This Spring, I had the opportunity to travel with AmaWaterways, one of the top River Cruise Lines today, on their Tulip Time river cruise. Our home for seven days was the beautiful AmaKristina, one of their newest ships. This comfortable river boat accommodates 156 passengers in 78 staterooms. The intimate size of the ship allows for plenty of opportunities to get to know your fellow passengers.
The service onboard was excellent and the river cruise schedule could not be more relaxing. Due to the small size of these vessels, you pull right into the cities you visit. This means literally walking off the ship when you are ready to explore – so easy and convenient.
We stopped in some wonderful towns and cities such as Antwerp know for it’s Belgian Chocolate, Rotterdam known for their beautiful Delft China, Kinderdijk famous for their windmills and finally Amsterdam. Although each stop was wonderful, for me, Amsterdam was the highlight! Amsterdam is a biker’s paradise with more bikes than people and the major source of transportation around the city. The museums are outstanding – my personal favorite was the Van Gogh museum.
When all is said and done, however, the absolute most amazing thing that I saw on this trip was the Keukenhof Gardens outside Amsterdam. Tulips are my favorite flower and as a tulip worshiper I have always wanted to visit this special place. The gardens were more beautiful than I ever imagined and the fact that this wonderful place is only open eight weeks a year, yet employs a staff year round was fascinating to me. They receive over one million visitors per year and I am very happy that I was one of them!