Holland and Belgium Viking River Cruise
October 25, 2024 - November 8, 2024
Summary
We really enjoy the Viking River Cruises - in case you weren't sure. This will be our sixth VRC. While some people
like to take the ocean bound cruises - not that there is anything wrong with those - we prefer the river cruises.
We prefer having land visible from the ship at all times.
This trip is similar to last year's Cities of Light and
Elegant Elbe combo trip in that we are following the
Holland and Belgium VRC with the
River of Gold VRC. Also, like last year's combo, though this
year's cruises are back-to-back, they are, technically, separate cruises and will be chronicled as such too.
These combos are not "offered to the publc" as-is, but rather we had to plan the two cruises as they are and get
ourselves from one airport at the end of the first cruise to the airport at the beginning of the second cruise.
For this first leg of our journey, we have a pre-cruise extension in Brussels, and a post-cruise extension in The Hague.
We print a packing list and a house checklist (thanks dad) before we leave. One item on the list is to turn the clocks back or ahead, in case. Since the time change was going to occur one weekend we were away, we turned them back just before leaving. And Europe turned them back the weekend we were leaving - so we didn't "gain an hour of sleep", we had to adjust for 5 hours of time zones instead of six. Or however that works.
Trip statistics:
- 6,089 [approximate] miles traveled not including all the walking or location / local shuttle / buses.
- 156,523 steps or 10.44 [approximate] miles walked by Linda.
- 188,331 steps or 12.56 [approximate] miles walked by Steve.
- 9.684 photos retained (yes, that's more than 200 pics per day... and "retained" because some images were deleted immediately after taking due to blurriness [probably] or a missed opportunity or whatever). This summary does not include all of them either, also because all phone pictures were taken twice due to the lack of preview, and some were combined to create stitches and or panaramic shots.
- 37 videos (though some were clips of the same event, then pieced together).
- 3 countries visited, 1 new one to add to our list.
- 5 exotic cars spotted: a McLaren, a Ferarri Testarosa, a Lamborghini, a couple Porsche Carerras.
This is the first chronicle - and certainly not the last - where a few pictures were taken or formatted to speciifically be
more mobile friendly - assuming the phone is held portrait and not landscape, that is.
As with our previous Viking cruises, this trip was great. The weather was pretty good and there was only one day with some
brief drizzle. Temps were generally in the mid to upper 50's F, with a couple days in the beginning in the 60s.
Day 1: Travel
including to the Holland and Brussels origination point in Brussels, Belgium
Day 2: Brussels, Belgium
including an orientation walk, and Our Lady of the Belssing Church
Day 3: Brussels, Belgium
including a bus and walking tour, Atomium, Ferris wheel, and Magritte Museum
Day 4: Antwerp, Belgium
including Travel from the end of the extension to the start of the cruise
Day 5: Antwerp, Belgium
including a food tasting walking tour, and Cathedral of Our Lady
Day 6: Nijmegen, Netherlands
including a walking tour, and Saint Stephen's Ecumenical church
Day 7: Aachen, Netherlands
including a walking tour, Charlemagne’s Cathedral & Treasury, and St. Foillan Church
Day 8: Wesel, Germany
including Xenten Roman ruins, Düsseldorf Walking Tour, and Saint Andres church
Day 9: Dordrecht and Gouda, Netherlands
including a walking tour, and a bus tour, Gouda
Day 10: Kinderdijk, Netherlands
including a vintage barge tour, and working windmill demo
Day 11: Hoorn, Netherlands
including a walking Tour, and a Local Performance
Day 12: Amsterdam, Netherlands
including a canal cruise, a walking tour, and Frans Hals Museum
Day 13: The Hague, Netherlands
including a walking tour, Mauritshuis Museum, and Prince William V Gallery
Day 14: The Hague, Netherlands
including Escher Museum, and Mesdag museum
Day 15: Travel
including to the River of Gold origination point in Lisbon, Portugal
