One of our first experiences was in Ghent where we tasted the "noses of Ghent," these little cone shaped candies with firm jelly inside. The mixed berry one was my favorite so far, but I have a few more flavors to get through to be sure. Then in Bruges, we had a late lunch, and ended up at an Italian restaurant quite by accident. We were originally just trying to get out of the wind, but another woman I had met on the ship was there and saw us coming in and highly recommended the spaghetti Bolognese, which 2 of our group ordered. I ordered the basic margarita pizza and added Bolognese and mushrooms. My pizza was incredible!!!

So, armed with a fantastic lunch, I was much more adventurous at dinner tonight. My appetizer was a pastry with the most perfect escargot I have ever had in a cheesy cream sauce...YUM! For those of you curious, yes...escargot is the fancy name for snails. Don't even turn your noses up at me until you've tasted them. When cooked right, they are fantastic. My dinner ended up being breaded cheese wedges, much like fried mozzarella sticks, only fancier cheese and a salad. The other girls teased me about my snails and ordered boring (tough looking) steak and fries. Humph! My plate was nearly licked clean while they left half their meal on their plates.

Also, since we are still in Belgium, the desert was not served at dinner. Instead they had a chocolate buffet extravaganza up in the lounge. I tried something that looked like a chocolate pudding, but squirted at me when I stuck my spoon in it. No idea what it was, but not to my liking. I went back and stuck a bunch of fruit kabobs in the chocolate fountain and thought it was bliss.

Not sure if I mentioned this yesterday or not, but the Belgian waffles here are to die for. Even the ones you get out of the little shop window take-aways. While the girls had theirs layered with cream, strawberries, bananas, ice cream and enough chocolate to choke a horse, I had a simple one with strawberries and Nutella. Wow, what a yummy combination! My shirt was a bit tight when I got back to the ship tonight, so maybe need to back off on the food, but nothing has been inedible yet, and I have to try all the local stuff. Although, I was not able to bring myself to try the smoked eel, which they say is a staple over here. I may still try it before I leave, if I see a stand again...or not.

I'm praying for sunshine tomorrow, just long enough for some good windmill pictures, and sunshine on Friday morning when we go to the famous flower gardens.

 April 28 – Back in Holland

Wow, today was busy! We started off in Willemstad, a quaint little town shaped like a 5-point star, with a little dome church in the middle of town. This little town was protected by a canal/moat around the outside, which turned out to be a lovely quiet walk on my own, no guide or crowds this time. At 10am we all met back at the little church for an organ recital. I was expecting one of those big oompah organs, but it was just a normal pipe organ....just ok to me. 

We walked back to the ship and cruised through lunch to Dordrecht, just to park the ship, then took the motorcoaches to Kinderdijk to see the windmills, another of the UNESCO Heritage Sites we've seen on this trip. It had been raining and overcast all morning, but just as requested, the sun came out and rain stopped just about the time we arrived in Kinderdijk. God is good! This place has the largest collection of windmills in one area. We got to climb up into one of them set aside as a sort of living museum to see how people lived. The other 15 or so are actually occupied by people. After trying to maneuver in them I cannot imagine living in one. There was no headroom and was a lot like living in a closet with stairs so narrow it was more like climbing a ladder.  The walk along the river was so much more interesting, being spring an all. I came across several families of ducks and ducklings in the water. Too cute for words, so I took a bunch of pictures. You'd think I never saw a duck before. 

Anyway, back to the ship. We sailed for Schoonhoven for the night and we will get up early in the morning to head to Utrecht and Keukenhof to see the tulip fields. This was my whole reason for choosing this cruise, so I really hope our fantastic sunny weather remains just one more day. While we are at Keukenhof the ship will continue sailing and we will meet back in Amsterdam.

Tonight was the captain's farewell reception and dinner. Um, well, dinner was something quite surprising for me tonight. I had ordered the surf and turf as my main course, but when it arrived the prawn was quite large and WHOLE!!!, including the eyes and tentacles. Jean ordered the same thing and had already pulled the head off hers with no problems. Mine, on the other hand, came apart in the wrong place and flopped all kinds of stuff on my plate, which caused a startled yelp from me, getting the attention of everyone in the immediate area. I couldn't look at it anymore so asked our adorable waiter Dragos to take it away and clean it up. He was a bit confused, but took it back to chef and brought my steak back on a clean plate and the cleaned up shrimp. Then, the head waiter came over to make sure I was ok, and happy with what had been brought back. Nothing like a little embarrassment to top off dinner. Anyway, the rest of the evening was uneventful.

We have arrived in Schoonhoven now and our evening choices are show-tunes in the lounge, a walk into town, or movies in my cabin. Hmm...since we have to get up at 6:30am tomorrow I may opt for movies tonight. When I got back to my cabin, in addition to the nightly chocolates on my pillow, they left me a pair of ceramic clogs. I have learned that the traditional clogs have either yellow or red as the base color and are decoratively painted from there.

April 29 – Hello from Keukenhof

After a very early start to our day, the sunshine came out just as we were arriving at the Keukenhof Gardens. This place is incredible; the flowers were beautiful and amazing. I saw some species I've never seen before. I had not realized the daffodils bloom earlier, so most of them were already expired. The tulips are planted in such a way that there are always some in bloom for the 6-8 week season the gardens are open. We are here about mid season, since the sign says the park closes May 10th this year.

As we were driving past the many flower fields we saw people out there picking off what looked like perfectly healthy flowers. Our guide explained to us that the bulb is most important and most valuable. The flowers take too much energy away from the bulb so as soon as they bloom they snap the flowers off so the energy goes back into the bulb.

Well, we made it back to the ship about an hour late due to traffic, but the ship held lunch for us anyway. I had one last meal with my new friends and we exchanged contact info. I have to get packed back up and prepare for my train ride through Germany tonight. I will arrive in Passau tomorrow early morning. The Danube cruise portion of my trip with Uniworld River Cruises will be visiting Austria and Hungary.

Until next time...

- Teresa

European River Cruise Vacation Part 1

European River Cruise Vacation Part 3

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