The Amazing Keukenhof Tour – 2023

We will take the Eurotunnel between Folkestone and Calais and then travel northwards, stopping at least twice. One of these stops will be at the Delta Works Museum.
1953 saw a devastating flood which killed 1,836 people in the Netherlands, so you’ll understand that water and its management is critical to the Dutch, especially as 20% of the country is below sea level!
The museum chronicles the development of the world’s largest flood defence system, (described as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers), and they have a café and toilets!
Finally, we will arrive at the Best Western Museum Hotel in Delft for our four-night stay where we will enjoy a welcome dinner. The hotel is a classic Dutch building in the heart of this beautiful city and very close to the central market square, which is packed with cafes, restaurants and shops.

We start the day with a behind-the-scenes tour to see how the famous Royal Delft China is made, followed by a visit to the attached gift shop if the visit has generated an appetite for this beautiful product.
Afterwards you can either enjoy the rest of day in Delft itself or we’re happy to shuttle you to Amsterdam for the afternoon to look at this beautiful old city.

This will be a long day packed with wonder and awe with lots of refreshment opportunities!
We start by leaving the hotel at 6:30am (you can order a take-out breakfast from the hotel) and then we travel to the Aalsmeer Flower Market, which starts even earlier and finishes around normal breakfast time.
This will be an eye-opener! The Dutch control around 90% of the world’s cut flower market and Aalsmeer trades billions of euros of stock using systems which are quite remarkable. You’ll even get to see the ‘Dutch Auction’, as traders try to hold their nerve and buy at the lowest price as the price falls and falls ‘on the clock’ before competitors buy first.
We will then travel north into the ‘polder’ which is land reclaimed from the sea. Our next stop will be at the World Heritage Site of Schokland.
It’s tempting to think that nobody was much affected by this land reclamation, but the reality is that the sea was shallow, with islands of small communities, who suddenly found their lives dramatically changed. This is very similar to what happened in East Anglia when the broads were drained The site also has a café!
Moving on from Schokland, we hope to visit Blokzijl, which was formerly a fishing village but, cut off from salt water by the IJsselmeer (new name for Zuider See), now serves as a leisure harbour and is very scenic – and another opportunity to visit a café!
We finally reach Giethoorn, known as the ‘Venice of the North’. Giethoorn is a traditional Dutch village, but instead of a traditional high street and other roads, it’s served by canals.
Within the town, there is a small village history museum and a rock shop with a stone and mineral museum attached. We haven’t included a visit to these, but I can recommend the rock shop as worth a visit. There are also a number of cafés in the settlement.

We will be visiting this fabulous park in one of the two peak weeks for the display, so it will look amazing!
We’ll arrive as early as possible to enjoy the park before visitor numbers build up later in the day. There are several cafés and restaurants at the park and it’s a lovely way to spend a leisurely day and conclude our programme of visits.

Today we bid farewell to our hotel, at around 9am, and will then make our way home, stopping regularly for breaks, before returning to our departure points in the early evening.