Pre-Tour Stay in Amsterdam

Arrived in Amsterdam on Thursday for Holland and Belgium in Spring beginning tomorrow, 4/18. Rather than the “W” indicated on the website, our Tauck-designated hotel for this tour is the Kimpton DeWitt. It’s centrally located, and quite “hip.” (More hip than I am, but not too wierd.) food and service are very good. There’s an evening social hour, with free flowing wine from 4:00-500. I know there were mixed reviews of the W on this forum. Since I’ve never stayed there, I can’t compare, but do like the Kimpton.

We were pretty jet-lagged the first couple of days, so primarily focused on neighborhood walks and a canal cruise. Saturday night in the Red “Light District was quite the experience. I understand this was the first good weekend, weather-wise, since COVID restrictions were lifted. Therefore, almost all of humanity was out in force.

There is very little mask wearing in Amsterdam. I kind of fell into that groove, since it feels so comfortable without the mask. Most of the time has been outdoors or, if inside a restaurant, we would have unmasked to eat anyway. However, today at the Van Gogh museum, it was jam-packed, so I went back to the cloakroom to get my mask out of my backpack.. was much more comfortable that way.

Tomorrow, we have bags ready for pickup inside the room at 10:00: head or the Rijksmuseum, then are picked up at 3:00 for transport to the ms Savor.

Beautiful city, great weather, looking forward to all the tulips.