Cycling into the heart of Holland

Holland is a country synonymous with cycling and what better way to explore it than by bike and boat? The classic artist's landscape, flat, fertile and open, with long canals, windmills and the historic towns and villages, is best explored by boat and bicycle - spend the days exploring by bike and the evenings relaxing on a comfortable barge on the canals and lakes.

This classic southern route combines the classic Dutch landscape with time near the coast, a varied trip that guarantees a striking introduction to the heart of the Netherlands. Our relaxed cycling takes us along rivers one day, the next day roaming the centre of 16th Century towns like Delft, Leiden and Haarlem.

We pass the absolutely breathtaking eighteen windmills in Kinderdijk, built around 1750. We discover the world's largest seaport Rotterdam, appropriately by boat and travel onto the beach of Scheveningen near The Hague. There’s even some time for exploring museum, shopping and outdoor cafés in Amsterdam.

Your accommodation for the week is on a specially designed boat, where you will be able to share experiences of the day with the other cyclists over dinner. During the day route descriptions are provided and you are free to explore at your own pace.

Detailed Itinerary:
Day 1
The tour starts in Amsterdam which is easily accessible from the UK by boat or plane. At 4.00pm you embark onto the boat - your home for the coming week. You will be met on board by the captain, crew and guide and after stowing your luggage you can enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and meet the other guests. Time permitting you can take a short cycle tour through the northern part of the city and, if there is enough time, also venture a short distance outside the city limits to get your first taste of the Dutch countryside. After dinner on board the guide will explain the programme for the next day and the coming week.

Day 2
The ship is left behind and a ferry takes you across the Ij where the cycling starts in the Amsterdam-Noord district. Soon you are out of the city, pedaling through the recreation area 't Twiske (a 650 hectares' area, one third of which is water) to the 'Zaanse Schans'. Here you'll find its traditional weatherboard houses, warehouses and windmills, which may give you the feeling of stepping back into the 17th or 18th century. Among other things a cheese farm, a clog maker and an old bakery can be visited here.

When you have spent enough time at the Zaanse Schans you continue on your way and cycle along the green-painted timber houses that are so typical of this area. After crossing the IJ once again you cycle to Spaarndam. Spaarndam is a village on the river Spaarne. Here you can find the statue of Hansje Brinker on the IJdijk. Hansje is a character from an American novel who saved the country from flooding by putting his finger in the dike.
 
Further on to Haarlem. Haarlem offers you many interesting sites from the 17th century. The Grote Markt (Market Square) with the Grote Kerk (Great Church) or St. Bavo Kerk (1390-1520) is particularly well-known; Mozart is one of the people who once gave a concert here. The city of Haarlem (origin of the name Harlem in New York) is a lively and friendly place for shopping. Other famous places besides the St Bavo Church are the Town Hall, the Waag (weighing-house) and the Vleeshal (the former Meat Hall, now housing part of the Frans Hals museum with many 17th-century old masters). On the Spaarne you may see and visit the oldest museum in the Netherlands: the Teylers Museum. It displays drawings by great artists such as Rembrandt, Michelangelo and Raphael.

Day 3
Today starts with a short tour on bike through the centre of Haarlem, to have a better look at some of the city's typical almshouses. Upon departure from Haarlem you may cycle to the 'Cruquiusgemaal' (Cruquius Pumping Station): one of the three steam-powered pumping stations that drained the Haarlemmer Lake between 1849 and 1852. Now a museum, it gives you an excellent idea of the Dutch 'battle against the water'. The Haarlemmermeer Polder, a former large lake, is 4.5 metres below sea level. The area is still continually pumped out to keep the land dry, with the water being pumped into a canal which encircles the polder area. From the canal the water is transported to the sea. Schiphol (Ships' Hell!), the Dutch national airport, is situated in this polder.
 
In summer you now cycle through the dunes to the beach, in springtime you can cycle through the bulb field area to the Keukenhof. The Keukenhof is a 32 hectares' park where every spring (March-May) the very best and most beautiful bulb flowers are shown to the world. The Keukenhof has become one of the best-known places in Holland and is now one of the most-photographed sites in the world. In the neatly laid-out fields over 7,000,000 daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and other flowers can be seen.
 
The night is spent in Leiden, which is a historic city with many little courtyards, façades, and historical buildings built between the 15th and 18th century. Leiden, meaning ‘built on waters’, came into existence around 800 AD as a market place at the confluence of the rivers Old and 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 importance. A well-known episode of Leiden's history is the Spanish occupation in the 16th century. In 1574 the Spanish siege was eventually broken as a result of a deliberate inundation and the assistance of the Protestant fleet called the 'Geuzenvloot'. This fact is still celebrated annually on October 3rd. As a reward for its courage in face of the Spaniards, Leiden was given the right to found a university in 1575. Leiden is also the city where Rembrandt van Rijn was born. There are 14 museums in the town: the State Museum for Cultural Anthropology with many valuable exotic exhibits; the Municipal Museum (the Lakenhal, 1640), which houses works by many famous Dutch painters such as Dou, Steen, Rembrandt and van Goyen and the State Museum of Archaeology with, among other artefacts, a well-stocked Egyptian wing. The famous 400-year-old Hortus Botanicus (Horticultural Garden) with its countless exotic plants and trees is also well worth a visit. The town centre has many shops to browse through and many outdoor cafés along the waterfront.

