Trip report for RSE Heart of Belgium & Holland

Day two – Gent on our own – tour starts

Today we did more of the RSE walk and looked for a warmer hat as it was cold and rainy. The weather surprised everyone on our tour and was quite a bit colder than we thought it would be. We definitely had to layer up on this trip. It was cold and rainy quite a bit, but still beautiful. We enjoyed seeing St Nicholas Church today, really liked the new Stadshal or as locals call it, the “Sheep Shed”. It makes for some GREAT night shots! The lighting and the shapes/angles are really cool. We took pics of the Belfry, but did not go up. We walked around St Bavo Square and read the RSE guidebook for info on it. We walked through the Cathedral as well and enjoyed seeing this beautiful church. Continuing on our RSE walk, we passed the Gent Music Conservatory in a beautiful old building with a charming courtyard and what looked like an ancient olive tree.

We walked through Hoogpoort and on to the Vrijdagmarkt, or Freedom square, enjoying all the Belgian architecture. I am a fan of step gables and we found them everywhere in Belgium and Holland. Heading back towards our hotel, we had lunch at Julie’s, right around the corner from Hotel Harmony. They had delicious egg salad sandwiches with pickled onion, and we splurged to get another hot chocolate and a cupcake. This was by far the best hot chocolate on this trip! It might be a tie with the hot chocolate I had in Vienna at the Café Frauenhuber. Both are excellent! The service was good here, the ambience was cool and funky, the location is perfect, prices were great, and the food was fantastic!

We met up with our tour group at 3pm to start the RSE tour. Ruby van Engelsdorp Gastelaars was our tour guide, and she was fantastic! Her twin sister is also an RSE tour guide. She immediately put us at ease, and we could tell that we were in for another great RSE tour. She did the meet and greet thing and the overview of the tour. Then we headed out for an orientation walk. We took a fun canal cruise and learned a brief history of Gent. Then we had a group dinner at Savarin, where they served us white asparagus and the traditional Flemish Beef Stew, both excellent. Desert was chocolate molten lava cake. Yum! We had a nice walk back to the hotel and got rested up for tomorrow. I also went out again to take more night shots. This is such a photogenic city and there are many places to photograph at night. I shot the Sheep Shed, St Michael’s Bridge, the Cathedral, and the lit buildings along the canals, with their reflection in the water. It was stunningly beautiful! Gent might be my favorite place on this entire tour.

Day three – Gent RSE walk and a side trip

Today we had a Gent tour by our local guide Mieke, who was fantastic! She taught us about the history of Gent, we learned about Freedom Square, took a tour of the Museum of Industry, and the Cathedral. She also taught us that citizens of Gent are nicknamed the “noose-bearers” as a symbol of resistance against tyranny and misplaced authority (Charles V). After our morning tour, we were cut loose for the afternoon and so we headed for the train station. My travel buddy and I were headed 30 minutes away to the small town of Oudenaarde. I am a retired US Air Force Band clarinetist, and I had performed in Oudenaarde for Armistice Day in November 2003. However, we only bussed in, performed a ceremony, ate a quick provided lunch, and headed back to base in Germany. The town looked really charming, and I always wanted to see more of it. So, on this trip, we decided to spend our free afternoon exploring Oudenaarde.

Not much had changed in almost 21 years in this town. We grabbed a quick lunch near the train station, pizza, and then walked to the town square. The Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville d'Audenarde on the main square, was just as I remembered it; tall, Gothic, striking, and beautiful. The town square was lined with buildings exhibiting the charming Belgian architecture and a nearby St Walburga Cathedral. As it was beginning to rain, we ducked into the church and discovered from an English-speaking staff member that we were their first visitors of the season, as they had just re-opened after some extensive remodeling. It was a beautiful, Brabant Gothic 15thC church. We had the place all to ourselves. They had a striking pulpit with trumpet-playing cherubs and a massive pipe organ. Very nice! Afterwards, we walked over towards the Scheldt River and visited their Begijnhof, a beautiful, peaceful sanctuary not far from the main square. They had some lovely tulips growing along the river promenade. We strolled along here briefly, although it was starting to rain heavier, so we ducked into a café and enjoyed some hot chocolate to wait out the storm.

