Our world offers a plethora of places to visit and marvelous sights to see. So many, in fact, it's impossible to get to all of them. For this reason it is exciting when members of our community willingly share their travel adventures. Recently, Joyanne Bates of Poplar Bluff traveled to the Netherlands with her friend, Judith Nettles, also of Poplar Bluff, who was the perfect choice for a roommate. They have been friends a long time and share the love of walking and experiencing new adventures.
"In 1976," Joyanne explained, "I, along with three companions, journeyed to Europe. We rented an Opal Kadet in the Netherlands and drove for two weeks." Their journey ended in Italy and Fodor's "Europe on Ten Dollars a Day" had been their Bible. At that time, Joyanne didn't have a 'bucket list,' but she did vow to return to the Netherlands and visit the famous Keukenhof Gardens, which are located in the heart of the Dutch flower bulb production area, during the tulip season.
"In April 2017," she said, "I returned to the continent again. This time, however, I toured by boat -- a river cruise."
Traveling by riverboat is delightful because you unpack and pack once. "The boat, " Joyanne explained, "was new and beautifully appointed. The rivers were smooth sailing. It was the perfect way to view the tidy small towns and lovely farms along the river banks."
Our adventure began in Amsterdam. After unpacking, the duo began walking the cobblestone streets and the city canals. Every evening, they met on the ship with 120 other passengers for a lecture or video about the next day's excursion.
On their first full day in Amsterdam, Joyanne and Judith took a canal cruise and they visited the world class Rijksmuseum where the guide concentrated on the many Rembrandt and Vemeer paintings. Other excursions included Anne Frank's annex, the red-light district, and the Van Gogh Museum.
That evening, they set sail for Enkhuizen -- which is located in the province of North Holland. In the 17th century, Enkhuizen was one of the wealthiest cities of Holland. The city's rich history is still noticeable today when walking through the old inner city with its numerous state mansions, canals, churches, city walls and harbors.
Here, Joyanne and Judith visited the farm of a bulb grower, who served them Dutch cookies and milk. "He let us tour his tulip fields," Joyanne said, "and explained how the tulip bulbs are harvested." The gentleman also gave them a name and address of a mom-pop operation in Virginia, who has a bulb catalogue and carries bulbs from his field.
While in Enkhaten, they also visited a Dutch home. "We were divided into groups of six and were met at the pier by our hostess. She was tall (the Dutch are the tallest nationality in Europe) attractive woman named Mieke Besseling. She walked with us over the cobblestone streets to her 17th Century home. Her English was perfect and so were her manners. Our small group toured her garden and enjoyed Dutch cheeses, herring, beer and an apéritif made with eggs, cream and brandy." These cultural connections were one of the highlights of the trip.
The next stop was Arnhem. For history buffs, the Netherlands is the place to be as there are many World War II Museums. In Arnhem, they visited the Kroller Muller Museum, known as the liberation museum. Arnhem is the town where Canadian, American and British guilders and paratroopers landed and liberated the Netherlands in 1945. A star-studded movie, filmed in 1992, "A Bridge Too Far," tells this story. "We actually saw the bridge," Joyanne said. "This was a major defeat for the Germans."
Then it was on to Rotterdam, which is a very modern city today. The Germans completely destroyed this city. In 1940, Hitler's Luftwaffe bombed the port of Rotterdam and occupied the Netherlands and Belgium for the next five years. Today's Rotterdam's port is second only to Singapore.
The beautiful Keukenhok Garden is a few miles from Rotterdam. Seven million tulip, daffodil and hyacinth bulbs are blooming "Truly," Joyanne recalls, "A Garden of Eden on earth."
A trip to the Netherlands would not be complete without windmills, which they saw in Kinderkijk -- a village in the Netherlands' South Holland province, known for its iconic 18th-Century windmills. Its water-management network features 19 mills and three pumping stations, plus dikes and reservoirs which control flooding in the polder (low-lying land). Waterways, footpaths and bike trails crisscross the area, leading to the main visitors center and museums in preserved working windmills.. The Netherlands uses wind and solar to power most of their electricity. More than half of the Netherlands is polder. Eighty-five percent of their trains are powered by wind. Solar panels are found on new and old homes alike. "As one of our guides put it, "Joyanne said, 'God created the earth, the Dutch created the Netherlands.'"
The tour spent the last two days in Belgium where they found the picture-perfect town of Bruges. A canal cruise was the best way to view this fairy-tale city. Luckily Bruges was not bombed during the war. The last stop was Antwerp -- the second largest port in Europe. The city is know for its diamond, and it was home to Van Dyck and Rubens.
Belgium is synonymous with chocolate, lace, beer and waffles. Fortunately, a chocolatier gave a chocolate demonstration for the tour.
"The last night of the journey," Joyanne recalls, "we said goodbye to the wonderful crew, 46 young people mainly from Eastern Europe, who were attractive, helpful, efficient and friendly."
After a marvelous journey through Amsterdam, the two friends boarded the plane for St. Louis. Ironically, after spending all this time in a country who has learned to control its water, they returned home to Southeast Missouri whose waters were out-of-control.