River Cruise 2015 - April 27 - Konigsdag

On April 27th, "Konigsdag" in the Netherlands, we enjoyed a lovely morning of cruising, relaxing, and seeing some great scenery.

Konigsdag is "King's Day" - the king's birthday, and since he is from the house of Orange, everyone was decked out in orange....... 

.......including our much loved journey manager, Jeremy Van Dyke, orange wooden shoes and all!  Jeremy assures us that they really are comfortable! 

There were a lot of storks in this area, including this one, which was sitting atop a river marker.  When we were inside, we cruised past a whole colony of storks and nests, with babies, which was very fun to see, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any pictures.  

Our reason for being inside was that they served us high tea (in the morning, since we wouldn't be on the boat in the afternoon).  I was so busy enjoying the delicious cakes they served that I forgot to take a pic until it was almost too late!  

As we arrived at the town of Zutphen, where the buses would pick us up for an afternoon outing, we had to pass through this very narrow opening.  It was a long bridge, but only a small section of it raised every half hour for boats to pass through who couldn't get under the bridge.  The picture shows only about half of the Da Vinci, so you can see that it was a tight squeeze!  Sure glad I didn't have to do it!  In places like this, the captain drives from the side of the boat with a joy stick.  He is very good! 

As we were in town a bit early, we were able to see a great many parachutists dropping from a plane overhead into a field just across the river from us.  Many of the parachutists were carrying passengers, as was this one. 

After lunch, we boarded the buses for a drive to the Holton  Canadian War Cemetery.  As we passed through the town, we saw much evidence of the 70 year celebration of the liberation.  They do love Canadians! 

Trees such as this one were covered with white doves representing peace.  And again, the Canadian flag alongside the Dutch flag. 

We were each given either a red or a white tulip to place wherever we wished. 

We chose to place ours on the grave of a young British soldier by the name of A.E.Linton.  Most of the soldiers here died near the end of the war, and after the war, their remains were brought to this place, which was donated for the purpose.  Most of the graves are of Canadians, but a few are from the allies as well. 

There are 1393 Commonwealth war graves in Holton Cemetery. 

Jeremy placed a beautiful memorial arrangement on the cenetaph from the Van Dyke family. 

 

 The Dutch people truly do love the Canadians! 

   The cemetery and the graves were really well kept, and there were many beautiful flowers around!  And even there, I could not resist "chasing" bees! 

Following our cemetery visit, we stopped for a walk around the town of Doesburg, one of the Van Dykes favorite towns, and the town where Jeremy and Erika were married.  Notice the orange ribbons flying from the Dutch flags.  This was a part of the celebrations of Konigsdag.  There was much celebrating being done in the streets of this lovely old town! 

"You's not fat, you"s fluffy!"  These contented sheep were resting near where we got the buses back to Zutphen, where we met the Da Vinci and cruised during dinner on to Arnhem, where we then spent the night. 

  Have you seen the movie, "A Bridge Too Far"?  This is the rebuilt bridge, in Arnhem, where there was a critical error made during the Second World War.  Many died as a result of it.  This is about as close as we got to the bridge, and were unable to see the memorial because of the many people who were celebrating the King's birthday.  Our after-dinner tour kind of fizzled out that night because of the reveling. 

But we did our own reveling that night aboard the Da Vinci!  This husband and wife team (I think!) provide really good music for us to listen or dance to for the whole evening. 

.......until next time.......