travel the world
Inside Keukenhof Garden top middle Windmill and ferry in Veere top right Carpet at Amsterdam Museum bottom left Locals hang out on a canal’s edge, Amsterdam top left
bottom right
Fish koppen in Arnhem
My ship, so to speak, is an Emerald Waterways river-cruising vessel. And here, in Hoorn, we’re less than 50 km from our starting point in Amsterdam. The entire seven-day tour of the Netherlands (Belgium’s Flemish region, part of the geographical Low Countries, is thrown in there with a stop in Antwerp) only travels as far as a standard day trip from the Dutch capital. But by boat it’s a leisurely, time-warping journey into bygone
days and lesser-known villages. Starting in Amsterdam, we spend a night in this famed city and take a walking tour that covers the, ahem, highlights. Interested passengers get the lowdown on the redlight district (where independent professionals are part of a union with health benefits, as our local guide proudly explains) and learn the difference between koffiehuis and coffee shop (the latter is where you can legally partake in marijuana, be it
with a joint or “space cake”). And this modern, sophisticated city also has a thing for self-propelled transportation, populated with more bikes than people (as our guide states of the Dutch: “As soon as we’re on a bike the beast in us comes alive.”). A mere five minutes at any street corner is a live-action film on how to dress with aplomb while cycling. There’s an interplay of young and old, new and traditional, off-beat and staid. In a soaring, spired church
May/June 2017 Just For Canadian dentists
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