After the storm cleared, we left, took more pics of the town square, and headed back to the train station; we decided to go back to Gent and have dinner there instead of staying in Oudenaarde. On the train ride back, I discovered a Turkish restaurant in Gent called Ankara, in Patershol, and not far from our hotel. We ate there and it was fantastic! We enjoyed some Borek as an appetizer, which is sort of like a cream cheese-filled taquito, and then tried the shrimp in creme sauce entrée, served with rice pilaf and salad and which was delicious! The prices were good here, the service excellent, and the location perfect. It was a short walk back to the hotel. Another great day in Belgium!

Day four – Flanders Field & Bruges

Today we left Gent and headed towards Ypres and Flanders Field. Samma and Yari were our guides at the Flanders Field American Cemetery, which thanks to the American Battlements Commission, were maintained beautifully. This day would be very moving and emotional for us but very educational and enlightening. It is always an emotional experience for me as a USAF veteran when visiting US military sites, especially overseas, as I was stationed in Germany for five years, and this was no exception. The moving Tyne Cot British Cemetery, and particularly, the depressing, ill-maintained and nearly abandoned German Cemetery in Langemark were difficult to see, but an important reminder of the horrors of WWI. Our guide Kristen really brought the events to life and shared many anecdotes about this tragic time.

We enjoyed a delicious farmer’s lunch near Ypres, and also visited Hill 62, to explore the WWI trenches the allies and Germans used for fighting. This tour helped us better understand the great sacrifices our veterans made during these wars. Today was very cold and rainy and gave us a small insight into how uncomfortable it could have been for these service members. After this visit, we headed to Bruges, arriving with some free time to explore the city. We headed out to visit a café that I had tried back in 2006 on a previous visit to Bruges. Carpe Diem Café, which was still good, and still offered hot chocolate where they provided a cup of steaming milk and a block of chocolate on a stick, which you would melt into your cup and stir. Same as I did in 2006; what a great memory and a great little snack. We also walked over to the Sashuis, not far away, which offers lovely views of the canals with Church of Our Lady in the background. This is a great Bruges photo op. Nearby is the Minnewater park with its Kasteel Minnewater, which has a gorgeous castle right along the water, making for another fantastic photo op! We also checked out the Bruges Begijnhuisje complex, which was lovely. We then walked back to our hotel for the next orientation walk and dinner.

The walk took us through the Market Square and got us oriented to Bruges. The dinner, at Pietje Pek, was wonderful. The appetizer was croquetten, a Belgian favorite. We got one shrimp and one cheese croquette. For the main course, I had selected the rabbit and I enjoyed it; I have never eaten rabbit before, and it was very well-prepared. If you’re going to try rabbit, it should be in Belgium. Desert was apple pie a la mode. All good. We ate with a nice couple from Arkansas and enjoyed the food and the conversation. During dinner my travel buddy bopped around to the different tables and took pictures of our tour group members to share online; we had created a Facebook group page early in the tour to share pictures, and this was a great idea! This way we could see some wonderful pics from other group members that we might not have seen. We have done this on previous tours and it worked out really well. Another great day in Belgium.

Day five – Bruges

Today we had a guided tour from local guide Daniella, and she was wonderful! She taught us about Bruggian history, we learned why most buildings seem to have black wrought-iron vertical bars along the exterior (to keep the beams supported), and we toured the Church of our Lady, with its Michaelangelo Madonna and Child. Another wonderful, guided tour. We ended with a chocolate demo and tasting at Pralinette. This was fun and educational. Got to taste a few things here. After a quick picnic lunch that we ate at Biskajersplein, we headed to the Chocolate Museum, to learn about the history of chocolate, how it ended up in Europe, and we had another demo, similar to the one at Pralinette, but this one actually showed us “hands on” how its done, and they offered us a chocolate hazelnut truffle at the end. Yummy! As a package deal, you can also tour the Frites Museum, which seemed geared more towards children, but it was still interesting to learn the history of these Belgian specialties. They had a Frite Café in the basement of this museum, and naturally, we had to partake. I tried the frites with Joppiesaus, which is a yellow curry sauce, and it is FANTASTIC with frites!

