River Cruise 2015 - Day One

We have been so blessed to be able to do a river cruise with Gerry Van Dyke travel company in Netherlands and Belgium!  It was a wonderful experience, full of new things to learn and discover. 

After flying from Toronto to Amsterdam overnight, we were taken by buses to our home for 15 nights, the Da Vinci.  This was her first trip since the fire we experienced on the first night of our cruise last fall.  What a beautiful boat! 

 

The Da Vinci was moored and waiting for us in the small town of Wijk bij Duurstede, and after a light lunch in the lounge, we had time to explore before sailing away at 2:00.  I love these old windmills, which seem to be in most of the small towns in the Netherlands -  restored, but not usually in use. 

These were some unusual-looking sheep and lambs near the windmill and the houses.

 

This fellow was fishing for catfish, but so far with no success.

So long to this pretty little town, and on to Gouda, where we stayed overnight.

Do you suppose these folks had beef sandwiches in that bag?  We saw a LOT of cows in the Netherlands!

There are walking/biking trails on both sides of most of the rivers we traveled on, and they were well used! 

 
I love the time spent cruising on the waterways, where you often see various water birds.  This unusual looking goose is called a Barnacle Goose - so pretty and unusual!  

 


The beautiful Barnacle Goose flying.

 

We saw LOTS of these geese, and assume they are wild - possibly Graylags? 

 

The first of many locks throughout the 2 weeks.

 

We also saw a lot of sheep along the way.

Though it was a lovely sunny day, it was cool, and I was surprised to see these kids playing in the cold water. 

 

Every little town had a church spire or two.  The tree on the left is a knobby willow, and every couple of years, they get trimmed way back like this.  Then they grow out into a lovely shady tree. 

The rivers are like our highways - lots of cargo ships instead of transports.  And most of them have a family living on them.  Note the car and the boat, which will be lifted off by the crane on the boat.  Some have what looks like large play pens (cages!) for the children to play in outside.  And some have regular gardens on the back  The kids go to boarding schools, and stay on the boat for the weekends and vacations.  It's an unusual lifestyle, but one that is followed a lot in Europe.



That's it for now.....more to follow!