Destinations

Holland: Tulip Season – May/April Holland: May to October Belgium: Brussels/Bruges  France: Paris/Montargis

Germany: Main River Germany: Mosel and Saar Rivers Italy: Mantua/Venice

 

 

 

 

Holland: Tulip Season – May/April Holland at tulip season is unforgettable. The much loved flower is everywhere, in fields and gardens and public parks, in familiar colors and varieties as well as colors and varieties seldom seen. Nowhere is spring more extravagantly welcomed than in the province of South Holland, where flowers are in lavish display at Keukenhof, the world’s largest garden. In this storied place more than seven million tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths inhabit seven distinct gardens and flower and plant shows are presented in several pavilions. The indoor shows often have the addition of another Dutch enthusiasm, well-chosen works of art. Keukenhof, located near Lisse in the province of South Holland, is a destination bound to delight. Serious gardeners will find the latest trends and newest ideas here; those who are content to simply enjoy the vistas are never disappointed.  Our barge will be our home, eliminating need for constant packing and unpacking and providing a sun deck from which to observe this spring-time world. Dinners and breakfasts are served aboard by a talented kitchen staff; lunches are in interesting restaurants on shore. These tours can include the provinces of both Noord and Zuid (North and South) Holland, two of the Netherlands’ twelve provinces. Amsterdam, bustling and busy and full of interest, is in Noord Holland. Back to top ^
Holland: May to October With or without tulips, Holland is full of interest and pleasure. Our barge takes us through a bucolic landscape interrupted by small towns with houses fronting directly on brick streets. This North Holland route moves past dunes and old fishing towns like canal-threaded Enkhuizen and Hoorn, where the rich history includes once-thriving East Indian trade. Older women in Enkhuizen still wear traditional local dress and the wealth that marked the town in the 17th century is reflected in the Zuiderzee Museum, centered on local history. In Hoorn we find a blend of modern and historic architecture, underlining the international character of the town. Another interesting city is Alkmaar, canal-threaded and hospitable to our barge. Here both medieval buildings and local cheeses reward attention. Alkmaar’s museums are a unique lot:  one for cheese, one for beer, and one for the Beatles because John Lennon’s first guitar was made here. The tallest tower in town, Grote Sint Laurenkerk, is often the scene of weddings – you might glimpse one. We will also visit the island of Texel (pronounced “Tessel” by those who live there), the largest of the Wadden Islands that form a chain off the coast of North Holland. In this area where land is almost always in sight of the sea, traveling by barge is ideal. Back to top ^
Belgium: Brussels / Bruges There are beer lovers and chocolate lovers, along with some who love both; all are made happy on this tour through an area as proud of its beer as it is of its chocolates. Mussels are another draw and, on a completely different wave length, the medieval architecture that still remains in towns along the Zenne and Scheldt rivers. Brussels, capital of Belgium, has a plethora of museums and parks and is a fine town for walking about. Our barge, our moving hotel, will also take us to Ghent, a busy seaport where the car-free center still is lined by medieval architecture. Ghent’s pleasures include not only a Museum of Fine Arts, where Peter Paul Rubens and other Flemish painters reign, but also a Museum of Contemporary Art to bring the art world into the 21st century. In Ghent a bagel is called a “mastel,” the praline chocolates are famous as is a notable local mustard. Antwerp, the diamond center of the world, has since the 1990s also become a leading fashion center, competing with London, Milan, Paris, and still functions as a busy seaport. In Bruges cobbled lanes and a network of canals lead to and from market squares where the Middle Ages seem still in place. A chocolate museum in Bruges gives that culinary pleasure the serious attention it deserves. Tours start at either end of the route. Back to top ^