We also toured Sint Salvatorskathedraal, and this was amazing! Daniella didn’t seem too impressed by it during our tour, but we were. It had a beautiful Gothic interior, impressive pipe organ, an ornately carved pulpit, and some lovely stained glass. We also toured their treasury, which featured some impressively carved brass doors and panels which made me want to get out some paper and start doing some brass rubbings. Also, the Quire featured some beautiful wood carvings. Additionally, they had a bell tower as well that you could look up into, which almost resembled a solar eclipse. It was pitch black.

For dinner, we were on our own, and we booked reservations at ‘t Lemmetje, near the Huidenvettersplein with its iconic view of the Dijver Canal and the Market Square Tower. I had eaten at this restaurant in 2007 with my parents, and it was exciting to eat here again and see all the changes. Apparently, the restaurant had burned to the ground in 2020, and the current owner didn’t have any photos of the previous restaurant. I had brought my tablet with me that day, and I had pictures from my previous visit. I showed our waiter, and he was so excited to see these pictures of how it used to look. He had me email them to the owner. This restaurant is not in the RSE book, but it’s a wonderful restaurant and a great location. We had jumbo prawns with herb butter & lime for a starter, and the Flemish Beef Stew as our entrée. We split a chocolate mousse and a hot chocolate for dessert. Fantastic! It’s definitely as good as I remember. After taking some night shots of Bruges, we headed back to our hotel.

Day six – Day free in Brussels

The next day, we had a day free, so we decided to do a day trip to Brussels, and it would allow me to reconnect with an old Air Force buddy of mine who now lives in Brussels! We took the train from Bruges, which was easy to do, and met my friend at the Musical Instruments Museum, which I had visited in 2004. It has been updated quite a bit and very different than I remember. The displays were wonderful, and the audio guides were great, although many of the clarinet audio clips were only of jazz clarinet playing, and yet it was an historic 17th or 18thC instrument. Hmmm. But, it was a privilege to see one of the earliest clarinets ever constructed. There were also some interesting mechanical instruments, some fantastical instruments like the Serpent and the Serpent chandelier, and a Russian Bassoon with a dragon head! Fun visit!

My AF buddy took us to lunch at one of his favorite haunts which only locals ate at, Het Brood Dagelijks, across from Eglise Notre Dame du Sablon. This was fantastic! I tried the ham and cheese tartine lunch, which came with a homemade lemonade, and a pastel de nata Portuguese egg custard tart. Yum!! We then headed over to see Le Petit Gablon Parque, which I remember from my last trip, and then down the street to the Old Masters Museum (Beaux Arts) which was fun. Near the entrance, they had a fascinating video immersive experience that delved into Brugels’ Winter Landscape. We saw more Brugels, Rubens, Memlings, and my favorite, David’s Death of Marat, which I had studied about in college. Afterwards, we visited the Sablon church, and it was fantastic! Another beautiful gothic church with an exceptional interior. We then stopped into a café for a Liege-style Belgian waffle, which is a traditional afternoon snack here, not a breakfast item, as it is to Americans.

My buddy also took us up to see The View, similar to the London Eye, past some ancient town walls, and pointed out some interesting brass details in the sidewalks. Wherever we saw a brass shell in the sidewalk, that was the site of a Jewish person being captured and sent off to a concentration camp during WWII. These shells were everywhere in the city; it was a little eye-opening. We then went to the Grand Place for some photo ops, a quick look at the little pisser, Mannequin Pis, and a stroll through St Hubert Galleries. We then had dinner at In ‘t Spinnekopke, not far from The Bourse. Another local favorite, this place was great! Not in the RSE book, but worth a visit. Plus, its close to the Zinneke Pis statue, which is the dog version of Mannequin Pis. We actually saw all three statues today, including the girl statue, Jeanneke Pis. Fun! Dinner was fantastic. We tried more croquetten, and sampled the Belgian fish stew called Waterzooi, which was amazing! We also tried their apple and salted caramel pie. Yum! Our friend walked us to the train station, and we headed back to Bruges. GREAT day in Brussels! It was wonderful to see it again, and to experience it with my travel buddy, who had not been there before.

