Day 3: Dutch Treats and Rhine Views
Daily Briefing
Today we met our bus driver Joe. Before this trip, I didn't know how much a bus driver can mean to the tour. After all, your life is in his hands for up to 6 hours a day. Joe was special. He has driven for Rick's tours for over 25 years. He's really professional, kind and enthusiastic about his job and he’s a wizard with languages. We enjoyed Joe for the rest of the trip and hope we travel with him again.
Our first stop was the Keukenhof Gardens. We were very lucky to have traveled in early May while Keukenhof Gardens was still in bloom. Keukenhof closes in mid May so only a few Rick Steves' tours are able to visit there. We live near Holland, Michigan and have enjoyed "Tulip Time" the largest tulip festival in the United States but it's nothing compared to the beauty of Keukenhof. We wandered through the acres of tulips, other spring flowers, beautiful trees and ponds for three hours and felt like we could have spent the the rest of the day there. We couldn’t resist showing you lots of our “Visions of Keukenhof”. We left Keukenhof at noon and arrived in Bacharach at 6:00 pm. While on the bus, we interviewed our buddies* and developed a mini biography for them. After checking into our rooms, we met in the beer garden for some delicious German beer and then proceeded to our group dinner. After dinner each of us introduced our buddies and gave a short biographical sketch as part of our plan to get to know each other as quickly as possible. Later, we went out for an evening photo walk. Bacharach after dark has a different ambience. Light reflected on the dark cobblestones makes you feel you could be back in the 14th century. A full moon over the Stahleck Castle looked as it must have 700 years ago. * Buddies: Rick’s tours use a “Buddy System” as a really efficient way to account for everyone when moving from place to place. Each person confirms that his buddy is present in seconds, avoiding the need for role taking. |
Image of the Day
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Daily Photo Gallery
A Few Words About: The Bus
We really appreciated our bus time. There was plenty of room to spread out and relax. Pam did a lot of knitting, listened to books on tape and did more than her share of snoozing. I listened to podcasts, downloaded my pictures to my laptop and also did more than my share of snoozing. Reid frequently passed out samples of local treats and the soda, the beer and wine concession on the bus was a special plus. Bus time was also used by Reid, Rick and Trish to educate us about the history, culture, language and customs pertaining to the next stop as well to explain the itinerary for the next day. We found Reid to be particularly helpful in giving suggestions for optimizing the use of our free time at the next location. The bus was spacious and comfortable and you always felt safe with Joe as the driver.