France: Paris / Montargis In the heart of France, our barge moves between the ancient town of Montargis (pralines invented here) and Paris itself. Montargis is south of Paris, the riverside increasingly urban as we move closer to that splendid city. Later, the Eiffel Tower lets us know exactly where we are. Our barge traverses the Seine and the Loing (Lateral) Canal, where the lock-keeper rules and may decide to finish his meal before sending us through. Among the sights we see is Chateau Fontainebleau, where royal occupants resided for seven centuries, and gardens by Le Notre who also designed the gardens at Versailles. Artists have looked long at all this country before us; we know it from the Barbizon painters (the little town of Barbizon is at the edge of Fontainebleau Forest and in the neighborhood of our route). They brought color and freshness to the idea of landscape painting, paving the way for the Impressionists who quickly succeeded them. Barbizon painters included Corot, Millet, Daubigny; Impressionists hardly need naming but some of the unforgettable ones are Monet, Renoir, Pissaro, Degas. The landscape we see from our deck helped to shape paintings still loved today. Tours start at either end of the route. Back to top ^
Germany: Main River The Main River (“Main” pronounced “Mine”) is in the green heart of Germany, going through country that produces beer and country that produces wine, and has its share of both castles and half-timbered houses. The tour begins in Bamberg (more breweries than Munich) and also stops in Würzberg (famous for special wine vintages). We are in Franconia, and will focus on the art, history and culture of that storied area. The reliably excellent kitchen staff of our floating hotel will produce dinners and breakfasts reflecting local cuisine and lunches are in restaurants on shore. Note: breakfast can include meats, cheeses, cereals, yogurt and a selection of excellent breads. We will visit a knights’ chapel where more than two hundred medieval knights’ coats of arms are displayed, we’ll see architecture ranging from medieval to baroque and rococo, we’ll see frescoes by Tiepolo that survived World War II bombs because they had been carefully removed and safely stowed away. In Miltenberg, where the city walls and gate remain in place, a local industry in glass, begun in medieval times, survives today with products for industrial and scientific markets. The mixture of ancient and modern here where history runs deep may be the thing you remember most from this trip by barge, itself a means of transportation running back to antiquity but fully adapted to modern expectations. Back to top ^
Germany: Mosel and Saar Rivers The rivers move in their own idiosyncratic ways, turning one direction and then another, in this land where porcelain is made, where a castle dates in three digits (964 A.D.), and wines are outstanding. Trier, Germany’s oldest city (founded 16 B.C., by the Romans), is on the banks of the Mosel. one of the sights in Trier, a fast-forward to only yesterday, is the Karl Marx House.  We are traveling through landscape that calls for idyllic as a description, its history reaches back so far that handsome hundred-year-old Art Nouveau buildings, in Trarbach, seem startlingly modern. Museums are plentiful, as are vineyards, and views from the barge invite contemplation. Because so much has happened here, in the thousands of years people have inhabited these valleys, there are interesting things to look into whenever we go ashore. The tour will wind up in Koblenz, where the Mosel and Rhine rivers come together and the city founders were Roman. The city name stems from “confluentes,” the Latin word for confluence. Meanwhile, our floating hotel provides a vantage point for viewing and the luxury of packing and unpacking only once. Lunches are in towns we visit; memorable dinners and breakfasts are served on board. Back to top ^
Italy: Mantua / Venice Travel as the doges did, by water, for your leisurely exploration of art and architecture by Italian masters in areas close to Venice and in Venice itself. Among the architectural splendors is the Palazzo Te, a handsome Mannerist-designed, fresco-decorated 16th-century pleasure palace just outside the busy center of Mantua; Ferrara’s Palazzo dei Diamanti where the painting collection is justly renowned; the Villa Pisani and its frescos by the Tiepolos, father and son. In Venice, at the Accademia, the color-drenched canvases produced by Venetian painters are in full bloom, from one famous name to another. Venice is historically hospitable to tourists but our itinerary will bring us to some sights most tourists never see, as well as such un-missable destinations as the Doges’ Palace and St. Mark’s Basilica. The long history here includes both splendid and sordid elements. For seven nights the barge is home (no packing and unpacking, your room travels with you) and every day brings further pleasures. Dinners and breakfasts are on board, produced by an able kitchen staff, while lunches are an opportunity to sample restaurants on shore. Part of the enjoyment of the trip is that in traveling by barge you are fitting into the countryside and the city in the manner it has known the longest. Back to top ^