2016 - Planning and Flying to see Tulips

Bed of red tulips - Keukenhof

I had my eye on a river cruise in the Holland to see the tulips for some time. I had many discussions with my travel agent Cal Ford about the best company to do this cruise with. Viking seemed to have good itineraries and some of their boats had elevators which went up to the top deck, but they are apparently difficult to deal with for bookings. So Cal was promoting AmaWaterways, and that was the one that we went with.

I wanted to revisit some of the places in the Netherlands where I had been in 1950 when I was 12. Of course we were in Amsterdam, but I have been in Amsterdam since 1950. I remembered going to Marken and Volendam, and the Ama cruise had Volendam as one of the ports. I went to Kinderdjik in 2009 with my granddaughter and the cruise was also scheduled to stop there. I thought Bob would enjoy seeing that.

And I also remember the cheese market in Alkmaar. So I made hotel reservations in Alkmaar at the end of the cruise on a Friday when the cheese market would be in operation. I ordered some prints of my dad's pictures of Holland and Belgium and this proved to be a great idea.

Goals for the trip

• Do a canal tour of Amsterdam with Bob who has not been to the Netherlands since about 1962

Best way to see Amsterdam- 2009

• Revisit Volendam
• Show Kinderdjik to Bob

Windmill at Kinderkjik in 2009

• See the tulips in Keukenhof
• Revisit the Alkmaar cheese market

I have One Foot Up. We are flying First Class on BA from BWI to Heathrow to AMS. We are going to see if we can put the scooter in the closet so we don't have to check it.

18 April 2016
We have printed out our boarding passes for the flight tomorrow. The BA website had a countdown timer but at the last minute it disappeared and then I got an email that I could check in. I don't quite understand the baggage check for the second flight, but I guess it will be OK At least the boarding passes are printed out.

19 April 2016

At the airport, there was no one there to curb check the bags so I went in while Bob was unloading and there was a wheelchair person there.

Next problem was the scooter. They had a fit over the battery.


Scooter battery


Scooter without battery




Took it out and measured it and weighed it and the scooter separately, and photographed the scooter. Took us about half an hour to check in.

Folded scooter

Security wasn't so much of a problem - apparently if you are over 75, you don't have to get out of a wheelchair to go through security. We were in the Lounge eating sandwiches and cookies (and there was also French Onion soup) by 6:35.


Sandwich choices


Cookie jar


Sandwiches in the airport lounge

Got on the plane before 8:30 and they put the scooter in the closet for us. We were at a bulkhead which meant I couldn't have any bags with me, but I figured out that I could hang stuff from the arm of the TV. They gave us dinner - Tomato and mozzarella as a starter (it was good),

Tomato and mozzarella as a starter

beef with roasted root vegetables (I liked the beef but hated the veggies), and chocolate and caramel fondant for dessert

I think both of us slept some.

20 April 2016

They gave us breakfast on the plane - about 5 am our time. Juice, and either yogurt or fruit and pastries.



We flew in over the fields and streams (and houses and churches) of England,


and arrived at Heathrow early - 10:05.