Day seven – Delta works and Delft

Today we headed out of town into The Netherlands to see the delta works, including a fascinating flood museum, the Watersnoodmuseum, which delved into the history of the horrible tragedy of 1953 when several dikes broke in southern Holland and it badly flooded, taking over eighteen hundred lives. I had never heard about this tragedy and it was a moving experience to learn about this important event in Dutch history. Afterwards, we headed to Zierikzee, a small Dutch fishing village, where we stopped for lunch and a walk around. A bunch of us ate at the harbor, opting for fish ‘n chips at Luitje 't, which was yummy! I walked back into the village, passing a camera museum which I wish I had time to explore, saw a cool fountain at the Plein Montmaertre, and took pics of the Stadhuismuseum. I also wandered into the local Hema to see all their displays of orange paraphernalia set up for the upcoming King’s Day celebrations this weekend. Nice village! We also visited the Maeslant Storm Surge Barrier with a guided tour by Tom, who was an engineer that described this mechanical marvel brilliantly. Each piece of this barrier is as tall as the Eiffel Tower. I am not as interested in science as some people, but I found this structure to be fascinating and wished we had more time here. It was a wonderful visit.

We then headed to Delft and checked into our quirky Hotel de Plataan. I had a (fake) tree growing out of my wall, literally. It was sticking out into the room. Papier mâché I think. Others had castles, snakes, and other interesting features. One room had a jacuzzi lined with Delft tile! Pretty slick! We did our town orientation walk and then headed to another group dinner, this time at De Kurk. It was lovely. I had the beef tartare with pomegranate, filet of beef with roasted veg, and a Cheesecake with almond crumble and buckthorn berry sorbet (a Dutch specialty). Another yummy meal! Our group is bonding well and there are a lot of fun people on this tour, which is what I usually find on the RSE tours. We’re all just avid travelers and all happy to be here. Never a disappointment. Another great day on tour!

Day eight –Delft & Den Haag

Today was our guided tour of Delft, and our local guide was Divera, who did a great job! We learned about Delft and its connection with Vermeer, windmills, had a coffee break at the Studs-Koffyhuis, where we were treated to a free hot chocolate (or drink of our choice) – yum! Then off to the Delft Blue Pottery shop De Candelaer for a demo with Steffan. VERY cool! He explained how they hand-painted all these pieces and showed us at least five or six different steps in the process. Very interesting demo and a great morning! We had the afternoon free, and most of the group headed to Den Haag to check out the Mauritshuis museum for the Vermeers and Rembrandts. Upon arrival, we had a quick lunch at a place called Jamey Bennett on the main square in Den Haag, and then headed over to the museum. It was packed with people, but it was a good time, and we enjoyed seeing all the great art there. The Girl with the Pearl Earring is the main attraction; they even had a mural of it in the entry hall, where you could pose for a selfie. Ah, the joys of social media.

We thoroughly enjoyed Den Haag. We walked around a bit, enjoying the views of the Binnehof parliament complex and the Vijver lake. We also decided to go, upon the recommendation of our guide, to the Escher Museum, which is close by and not too expensive. It was fascinating, especially for science nerds. It was busy, even for late in the day. They had quite a few optical illusions there and things that tricked the eye. It was a fascinating and fun stop. Next, we headed towards the main square and had an early dinner at Hotel Restaurant 't Goude Hooft, the oldest inn and restaurant in The Hague. We had made reservations there and it was well worth it; I believe this was another RSE recommendation and a great one! It was a wonderful dinner. I chose the Chicken Satay entrée with a Stroop Waffle Caramel cheesecake for dessert. A quick 15-minute tram ride brought us back to Delft, where we headed back to our hotel to chill and write in our journals. Having a blast in the Netherlands!

