Holland

That’s my daughter Robin and me, Barbara. Days after Robin’s graduation from the University of Florida, we packed our bags and headed for the airport. There would be time enough for her to join the real world. Right now, we were going off to Europe to celebrate!

Although you can can get advice regarding your travel arrangements from Rick Steves’ ETBD tours, your airfare to Europe is not included. Since you’ll be making your own travel arrangements, you have the opportunity to arrive early or stay after the tour ends, or even plan back-to-back tours.

Inside Scoop:

We arrived in Amsterdam four days early. We wanted to spend some time with our cousins who live in Holland. Although we flew through the night and arrived at 7 AM, we hit the ground running. Anxious to see Dutch windmills, we visited Kinderdijk and saw the largest collection of windmills in Holland. There are 19 working windmills there which were built in 1738. Kinderdijk is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the windmills are all being refurbished.

One of the highlights of our stay in Holland was our visit to Keukenof, where seven million tulip bulbs are planted. It was incredible!

Travel Tip:

It’s a great idea to arrive a day or two early so that you can become accustomed to the time change before your tour begins. Some of the best advice we got before we left was to get off the plane, reset our watches, and forget what time it was at home. Go to bed when the Europeans do that first day.

We also spent a fun day at Efteling, which is a theme park based on fairy tales. The forest-like grounds are gorgeous, and Robin was fascinated by the woodland creatures who say, “Papier hier,” and suck up your trash, quick as a wink.

We visited Willemstad, which is a quaint Dutch harbor town. We found the houses charming, and I especially loved seeing the wooden shoes displayed at the front doors!

Behind the town were several German bunkers from World War II. We were able to go inside of them.

Travel Tip:

Also, before you make your reservations, check out airfares at some smaller European airlines like Ryan Air for rates between countries. We found out that we could have saved some money by flying to Rome from the local airport.

We saw lots of magnificent churches in Italy, but this sweet little chapel in my cousins' neighborhood in Breda (built in the 1300’s) is one of my favorites.

Travel Tip:

Whenever you can, spend some time getting know the European people you meet. It’s fun to learn about their customs and sample their food. If you find yourself in Holland, you’ll find that many Dutch people speak wonderful English. This is probably because American TV programs have Dutch subtitles rather than dubbing, so they can hear English being spoken every day.

The best part, though, was just spending time with our Dutch cousins, Stanley, Corrie, Carine and Marieke. They opened their home and their hearts to us and showed us just how hospitable and warm Dutch people are.

FYI: If you're interested in seeing Holland for yourself, there are stops in Holland on a couple of Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door tours.

But let’s not forget about the chocolate! What a
great place to stock up on that melt-in-your-mouth
Dutch and Belgian chocolate. We carried it with us
all through our trip, but it was so warm in Italy
that the chocolate was not so good when we
got home. Had we known, we would
have eaten it all along the way!