Amsterdam attractions on Tauck tour
We are planning for our Rhine River cruise for Sept. 27. We will be arriving a day early and are deciding what to see and do that will not be the same as what will be done on the Tauck cruise first day. Does the Tauck tour of Amsterdam include either the Anne Frank House or the Van Gogh Museum? We would like to see the windmills. Does the tour go to any windmill areas? We are thinking about a 1/2 day tour to the countryside if it doesn't.
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We've done the Rhine/Moselle and have reservations for Budapest to Amsterdam next year.
Longer answer, if either of those were included it would be mentioned in the itinerary. Tauck has sometimes surprised us with small additions to the itinerary, but never a major site like those. You'll get the standard 'Tauck day in Amsterdam' - a canal cruise on a glass topped boat (likely served excellent apple pie and coffee) then a couple of hours in the Rijksmuseum with a guide.
However, you're likely to pass by the Anne Frank House on the canal trip and the Van Gogh museum is very close to the Rijksmuseum. After the museum tour with a guide, we were given the option to go back to the boat for lunch or stay at the museum and take a later bus back to the boat.
Our cruise next year - Danube to Rhine - has no repeats in the itinerary from our previous cruise except for the day in Amsterdam. I'll gladly repeat those as we really enjoyed the canal cruise since it was a great way to view the city without facing death by bicyclists and because there is so much in the Rijksmuseum that 2 hours isn't enough. Then we'll likely walk over to the Van Gogh on our own. There is also other museums in the area.
Enjoy
The first thing I recommend you do is read the itinerary for your tour. It’s easy to see that you will not be visiting Anne Frank house or the Van Gogh Museum. If it is not too late to change your plans, I recommend you arrive 2 or 3 days early so that you go do Amsterdam some kind of Justice, especially if you think you may never visit there again. You will be arriving after an ‘overnight’ flight but that means with the time change you will arrive having had very little sleep. By the time you can check into your hotel room, hopefully having organized early check in, that’s half your first day gone. You will only be able to visit one major attraction before day’s end. The next day you may have had unsettled sleep but you have to decide whether to set your alarm and get out there and see something before you have to organize yourselves to be on the boat by 4pm. If it was me, I would prioritize getting tickets for Anne Frank House as others have mentioned they are hard to come by, probably for the morning of the day the tour begins, giving yourselves time to eat and get there. It’s 25 years since I was there. The lines were very long then, I can remember being in line with people from many countries and Mr B practicing his Japanese with the group next to us in line. The whole experience was very moving, I shall never forget it. I look forward to our first Tauck river cruise next year , it ends in Amsterdam and we are staying on three extra days. One reason we like Tauck is that they can organize all the logistics of being in the right place at the right time to maximize site seeing time. But there is never enough time, especially at the cities at beginning and end of tours, it’s good to arrive early or stay on in these cites.
British, I thought you were cruising this year... We're on the Budapest to Amsterdam 30 May 19 along with at least 1 other couple. We met a TD on the Seine last year who was training up on that river. We told him the Danube was the only one we hadn't done and he stated "well you saved the best for last".
Mythic West looks like a good one. So much to see in Yellowstone. We've done most of that in our RV - alot less posh than Tauck but cheaper.
Go to the ZAANSE SCHANS - check it out on the internet , it is a area were all historic buildings have been relocated which according to some individuels are in the way of progress.
It is located at about a 30 minute taxi or bus ride from the city center and I always say to friends and Family who visit us from Australia, you get to see in halve a day all the things some people consider you need to see in Holland. Three to four hours are ample to enjoy this historic area, on some day you can walk over the heads of Chinese or Japanse.
Things to see
1. Working windmills
2. Cheese factory and free tasting of samples
3. Clog making demonstrations
4. Beutiful restored old buildings
5. A restaurant that serves nice Dutch pankakes
6. The usual souveneirs
Entrance is free, they take pictures of you as you walk in and try to flog them to you as you leave, however you arere not obliged to buy them.
Kees van Roon ( an Australianized Dutchman who had the misfortune of migrating out to the Britisch Penal Colony of Western Australia in hi youth of th 1950,s )
Go to the ZAANSE SCHANS - check it out on the internet , it is a area where all historic buildings have been relocated which according to some individuels are in the way of progress.
It is located at about a 30 minute taxi or bus ride from the city center and I always say to friends and Family who visit us from Australia, you get to see in halve a day all the things some people consider you need to see in Holland. Three to four hours are ample to enjoy this historic area, on some day you can walk over the heads of Chinese or Japanse.