Day nine –Keukenhof & Amsterdam

Today we left Delft for Keukenhof and Amsterdam. After several days of rainy and cold weather, it was sunny and mild today. Perfect weather for tulip viewing. We headed to Keukenhof and although there was a LOT of traffic getting there, especially near the venue, it was an amazing experience. I last saw Keukenhof in 2005, when I was stationed in Germany, so it had been almost 20 years. It has changed quite a bit, and it is MUCH more crowded than it was 20 years ago, probably due to the beautiful weather today. The windmill, which has wonderful views of the tulip fields had a line a mile long, so we skipped that option, but we were able to find a viewing platform right in front of that and got a couple of nice shots of the tulip fields. Someone told us to head to the far side of the gardens as soon as we got there, to beat the crowds. Um…..no. Didn’t work, and we arrived just about when they opened. But the tulips were amazing, and we took several great pictures.

We stopped early on for a small bowl of fresh strawberries and cream, just like Wimbledon! Sort of. We sat and ate our snack in the shade, then continued walking, and enjoyed the view of the water feature in the middle of the park, with its stepping stones; we finally decided on lunch at a smaller café towards the eastern end of the park. I opted for the roasted chicken sandwich with honey mustard, a side salad, and a blueberry muffin. This was the first time I have ever seen or tasted carbonated iced tea. For real????? I didn’t realize it would be carbonated. I have to say, NOT a fan. Any good Southerner would have had a fit over that! Ha ha. But, it was a good lunch. More tulips after lunch. It’s amazing all the creative ways in which they shape the tulip displays. Really beautiful and immaculately done. After more walking and more tulips, my buddy and I were done. She spent some time in the gift shop, and then we headed towards the bus a bit early, but found the old school bus which is now a Frite stand! We both got some frites to snack on and headed to the bus. We were actually the first to get back to the bus, but soon after, many more folks joined us. It was nice to have four hours, even if we didn’t need all of it. That allowed us to enjoy a nice, relaxing rest on the bus, before heading to Amsterdam.

Once in the big city, Ruby gave us an orientation walk and then we headed over to our canal cruise around the grachts in Amsterdam. This tourist option offers some wonderfully different views of the main sights in town. After the cruise, we headed to our Indonesian group rijsttafel dinner at Indrapura. This was a treat! I have never had Indonesian food before, and it was wonderful. It was sort of Indian, sort of Thai, sort of Chinese; all flavorful and very tasty. I think the whole group loved it. We all walked back to our hotel and chilled. Another great day on an RSE tour!

Day ten – Amsterdam

Today we had a slight change of plans. Due to the King’s Day crowds, we were only able to get tickets to Anne Frank for 1630 instead of 1100, so we had to cancel our plans to visit Haarlem this afternoon and decided to stay local. That morning, our local guide, Danny, showed us around the Jordaan neighborhood and it was quite nice. We learned about widow’s courtyards, which were areas between the backs of houses which they turned into living areas for widow’s who could not support themselves. These areas are now beautiful common gardens, shared by the local residents. We would never have known about these, if not for our guide, who took us into to see a few of them. They’re open to the public, but you could walk right by and not know they’re there.

With about five hours to kill, a few of our tour buddies joined us for lunch and an afternoon stroll. Ruby suggested a local Asian place called New King, and it was in the heart of their Chinatown district (which we didn’t even know they had). It was wonderful! I think we were the only non-Asians there, which is always a good sign for an ethnic restaurant. The food was fantastic! The four of us split some shrimp dumpling soup and egg rolls and that was plenty. Yum! Afterwards, we walked over to visit the Saint Nicholas Basilica, near the Centraal Train Station. I had researched this place and had planned to visit it on this trip and we found it to be amazing! It’s not that old, I think 19thC, but looked like St Peter’s in Rome! Absolutely gorgeous dome ceiling, a fascinating and beautiful detailed interior, stunning rose window, and friendly staff. NOTE: they do close at noon for a short 30-minute mass daily, so if you plan to visit, don’t go at noon—they won’t let you in.

