Slootdort – Netherlands Tulip Bulb Growers

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Netherlands, Slootdort, Tulip Bulb, Tulip Bulbs, Tulips, Viking River Cruises

June 16th 2022 Bulb Growers – Slootdort – Netherlands

We had an afternoon tour to a Bulb Growers farm owned by the Munster family .  It was a major business.  We learned that a field could only be use once every 6 years for Tulips and most of the bulbs need to be planted two years before they can be used for growing flowers (One time use) and creating new bulbs. We also learned that all Tulips flowers are raised in the green house and bulbs grown outdoors have the flowers removed so that the growth is moved to the bulb. Below is a link to their website which is quite interesting and shows images during the season when tulips are visible.

Home

Munster farm recommends that if you are going to purchase Tulip bulbs in the USA, this grower you should get them from:

BrentandBeckysBulbs.com

Best prices and highest quality.

Hoorn – Netherlands

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Viking River Cruises, Netherlands, Hoorn

June 16th 2022 Hoorn – Netherlands

This is the most picturesque town we have visited so far on out trip.  Lots of old building which have been taken very good care of plus they didn’t have a lot of damage during WWII.   It was very prosperous harbor in the 16 and 1700’s but faded some as Amsterdam became more successful. Now Hoorn has grown in size and many residents commute to work in Amsterdam either by car, a 45 min. drive or taking the train. 

Kinderdjik – Netherlands

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Kinderdijl, Netherlands, Viking River Cruises

June 15th 2022 Kinderdjik – Netherlands

We last visited Kinderdjik in 2015.  It is a world heritage site so very little changed in what you could visit.  The entrance was upgraded with a gift shop and restaurant as well as a new walking path from the road to the entrance.   The site contains 19 working windmills.  A Miller lives in each of 17 windmills to keep them working.  The other two have shared up keep so that tourist can visit.  All 19 windmills are used to pump water.   The cost to rebuilt one the windmills is in the range of one million euro’s.  The majority of the work during flooding is now done by modern pumping stations which are electrical powered. 

Rotterdam – Netherlands

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Netherland, Netherlands, Rotterdam, Viking River Cruises

June 14th 2022 Rotterdam – Netherlands

We visited Rotterdam partly by bus in 2015 and traveled under the cube building.  On our visit this time we walked from the boat and traveled through the exterior of the  cube building complex.  Coming into Rotterdam we passed the local soccer stadium which was the size of an NFL facility.  It seemed that there was a home game later in the day. The bars and restaurants next to the cube building was full of soccer fans in their red shirts participating in their form of a pregame tailgate. We visited a large indoor mall made up mostly of stalls selling food.  Returning to the boat we stopped at the cube building and paid the three Euro fee to visit the interior of one home in the complex.    

Dordrecht – Netherlands

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Dordrecht, Netherlands, Viking River Cruises

June 14th 2022 Dordrecht – Netherlands

In the morning we went for a short walk with a guide who explained some of the unique things about the town.  Early on 1500’s or so Dordrecht was a much more prosperous area than Rotterdam and Amsterdam because of its location on the river. By the 1850s not so much so. As you can see by a boat on the river Dordrecht is close enough to Rotterdam that it is covered by the Rotterdam port authority.  We visited some of the older building and learned about their history. We also learned about past flooding and how flooding has been handled in the Netherlands.

Wesel – Germany

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Germany, Viking River Cruises, Wesel

June 13th 2022 Wesel – Germany

Wesel had a city center but not an old town. It was such a strategic location for both the Germans and Allied Forces that the Allies bombed the city to smithereens by the end of World War II.   We visited a church that was rebuilt (finished in 1994) and what was remaining of a large Prussian Citadel (Fortress).   Everything was built after WW II but we learned about the historical significance and importance of the location on the Rhine river.  The church, when rebuilt, had a very modern pipe organ with included horns and a modern sound and lighting system. 

Nijimegen – Netherlands

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Netherlands, Nijimegen, Viking River Cruises

June 12th 2022 – Nijimegen – Netherlands

We traveled the river in the morning on our Viking River Boat and arrived at Nijimegen just before lunch.  At 2:00 we had a walking tour of the city. We visited a very large sun dial as other site in the old city center.

Masstrich – Netherland

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Masstrich, Netherland

June 11th 2022   Masstrich – Netherland

Our boat stopped prior to reaching Masstrich while still in Belgium where we boarded buses for the short ride in to Masstrich in the Netherlands.  The boat had to wait in line to go through one of the locks which took another two hours, so it arrived much later than we did.  

Out walking tour of the town included the ABCs (Three) – we didn’t go into any of them.  We visited several of the town squares (all very nice)  and walking along portions of the old city wall  and finished at something quite unique, a church which had been converted into a book store. 

Visiting Antwerp – Belgiam

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Antwerp, Belgiam

June 10th 2022

On our Viking cruise it was a short bus ride from the boat to the historic city center where we did a walking tour.  Being a Friday near the end of the school year it seemed as if many schools selected this day for field trips to the city center.   We started our walk at the former docks which still had the old cranes used for unloading ships.  One of our first stops included the former city hall which in the past was connected to the wall protecting the city.  We saw portions of the former outer wall which now is built over but can be viewed in some locations.  Also the city does currently have a short wall with gates that can be closed between the river and the city  to prevent flood water from entering the city proper.

INTERESTING were the motorized trailers for Bicycles that we saw.  The trailer is attached to the bike but provides its own power.  The attachment provides information to the trailer and the trailer drives its self behind the bike

We made visits to the current main square which included the current city hall and had our ABC visit (A=another B=bloody C=church) before returning to the boat.  One unique feature of the church was it’s beehive cupola – the black beehive shaped portion of the building – which did look normal from inside the church

Springbrook Creek

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Naperville, Springbrook Creek

Next to our home Springbrook Creek travels from the Springbrook Forest Preserve towards the North Branch of the DuPage River. The creek passed two times across Naper/Plainfield Rd. in Naperville were our neighborhood is located. If you drive south on Naper/Plainfield Rd from 75th past the forest preserve you will pass the location where the creek intersects the 4 lane highway and most likely miss the view people see walking past. Out on a short walk from our home I took the images below with my I-phone from the sidewalk.