No We Haven’t Left Yet
But We’re Heading Back To Europe
Specifically The Netherlands for Tulips and Windmills
We booked this cruise two years ago, which is fairly typical for us – especially Viking river cruises that tend to fill up very quickly. The tricky part of this cruise was the timing; the whole point is to be in the Netherlands as close to the peak of the tulip season as possible, so April is best. But we also need to deal with the timing of Passover, which also tends to be in April. In 2026, Passover was very “early” (starting on April 1), which gave us the opportunity to book this cruise for the very end of April through the beginning of May.
It looks like we’ll be sailing on several rivers, though I can’t tell the names of any of them from this graphic. I’m sure we’ll hear all about it once we are on board.
We have a couple of extra days in Amsterdam before we board the ship. We’ve been in Amsterdam several times before; this time we’re taking the opportunity to revisit some sites we haven’t been to in quite a while – the Rijksmuseum for one, and the flower market, where we’ll be able to buy some tulips for a few people back home.
One of the ports is a duplicate – Kinderdijk, with all its marvelous windmills. The others are all new to us. Our stop in Antwerp gives us access to Brussels for the day (top priority: buy Leonedas chocolate). Our day in Middleburg will include a day trip to Bruges.
Happy thoughts for good weather and easy sailing!
Maryland Meshugas 