In the late afternoon, we met up with our tour group to visit the Anne Frank House. Again, like Keukenhof, this was packed, even with timed entries. The different rooms lay out what daily life was like for this family. What surprised me and I never knew was that Anne’s family were turned in by a snitch and as far as I know, they have yet to identify this person. There was a US documentary done on this topic recently that claimed the snitch was ID’ed by our FBI, but Ruby, our tour guide, said this information was false and they still don’t know who it was. Amazing story. The visit was tough, but good to see. What a heroic story. After this tour, my travel buddy and I walked around a bit more, exploring canals, and then headed back to the hotel. I was craving a doener kebab, and so I had some Turkish food for dinner. Yum! Another great day on tour!

Day eleven – Amsterdam

Today we had a guided tour of the Rijksmuseum by Carien and Bregtje. Carien worked with my group, and she was amazing! She was retired from guiding tours at the Rijks but still did it part time. An art historian, Carien knew how to bring these 17thC artists to life and explain what they were doing. I really enjoyed this tour. My travel buddy was not feeling well, and so she stayed in this morning. The thing with Amsterdam is, if you’re visiting the Rijks, Van Gogh, Anne, or even the Dutch Resistance Museum, they’re all crowded. It’s a VERY touristy city. If you can get away from these places, its not so bad. But the Rijks was also packed. Even in April. Rick said in one of his videos that this Dutch Resistance Museum is virtually empty. It’s not. I think it’s caught on finally, which is great, but it was a bit crowded. After seeing the Rijks Museum, I walked over to the Concertgebouw, to get some pictures of this iconic concert hall, one of the best in the world. It’s a beautiful building.

For lunch today, my buddy joined me at The Seafood Bar, an RSE recommendation. Excellent choice! We tried the king prawns with garlic and lemon. Fantastic! For desert, we split a raspberry cheesecake, which was also delicious. GREAT choice! Excellent service, food, and atmosphere. I would definitely come back here. We next headed over to the Dutch Resistance Museum this afternoon. It is an excellent museum, with tons of information, quite a lot of displays, and although very heartening, it was still difficult to take it all in. Some amazing heroic stories here. There are a lot of unsung heroes in WWII, who risked life and limb to help the Allies, and particularly, the Jewish people. This is definitely worth seeing.

For our final group dinner, we ate at Café Americain. It’s in an old beautiful Art Nouveau building, and the meal was excellent! The starter was salmon tartare, the entrée was sea bass, and dessert was crème bruleé. All delicious. It was wonderful to have a final dinner together, and to make it even more special, one of our tour members, Celia, got up to serenade Ruby, our guide. She sang the old Doris Day hit “Que Sera, Sera,” and had the entire group join in on the chorus. It was really quite moving to see this. Ruby was so touched, and the whole group loved hearing this classic song. A wonderful ending to a fantastic tour!

The nice thing about a Rick Steves tour group is, there are no grumps! So, regardless of weather or sore feet, crowds or pushy tourists, we still had a great time with no complaints. I do see that revenge travel might be here for a while, and I am seriously considering more remote destinations in the near future. Europe is pretty crowded right now; I was surprised that the supposedly less-touristy places like Belgium and Holland were still touristy. But, of course, if we ventured into more remote areas of these countries, we’d find less crowds. Our RSE tour group was fantastic and we met some lovely people, had some great experiences, cooked and ate some great meals, and learned so much about another corner of Europe.

Well, thanks for listening. Hope you enjoyed this tour report. I’m interested in hearing anyone else’s take on this tour and if they enjoyed it as much as I did. Although I had visited many of these places before, it’s been nearly 20 years, and with a guide this time, it was even more memorable. The guides really do make a huge difference in a good tour and a fantastic tour. I love RSE tours! We have already booked our next RSE tour for 2025 – to Poland. Can’t wait! Happy travels!

Thanks for sharing. Having just returned from these countries a little over a month ago, traveling on our own, I really enjoy reading others' Trip Reports. I really didn't have much background on the Low Countries before our trip, and I learned so much and developed an appreciation for these cultures. On to future adventures!

