Bike and Barge Holland Amsterdam Super Cycle Tour!

We will fly direct from Tampa to Amsterdam via Delta airlines. From the Amsterdam airport we will be transported by private bus directly to the Clair de Lune. The barge accommodates 17 travelers with 9 cabins. The trip includes 7 nights on the boat with 2 meals a day along with a packed lunch for the ride. Bikes available are 24 speed or electric bikes. Tour guides will be biking with you all through Holland with stops at tulip fields, wind mills with historical sites. Mileage ranges from 9 miles to 36 for 6 consecutive days. After the boat you’ll spend 2 nights in Amsterdam and head home on another nonstop flight to Tampa. Trip includes air, ground transportation, most meals and bike insurance. Electric bikes are extra.

• Air transportation with DIRECT FLIGHT from Tampa to Amsterdam via Delta airlines
• Transportation from Amsterdam airport via private coach to the CLAIR DE LUNE COMFORT PLUS BARGE with air conditioning
• 7 nights accommodations aboard the Clair De Lune
• Bedding and towels
• All meals (breakfast) and 3 course dinner on board
• Packed lunch daily
• Coffee and tea daily on board
• WIFI
• 24 speed bicycle (with handbrakes, bike helmet, pannier bags, lock, water bottles with bike insurance
• E BIKES! ($120 per week includes insurance)
• Multi Lingual tour guide
• Bicycle insurance
• Transport via private coach from the Clair de Lune to the Double Tree by Hilton Amsterdam
• 2 nights in Amsterdam with full American breakfast served in the City Café restaurant

• Personal travel insurance(recommended)
• Admission tickets to museums
• Entrance to KEUKENHOF (Tulip tours)

(Subject to change)

Day 1: Saturday Amsterdam, boarding before 2 PM sailing to Spaarndam.
Cycling to Haarlem, 15 km
You are expected on our barge on Saturday the latest at 2 PM. The barge needs to leave the mooring place in Amsterdam at 2.15 PM. It is very important you are on time. The barge can’t wait due to the opening hours of bridges and/or locks. Boarding time is between 1 PM and 2 PM.

When you arrive on board you can put your luggage away in your cabin and then enjoy a cup of coffee or tea. It is also a good moment to become acquainted with the guide, skipper and crew and of course your fellow passengers.

From here we make an easy ride into the beautiful city of Haarlem.

Haarlem, which rendered its name to Harlem, New York, is a lively city with good shopping possibilities. At the same time there are many interesting 17th-century sights here. Back on board, after the bike ride, the programme for the next day and the rest of the week will be explained to you at dinner time.

The first part of the tour you will sail to Spaarndam. Spaarndam has always been strongly connected to water. Now, besides the river and the fishing, it also is famous because of a story within the 1865 American novel, Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates. The story within the book is about a Dutch boy, "The Hero of Haarlem," who stuck his finger in a dike to prevent the town from flooding. The story became a popular legend in America, and in 1950 the local tourist bureau put a statue of this character in Spaarndam.

Day 2: Sunday Haarlem – Keukenhof Leiden, 40 km
Today’s trip leads you through the oldest tulip fields of Holland, including a visit of the most beautiful spring park in the world. Keukenhof is the place where the spring breaks. An overwhelming blaze of colours; seven million flowering tulips in a magnificent 80-acres' background of traditional and modern gardening architecture.
For more information you can visit the website of the Keukenhof Leiden.

You spend the night in Leiden, which is a historic city with many little courtyards, façades, and historical buildings built between the 15th and 18th century. Leiden, meaning ‘built on waters’, came into existence around 800 AD as a market place at the confluence of the rivers Old and New Rhine, the Vliet and the Mare. It was a centre for the mediaeval linen industry. For a long time it was second only to Amsterdam in importance. A well-known episode of Leiden's history is the Spanish occupation in the 16th century. In 1574 the Spanish siege was eventually broken as a result of a deliberate inundation and the assistance of the Protestant fleet called the 'Geuzenvloot'. This fact is still celebrated annually on October 3rd. As a reward for its courage in face of the Spaniards, Leiden was given the right to found a university in 1575. Leiden is also the city where Rembrandt van Rijn was born.

Day 3: Monday Leiden – Kudelstaart, 45 km
Today you continue your tour around the Haarlemmermeer. In case you have a lunchstop at the other side of the bridge in Leimuiden. Imagine that this polder once was the biggest lake in Holland and nicknamed 'the waterwolf'. The cycleroute leads you through the green heart of Holland, an area characterized by small cycle paths, typical black and white cows and despite the work of Mr. Leeghwater, a lot of water. Your destination for today is Kudelstaart: a small town bordered by the Westeinderplassen.

Day 4: Tuesday Visit to flower auction. Sailing to Amsterdam – cycling to Zaanse Schans - Wormerveer, 45 km
In the early morning you can visit one of the many flower auctions in Aalsmeer. Every day ‘Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer’ sets the world price for flowers and plants. This happens by bringing supply and demand together by means of the auction clock- a fascinating process during which large and small batches of flowers are sold within fractions of seconds. As a visitor to Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer, you will walk over a specially designed gallery. Enjoy the gorgeous flowers; experience the hustle and bustle of auction. The flowers and plants that are sold at the auctions are exported all over the world, Zaanse Schans, a unique hamlet where people live and work, with original houses and windmills from the river Zaan area. The hamlet is dominated by three operating windmills, the oldest built in 1673, for grinding mustard, spices, paint and oil and for sawing wood into planks. As you walk through the village you will see a clock museum, an old-fashioned grocery store, a house with period furniture, a clog maker and a cheese farm. Afterwards to Wormerveer. a wonder of logistics. Afterwards you will have breakfast while sailing in the direction of Amsterdam.

Day 5: Wednesday Wormerveer - Alkmaar, 45 km
From Wormerveer you will cycle to and through the most beautiful dunes of the Netherlands. Todays’ overnight stay is in cheese town Alkmaar. An historic lively city with many small and bigger shops. A little less than 400 heritage sites, canals and harbor dominate the townscape.

Day 6: Thursday Alkmaar – Purmerend, 45 km
Graft and De Rijp are two proud, typical 17th century villages that enjoyed great prosperity at the heyday of the fishing and whaling industries. You spend the night in Purmerend.

Today time to cycle into the polder landscape of the Beemster and Purmer, part of a big green polder area. The Beemster Polder, dating from the early 17th century, is an exceptional example of reclaimed land in the Netherlands. It has preserved intact its well-ordered landscape of fields, roads, canals, dykes and settlements, laid out in accordance with classical and Renaissance planning principles. Also time to visit one of the big water mills at the Rijp.

Day 7: Friday Purmerend –Amsterdam 20 / 35 km
Purmerend lies at the edge of an area called ‘Waterland’ where roads and water are nearby on the same level. We visit the nice village of Zunderdorp and Ransdorp. The better cyclists can cycle the long route to Edam and Volendam and if time permits you can cross the lake Gouwzee to a dmire the traditional fisherman’s village Marken with its typical wooden houses.

In Amsterdam you can look back at cycling seven days in great variation of typical Dutch landscapes, towns and many highlights

Day 8: Saturday Amsterdam, end of tour after breakfast before 10.00 AM.

Cancellation date

If you are interested in traveling to the Netherlands with TBSSB please mail a check ($1,000) payable to TBSSB to Lynda Weaver, 6 Idlewilde Dr, Safety Harbor, FL 34695

The bike and barge trips have limited space and applications are accepted in the order that the trip applications/checks are received.

All cancellations must be received in writing by 12/1/2019 (see cancellation policy on the 2^nd page of the trip application.)