Day 4
You leave the city in a southerly direction and cycle along the Vliet canal. In Voorschoten you turn westwards towards the coastline. At 'Wassenaarse Slag' you can take a break on the beach and from there your path takes you through the dunes to the Hague. You pass by the Peace Palace (housing the International Court of Justice) and the 'Binnenhof' with the 13th-century 'Ridderzaal' (Knights' Hall), seat of the Dutch Government and Parliament. Every third Tuesday of September the Queen's Speech is delivered in the Ridderzaal. Next to the Binnenhof is the Mauritshuis, a former palace, now a famous museum with paintings by Vermeer, Rembrandt and Rubens. Another place worth a visit is 'Panorama Mesdag', the largest panoramic circular painting in the world, depicting 19th-century Scheveningen. Of the many royal palaces in the Hague only a few are still operational. You may see the Noordeinde Palace, where the Queen works and the Huis ten Bosch Palace, where she lives. The city of the Hague has an international character with its wide avenues, parks and stately mansions.
 
The route to Delft takes you along the water once again. This is a well-conserved medieval city with canals, a magnificent town hall and a royal tomb in the Nieuwe Kerk. It is here that the famous Delft Blue pottery originated. This distinctive blue and white pottery is still produced by hand. Delft Pottery also exists in black and even in green, which is just as beautiful as the better-known blue and white variety. If there is enough time you can visit one of the Delft Blue factories.

There are numerous museums and other sites of interest in Delft. This is not only a city of culture but also a city of science. The Netherlands are known around the world for their water management projects. Most of these projects were designed here.

Day 5
In case you did not have enough time to do so yesterday you can now explore Delft. The old centre is well worth a visit. When the weather is clear the view from the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) is spectacular; a large part of the Southern Tour can be seen from here! In the afternoon the trip takes you over narrow cycle tracks through the Vlietlanden to Schiedam.
 
The most prominent feature of this city are its five windmills, the tallest in the world. Once there were over twenty mills in the town, most of them being used for grinding grain for the distillers who distilled malt spirit for the jenever (Dutch type of gin) industry. The remaining five giants are still characteristic of the city. Via good cycle paths that lead you along the Nieuwe Waterweg to the modern centre of Rotterdam, crossing the magnificent Erasmus bridge you will come back to your floating hotel.
 
Rotterdam, situated in the Rhine and Maas delta, started off as a small village on the dam closing off the river Rotte. Erasmus was born here in 1469. In those days the city was still of little importance. At the end of the 16th century Rotterdam got its harbours, that served as a base for the 'Watergeuzen' (literally 'Sea Beggars'; resistance groups against the Spaniards) fleet and it became the second city of Holland. During the French occupation, however, Rotterdam was strongly hindered in their activities. It was only after 1830, when the separation of Belgium and the Netherlands took place, that it regained its role of transit port for the Rhine delta. Nowadays Rotterdam is still one of the largest ports in the world.

At the beginning of the Second World War the city lost all of its centre by heavy bombing. The only edifices that were not too heavily damaged and have therefore remained are the town hall, the head post office, the Stock Exchange and the statue of Erasmus

Day 6
The first part of today's route will be sailed through the centre of Rotterdam, thus giving you the best view of the modern architecture of this port. Your cycling day starts in Kinderdijk and then takes you through the Alblasserwaard, situated in between rivers and showing you a wide scenery of water and meadows. The many inundations and the slowly sinking surface made water management essential in this fenland. Canals and ditches were dug and windmills were constructed; of the latter nineteen remain today. Their job has nearly totally been taken over by electric pumping stations. After a visit to one of the mills you continue on bike.
 
Via the 'storks village' of Groot-Ammers you cross the river Lek and enter Schoonhoven renowned for its silver industry. In the Bartholomeus Church Olivier van Noort was buried, the first Hollander who made a trip around the world, in the 17th century. The bells in the little open tower of the town hall were cast out of his ship's cannons. On the square in front of the town hall a stone circle in the pavement reminds us of the place where once a witch was burnt.

The short route then mainly follows the Lek until Vianen, the somewhat longer route goes along the idyllic little river Vlist via Haastrecht to Oudewater. Here you can visit the 'Heksenwaag' (witches' weighhouse), where in the old days women were weighed and declared a witch if weighing too little. Then you cross the river and follow the dike to Ijsselstein. One more river crossing takes you into Vianen, a small, old, fortified town where we spend the night.

Day 7
While having a breakfast cruise you pass through the dramatic locks in the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal. We disembark in Breukelen, the charming town that rendered its name to Brooklyn, the well-known New York district. The final stretch takes you along meandering waterways and through smaller and larger villages. The diverse scenery of this route is very picturesque. On the river Vecht numerous 17th-century country houses for the upper middle class of those days can be seen. Elegant gazebos or 'teahouses' mark the corners of the spacious gardens on the water front.
 
You cycle through Vreeland, Loenen and Nieuwersluis. Loenen is definitely one of the most beautiful towns upon the Vecht. Nieuwersluis is mainly known for the Willem III Kazerne, a military detention place.
 
Almost without noticing you enter Amsterdam, following the Amstel River. The extensive network of bicycle paths ensures a relatively easy way back into the city, showing you some remarkable sites in the centre. Then it is time to say goodbye to your bike. Before the farewell dinner you may want to go for a walk in town. At night you may want to take a canal trip or go on a walk through the centre of the city.

Day 8
After our last breakfast, it's time to disembark (by 10am) and say goodbye to your fellow passengers, your guide and the crew before starting your journey home.

Equipment
We provide everything, including a bike, except personal equipment and clothing.

What the price doesn't include
A) Travel insurance (available if required, £26).
B) Entrance fees to museums and attractions.
C) Personal clothing and equipment.
D) Travel to Amsterdam and transfers to the boarding point.
E) Alcoholic drinks.
F) Bar bills, telephone calls, souvenirs, etc.