Thanks for this wonderful detailed and informative report. We will have a return trip there and this report will be so helpful. Thanks!
I also have been to these places, among my favorites, and learned so much more from this report! Thanks for taking the time to write it.
Luckily I never was offered carbonated iced tea! Sounds horrid.
I am NOT a chocolate fan at all but never had problems finding delicious alternatives such as Stroopwaffles!
Was there a problem with the tour meals serving chocolate? Were there alternatives offered? Honestly, I can’t look at it! I have been tempted to say I am allergic to it.
I became a huge fan of Stroopwafles and ate them daily. We met up with a friend from the U.S. who was living there and she told us she had to make an emergency stop at a store. It was for Stroopwafles and we were hooked too! They are enough of a reason for a return trip to Netherlands and Belgium.
Thanks for listing all the restaurants and cafes where you ate, both with and without the tour. Very nice to have.

Suki

Pat - thanks for the kind words. It really is an amazing place. Love the BeNeLux countries. Happy travels!

Suki - also thanks for the kind words. I don't think there's ever a problem with dietary needs on an RSE tour; they always work with you, as long as you're consistent about it. If you decide halfway thru the tour that you're a vegan, good luck changing everything. :-) But, I doubt there would be a problem with substituting chocolate on this tour. Love Stroopwafels, too. Happy travels!

ReedManTX- We took the same RS tour and arrived in the Netherlands on Kings Day, (extra fun day!) so you were close by! It was a fantastic tour. Learned so much about Belgium and the Netherlands. Great group of travelers too!

Suki, for several of our group meals, we were given choices between a couple of main courses and a couple of desserts, and we selected them the day before. So the one time I recall chocolate dessert on the menu, there was another option. Or if there was another time, then I'm sure an alternative was offered. RS tours are very accommodating as long as you don't spring it on them half way through the tour. If you say upfront that you are vegetarian, then your group meals will be vegetarian throughout the tour. On one of our independent meals in Amsterdam we ate at The Pantry (at the suggestion of this forum) Delicious. Reservations are a must.

Dear ReedMan,
I enjoyed your trip report. My husband and I took this tour in March/April 2022. They had barely opened up after Covid. We had all kinds of Covid testing and wearing masks. I’m so glad you had Ruby for a guide. She was an assistant on our tour. I’m glad she is a full fledged tour guide now. We really enjoyed seeing Keukenhof gardens in full bloom. We owned a garden center/landscape business, so all the colorful displays were right up our alley! Thanks for sharing your trip with me. I got to relive every day of the trip through your report and welcome back to Texas!

KD - thanks for letting me know. how cool that you did the tour right after ours. King's Day was pretty wild. We left town the afternoon before to escape the insanity. Glad you had a good tour.

Janet - I agree, it was very cool to see Keukenhof. They do an amazing job of landscape design there; its like looking at artworks. Very creative. I have a cousin in Temple, Tx! Are you guys ok? I heard tornados just whipped through there. Hope y'all are ok.

I enjoyed your trip report very much. In 2022 we spent the last week in April in Harlem and did day trips from there. I think the crowds might be amplified during tulip season, but we went to Keukenhof in the early afternoon on Kings Day and it wasn’t too bad. I have a lot of pictures without people in them. My thought process for going that day was that people might want to be celebrating KD in the cities or towns. When we returned to Haarlem we wandered around to check out the various celebrations. The best party was just down the street from us, so we hung out and enjoyed it for awhile.

Hi Andrea,
Thanks for the kind words.
Sounds like you planned that trip really well; good strategy going to Keukenhof on King's Day. You're right, people were probably partying in cities and not so much about the tulips that day. We didn't get to Haarlem on this trip; we had planned an afternoon half day there, but the day in Amsterdam we went to Anne Frank, we had to go at 430pm and we had a morning walking tour of Jordaan, so we either had to not go to Anne Frank with our group, or give up Haarlem, and we decided on the latter. It worked out fine; we got to see the St. Nicholas Basilica and had a wonderful Chinese lunch with some tour friends. Serendipity. Looking forward to your June meeting! I've been traveling, so I missed the last two. See you virtually soon! :-)

What a great report! I have this huge desire for hot chocolate right now, even though it is the end of May. I am very intrigued by Belgium. I have only been once, as a side trip from a Paris trip, to see the home town of my Belgian ancestors, Tournai. Really lovely town, belfry tower, and main square. Also, I did not know there was more than one Pis statue!