Things to see
1. Working windmills
2. Cheese factory and free tasting of samples
3. Clog making demonstrations
4. Beutiful restored old buildings
5. A restaurant that serves nice Dutch pankakes
6. The usual souveneirs
Entrance is free, they take pictures of you as you walk in and try to flog them to you as you leave, however you arere not obliged to buy them.
Kees van Roon ( an Australianized Dutchman who had the misfortune of migrating out to the Britisch Penal Colony of Western Australia in hi youth of th 1950,s )
Thanx for the recommendation on Zaanse Schans. It was on my list for next year. Looks pretty easy to get to from Central Station.
We will be in Amsterdam one extra day after our Brussels to Amsterdam riverboat trip that ends April 21. Those tulips better be blooming!!! At their peak!!! We will look into the Zaanse Schans. Since we missed out on the Anne Frank house, we bought tickets for the Van Gogh museum at 10:15 after our riverboat docks. Supposedly, having pre-bought tickets avoids the lines and gets us in sooner. We hope.
As for the Anne Frank house, the renovation should be complete by the end of May, maybe sooner, so no problems for those traveling later in the year. Our extra day is a Saturday, and that seemed to make the ticket situation worse. I read the book, saw the movie, so I will have to be content just walking by and viewing the outside.
By the way, the Rijksmuseum has a special exhibit from now until the end of May. Called “High Society,” it is a grouping of portraits by famous artists through the centuries of the rich and famous on their times. Might be more interesting that the dark and dreary Dutch masters. Send me back to the Musee d’Orsay where I can see the Impressionist art that I dearly love.
Cheers to all and happy travels!!
Nancy
Cheers to all and happy travels!!
Nancy[/quote]
If you love the Impressionists, check out the huge collection at the Barnes Foundation museum in Philadelphia, it will take you all day to see them all.
I also did the Danube Budapest to Bucharest and Seine River river cruise they were both great I love Budapest great city.
Doing Alaska in June. Love Tauck
Appreciate the suggestion to read the itinerary. I would never have thought of that on my own. It was the lead heading of
"Amsterdam's canals, the Rijksmuseum & more" that led me to inquire as to what the "more" might entail. I wish we had an extra three or four days to spend in Amsterdam but it's hard for my wife and I to be gone from work that long. We are extending two extra days in Lucerne on the tail end of the trip. I'm sure we'll be back to Amsterdam again in the future. We're going to Anne Frank and Van Gogh this time. I think we'll do a small ship Baltic Cruise or the Budapest to Black Sea with Tauck next year.
It takes some experience to decipher the itineraries here. If it lists 3-4 sights then says "afternoon on your own" you can be pretty sure its just a drive by with maybe quick photo stops. If they list a sight and say "guided tour" then you'll get some time inside. After a tour or two you start to learn the code.
These threads make me laugh when no one actually says what their name is. Do you go round the 100 people on the ship asking for cdunn1954 or Lindon, which could or could not be a first name, please introduce yourselves.
Hmmm ... names and ‘handles’. My Naval Aviator doctor (flight surgeon) friend is known as “Quack”. That is a tem of endearment Naval Aviators use to refer to the squadron flight surgeon. I use “Sealord” which was actually the last radio callsign of my first aircraft carrier (of eleven) the USS Oriskany, which is now 22 miles south of Pensacola, FL in 200 feet of water as an artificial reef. My license plate actually says “Sealord”, but the actual callsign was “Sea Lord”. In fact, the ‘Quack’ refers to me as the ‘Captain’. And I am sure if I got aboard a ship with you and you said your name was ‘British’, I would know a lot more about you than I would if you use your real name ... which I have never heard (read), We actually did use these ‘handles’ instead of names. The one that was pretty ‘funny’ was a guy known as “Sams”. When people used his handle on the radio, everyone started looking for missiles. (;-)
Yup. Outside of “TopGun”, handles were not necessarily glamorous. One of my favorites, an X-room mate, was ‘Black Cloud”. If anything bad was going to happen in an airplane, it happened to “Black Cloud”. Fortunately, for him and others, there was always a happy ending. He ended up working for USAir, but don’t worry, he is retired now. We also had a pilot named, “Wrong Way”. I’ll let you think about that one. (;-). A friend and colleague was named “Bug”... last name Roach. He was probably the most famous LSO (Landing Signal Officer) in the Navy, and is honored every year at the Navy’s Reunion at the Nugget in Reno (Sparks). I know we are off topic ... maybe I’ll delete it later.