Bruges to Amsterdam Premium by Boat and Bike

Day 1: Bruges
You will board in Bruges at 2 p.m., where the ship is moored in the city harbour and the crew for the week will be waiting. After the welcome meeting at 2.30 p.m. there is time to be fitted to your bike and to take a short test ride through the countryside around the city. After dinner your tour leader takes the group for a walk through the centre. It is worth arriving a day or two early: Bruges, the Pearl of Flanders, is a UNESCO World Heritage city, and its museums, canals and pavement cafés deserve more than one evening.

Day 2: Bruges – Ghent
Your first day of cycling runs east across the Flemish landscape along the Ghent canal. Ghent is a lively city with a long history: its position where the Leie meets the Schelde has made it a successful trading port since Roman times, and in the Middle Ages it was the second largest city in Europe after Paris. Its medieval centre, lit at night, is made for an afternoon and evening stroll, and the architectural richness of the old town has to be seen to be believed. Before dinner a small canal boat takes you on a guided tour through the historic city. The ship moors for the night at a lock in a suburb of Ghent, about thirty minutes by bike from the centre.

Day 3: Ghent – Dendermonde – St. Amands
In the morning you ride downstream along the tidal Schelde through a varied landscape to Dendermonde, at the confluence of the Dender and the Schelde. There is only one word for the scenery along this stretch of the river, and that is magnificent: it is without doubt one of the natural highlights of the week. The tide sets the pace of the ship here, so the leg from Dendermonde to St. Amands is covered either by bike or on board, depending on the water. Your floating hotel is moored for the night in St. Amands.

Day 4: St. Amands – Temse – Antwerp
You follow the Schelde further downstream through the Temse region to Antwerp. Over the centuries this river mattered strategically to the Romans, the Vikings, the Spanish and Napoleon; today it is simply a beautiful waterway for a week by bike and barge. Antwerp, your destination for the day, is a harbour city that handles up to eighty per cent of the world's rough diamonds and the birthplace of Peter Paul Rubens. There is a long list of things to see: the City Hall, one of several majestic buildings raised in the Renaissance, the historic Grote Markt, the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe Cathedral and the medieval Steen Castle.

Day 5: Antwerp – Kreekrak locks – Tholen – Willemstad – Dordrecht
In the morning the ship sails up the Schelde–Rhine Canal and through the huge Kreekrak lock system, and your ride starts there, through the woodland of the Wouwse Plantage to Tholen. Tholen was once an island in the wide Zeeland streams, where many people lived by fishing; today it is joined to the mainland in several ways but has kept the look of a village with an eventful past. From Tholen you rejoin the ship for an afternoon of cruising toward Dordrecht, passing the old fortified town of Willemstad on the Haringvliet and the impressive Volkerak lock system on the way. Dordrecht, one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands, is the destination for the day, and in the evening your tour leader takes the group for a walk and tells the story of the country.

Day 6: Dordrecht – Kinderdijk – Schoonhoven – Vreeswijk/Utrecht
The day starts with the Waterbus, a fast ferry that carries you and your bike to Alblasserdam in about ten minutes. A few minutes of riding brings you to Kinderdijk, a village famous for its row of nineteen UNESCO-listed windmills, one of which can be visited from the inside; they were built in the eighteenth century to pump water out of the low Alblasserwaard polder. From there the route continues through the Dutch countryside to Schoonhoven, the Silver City, known for its silversmithing heritage, and then follows the river Lek toward Vreeswijk, a historic village with a rich maritime past whose streets and canals are pleasant to explore in the evening.

Day 7: Vreeswijk/Utrecht – Breukelen – Amsterdam
Over breakfast the ship cruises to Breukelen, where you disembark for the last day of cycling. You ride along the Vecht, in an area known for its beautiful mansions, small castles, imposing houses and large gardens, through the villages of Nieuwersluis, Loenen and Vreeland to Nigtevecht, where you can visit a traditional cheese farm. From there the route continues through the historic town of Muiden and on to Amsterdam, where you meet the ship for the last time in the harbour.

Day 8: Amsterdam
End of your tour: disembarkation after breakfast, until 9.30 a.m.