What a great trip report. I am now hungry and longing to take the same tour.

We stumbled across Amsterdam's Chinatown. We found a great restaurant that we visited twice. Thanks for the memory!

Pete - Thanks for the kind words.
Brussels--I only knew of the two statues, girl and boy; I had not heard of the dog statue. My AF buddy knew of it and took us there. It was fun seeing it. They light the dog statue up at night. Kinda cool.

Estimated Prophet - thanks for the kind words. I had no idea Amsterdam had a Chinatown. It was pretty cool. Lots of interesting places there, and not far from the Centraal Station.

Happy travels!

I enjoyed your report and it brought me back to my trip there 2 years ago (2? Feels like 20!).

Mary - Thanks for the kind words. Happy travels!

Wow, ReedMan! What a terrific Trip Report! Your food descriptions are wonderful...and yes, now I want some frites!

I agree with you about the Maeslant Barrier. I'm not a big lover of industrial things but gosh, that place was amazing and what they are doing with water management is awesome. You can see why they have a demand from all over for their water engineers.

I will have to find Amsterdam's China Town next time I am there.

Thanks so much for taking the time to write this up and post. I was reliving my 2019 tour along with you.

Pam-Thanks for the kind words. This really was a great trip. I think it might be more a hidden gem, but definitely worth doing. Looking forward to exploring more of Poland next year. Happy travels!

Since you were in the USAF Band, I thought you might enjoy this article from the NY Times about someone who successfully auditioned for the West Point Band.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/27/arts/music/military-bands-west-point-army.html?u2g=i&unlocked_article_code=1.wU0._nL9.y7xd-ayV2LJT&smid=url-share

Estimated Prophet--thanks! You're the third person to send me that article! lol I love it. It's a good read. It really is a great job for a musician; you're getting paid to do what you love to do, and with the Air Force Bands, you get to travel the world. I visited 36 countries when I was stationed in Germany! It's a great gig. Thanks for sharing this article. Happy travels!

Great trip report, ReedMan!

We’re on this tour next April. I have a question about the hotels, particularly tubs and showers. I prefer walk-in showers but I’m ok with stepping in and out of what we’d typically think of as a standard-height tub. Sometimes in Europe, of course, we run into hotels with older, very tall tubs. Especially for those of us with knee replacements, it can feel downright dangerous getting in and out. Several of us in Salzburg last fall commented on being extremely careful lest we take a tumble. All leading to my asking whether you ran into this at the hotels on this tour? And how were the hotels in general? I know we won’t be in Delft next year so I guess we won’t encounter trees in any rooms.

Cheers!

stoutfella - Thanks for the kind words.
OK hotels.
The one in Gent was a great hotel, but it did have a jacuzzi tub that you had to step over the wall - like a normal US bathroom tub ledge.
The hotel in Bruges had a walk-in shower. Great hotel. Hotel Aragon.
Hotel in Delft - moot point for you - but walk-in shower.
Hotel in Amsterdam - walk-in shower.
None of these hotels had really high tub ledges, so I think you'd be fine, although I can't speak for the new hotels in Rotterdam in 2025.
I think they do a GREAT job of picking out hotels in central locations, yet not on a main drag, so they tend to be a bit more quiet, but still close to everything. They all have a great breakfast, some better than others, but that just means some are phenomenal and some are "just" outstanding.

I noticed that they're not staying in Delft anymore on the Best of Holland-Belgium tour. Interesting. I wonder why, although its very cool that they're staying in Rotterdam two nights! I've never been there and want to go.
Good luck with the tour planning. It's a GREAT tour! Gent was my favorite on this whole tour. Beautiful city, lots to see and do, great food, and friendly people.
Happy travels!