Up fairly early in the hopes of catching some of the sail-in, managed to catch the last couple of hundred yards of reversing into our berth just below the Erasmus Bridge in the centre of Rotterdam.
After breakfast got our stuff together to join our tour group to Keukenhof, to visit the notably gardens famous for bulbs especially tulips.
Day looking fairly cloudy and still cool at 10 Celsius. Should have been about an hours drive but due to some unknown traffic holdup took over two. Apart from the holdup the drive was quite pleasant, mainly rural, though towns such as The Hague and Leiden appeared nearby. Cloudy most of the way and spells of rain, lets hope it doesn’t continue. Lots of canals, windmills (well windpumps actually), cows and bulbfields to keep us amused. Arriving at Keukenhof we were allowed extra time at the gardens to compensate for delays.
And so in we went, immediately confronted with the MOST SPECTACULAR display of colour and scent, mainly tulips, though all sorts of other flowers and colourful trees heled to bring extra dimensions to the effect. It was immediately obvious the available time would not be enough, so set off to see al we could. Waked through surrounded by hundreds of beds containing thousands and thousands of bulbs, too numerous to imagine, in an amazing range of hundreds of colours in all sorts of combinations. Took a short mid visit break to rest the feet and revive the senses with a quick coffee break. Then on via the windmill to make the most of the remaining time as we made progress back towards our pickup. The whole time in the gardens mainly sunny and no rain, just about perfect.
Keukenhof Gardens
The return on the coach seemed almost immediately to bring back the clouds and a couple of sharp showers. A somewhat different route back to dock which did actually take about the hour as promised. Back at the dock Yvonne went on-board and I went for a short walk to get some extra photos of the Erasmus Bridge and the old Holland-America Building (now being used as a hotel). Once aboard headed straight up to the buffet for a combined lunch/dinner, very odd mixture of food on offer but the desserts/cakes were really good today.
Old Holland America Building
During our short rest before sailaway the Captain announced a change of itinerary. The stop at LeHavre was not to be due a strike of French dockworkers. This next bit should be read with a theatrical French accent. “Pah! cruise schedule, I spit upon your cruise schedule”. OK back to status quo. This loss of one port means we will be staying in Zeebrugge overnight and just spend on day at sea on our way to Southampton.
Went upon forward deck to watch the sailaway. Good views of the town and the port but just too cold a wind to stay for long, so down to the atrium for a reviving coffee, and stayed until after dark and until we had eventually sailed out past one of the longest breakwaters I had ever seen.
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