Judith Hirsch, (a 9-time traveler) from San Mateo, California, recently returned from our Holland & Belgium in Springtime River Cruise. Judith loves to capture photographs of her tours and narrate slideshows of her trips for her fellow retirement community residents. We were so impressed with her hard work, we wanted her to share her travel experiences in Holland and Belgium with you as well.
By Judith Hirsch
"When I was a little girl, I was enchanted by Holland. At that time, stories of the little Dutch boy who had put his finger in the dike and Hans Brinker and the silver skates had created a magical picture of the country. Add the girls’ little white caps with wings and the pictures of tulip fields and windmills, and you know that my desire to visit the country had been a long time coming. So in the spring of 2009, my friend Nancy Sprotte from San Diego and I got ready for our eighth Grand Circle trip. Needless to say, it met and exceeded my expectations.
"I live in a retirement community of about 200 people, many of whom are very well traveled but no longer travel abroad. Whenever I return from a two week trip, I take my photos and make a PowerPoint presentation, which I narrate in our auditorium before a full house. The Activities department videotapes the presentation and turns it into a DVD so I have a permanent album of my narrations.
"I put together an abbreviated version of my presentation. I hope you enjoy visiting Holland and Belgium with me."
“Here I am posing in Kinderdijk, a town with 19 working windmills. These windmills are pumping water, not milling flour.”
“Our first stop was Enkhuizen, a herring fishing village. The boats’ rudders can be raised or lowered so they can sail in the shallow canals.”
“We had a Home-Hosted dessert with a lovely family in their back garden. Here is our host and hostess (center) with their two daughters and six of my fellow Grand Circle passengers on the M/S River Melody.”
“We visited the largest flower auction in the world in Aalsmeer. Here (top left) are the buyers at their computers, bidding on the flowers that were grown all over the world yesterday, sold today, and will be in florist shops around the world tomorrow. The building is the second largest in the world in terms of floor space. The floor of the auction house (top right) is a tapestry of the flowers being sold. The flowers are in cars that connect to trains which move constantly.”
“We went to the Flower Park at Keukenhof, celebrating 60 years for the show. It was also celebrating the 400th anniversary of the expedition of Henry Hudson, who explored the region around modern New York City while looking for a western route to the Orient under the auspices of the Dutch East India Company in 1609. The effect of the flowers is overwhelming. They extend what would be a two week blooming season to two months by planting bulbs at different depths. When the top flower dies, it is pulled, and the one waiting to emerge comes up.”
“We played Queen’s Day games back on the ship. Here, two of the Program Directors are explaining to the passengers that each player must catch the cracker dangling on the string in her mouth while blindfolded. My friend Nancy Sprotte (blindfolded in this photo) won the game.”
“We had a chance to visit local shops like this cheese store in Schoonhoven (the Silver City), on the Lek River.”
“We were then off to Kinderdijk with its working windmills. We learned about the families who live in the windmills and their traditions and responsibilities. It was thrilling to see them up close and go into the home of one of the families. We also had a chance to meet some of the windmill workers. And yes, they do wear wooden shoes.”
“Our visit to the Delta Works in Veere provided an insight into the way the Dutch have created an engineering marvel to protect themselves from tragedy. The area around the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta is a series of dams, sluices, locks, dikes, and storm surge barriers. It was completed in 1997 and is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. We got to inspect it from the inside out.”
“We got a final picture of our three Program Directors—Lieven, Dewi and Daniel. Their care and fun-loving antics made the trip a dream come true.”
Want to capture your own unique photos of the windmills and flowers in the Netherlands? Hop on board our Holland & Belgium in Springtime River Cruise to experience these sites and more.