Viking Longship - Tulips & Windmills

Where this cruise calls, day by day

10 ports over 9 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Amsterdam

   NetherlandsDepart

   One of the few big European cities where the cruise berth is genuinely in town - the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam sits on the IJ waterfront, a ten-minute walk from Centraal Station. Note that the city has capped sea cruise calls at 100 a year from 2026 and plans to move the terminal out of the centre by 2035, so berths here are getting scarcer. River ships moor nearby along the same quays.

   • Anne Frank House on the Prinsengracht (timed tickets, book weeks ahead)
   • Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum on Museumplein
   • A canal boat through the 17th-century grachtengordel
   • Cycling out to the Jordaan or the Albert Cuyp market

   Getting ashore

   Ships berth alongside at PTA on Piet Heinkade; it is a flat 10-15 minute walk west to Centraal Station and the top of the Damrak, no shuttle needed.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct (tulip season mid-Apr)

2. Day 2

   Amsterdam

   NetherlandsPort

   One of the few big European cities where the cruise berth is genuinely in town - the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam sits on the IJ waterfront, a ten-minute walk from Centraal Station. Note that the city has capped sea cruise calls at 100 a year from 2026 and plans to move the terminal out of the centre by 2035, so berths here are getting scarcer. River ships moor nearby along the same quays.

   • Anne Frank House on the Prinsengracht (timed tickets, book weeks ahead)
   • Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum on Museumplein
   • A canal boat through the 17th-century grachtengordel
   • Cycling out to the Jordaan or the Albert Cuyp market

   Getting ashore

   Ships berth alongside at PTA on Piet Heinkade; it is a flat 10-15 minute walk west to Centraal Station and the top of the Damrak, no shuttle needed.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct (tulip season mid-Apr)

3. Day 3

   Enkhuizen

   NetherlandsPort

   A small West Frisian harbour town on the Markermeer that was a wealthy VOC port in the 1600s and then stopped growing, which left the 17th-century town largely intact. The Drommedaris gate tower guards the old harbour mouth. Only small ships and river vessels come here; the main visit is the open-air Zuiderzee museum along the waterfront.

   • The Zuiderzee Museum's relocated fishing village and boat sheds
   • The Drommedaris tower and the old harbour
   • Westerkerk and the merchant houses on the Westerstraat
   • Sailing out on a traditional flat-bottomed botter

   Getting ashore

   Small ships moor alongside in the town harbour, within a few minutes' walk of everything.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct

4. Day 4

   Arnhem

   NetherlandsPort

   A river-cruise call on the Nederrijn in Gelderland, and for most passengers the reason is 1944 - Operation Market Garden ended here, and the road bridge is the 'bridge too far'. Outside the war history the surrounding Veluwe is heath and forest, with one of the best small art collections in Europe sitting in the middle of it.

   • Airborne Museum Hartenstein in Oosterbeek, in the former British divisional HQ
   • The John Frost Bridge over the Rhine
   • Kröller-Müller Museum and its Van Goghs, inside Hoge Veluwe National Park
   • The Netherlands Open Air Museum's relocated farmhouses and windmills

   Getting ashore

   River ships moor alongside on the Rhine quay near the centre; ocean ships do not call, and the museums out at Oosterbeek and Hoge Veluwe need a coach.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct

5. Day 5

   Kinderdijk

   NetherlandsPort

   A river-cruise stop rather than a town: 19 windmills built around 1740 to drain the Alblasserwaard polder, standing along the dykes below sea level between Rotterdam and Dordrecht. It is a UNESCO site and the whole visit is a flat walk or bike ride along the canals, with two of the mills open as museums showing how the miller families lived inside them.

   • Walking the dyke path past all 19 mills
   • Going inside the Museum Mill Nederwaard, still furnished as a home
   • The Wisboom pumping station and its visitor film
   • A hopper boat between the mill groups if you would rather not walk

   Getting ashore

   River ships moor alongside at the Kinderdijk landing, right at the entrance to the mill network; larger ocean ships do not call here.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct

6. Day 6

   Antwerp

   BelgiumPort

   A Flemish port city on the Scheldt, historically the richest in northern Europe and still the centre of the world diamond trade. Rubens lived and worked here, and his altarpieces are in the cathedral he painted them for. Ships come up the river to quays on the edge of the old town, which is compact enough to cover on foot.

   • Cathedral of Our Lady and its four Rubens altarpieces
   • Grote Markt, the guild houses and the Brabo fountain
   • The MAS museum's escalator route up to a free rooftop view
   • Plantin-Moretus, the preserved 16th-century printing house

   Getting ashore

   Ships berth alongside on the Scheldt quays close to the centre; from the Steenplein area the Grote Markt is a few minutes' walk, though berth assignment varies and some sea ships use quays further north.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct

7. Day 7

   Middelburg

   NetherlandsPort

   The capital of Zeeland, on the Walcheren peninsula, reached by canal from Vlissingen. It was badly bombed in 1940 and carefully rebuilt, so the abbey complex and the flamboyant Gothic town hall look older than their reconstruction dates. This is a small-ship and river-cruise call; the pace ashore is slow and the town is walkable end to end.

   • Climbing Lange Jan, the abbey tower over the town
   • The Stadhuis on the Markt, one of the finest Gothic town halls in the Low Countries
   • The Abdij complex and the Zeeuws Museum inside it
   • Veere or Domburg, both a short drive across Walcheren

   Getting ashore

   River and small ships moor alongside on the canal quays a short walk from the centre; some itineraries berth at Vlissingen instead and coach in, roughly 15-20 minutes.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct

8. Day 8

   Zeeland (Veere)

   NetherlandsPort

   A tiny former herring and wool town on the Veerse Meer in Zeeland, once wealthy from trade with Scotland and now barely 1,500 people behind its old fortifications. The scale is the point: an outsized 15th-century church, a lavish town hall and two Gothic merchant houses on the quay, all serving a village. Only small vessels call.

   • De Schotse Huizen, the two Gothic Scottish merchant houses on the harbour
   • The Grote Kerk, huge and mostly empty, with a tower climb
   • The 15th-century Stadhuis and its carillon
   • Cycling the dyke to Domburg or across Walcheren to Middelburg

   Getting ashore

   Small ships and river vessels moor in the little harbour beside the town, which is a couple of minutes' walk end to end.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct

9. Day 9

   Amsterdam

   NetherlandsPort

   One of the few big European cities where the cruise berth is genuinely in town - the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam sits on the IJ waterfront, a ten-minute walk from Centraal Station. Note that the city has capped sea cruise calls at 100 a year from 2026 and plans to move the terminal out of the centre by 2035, so berths here are getting scarcer. River ships moor nearby along the same quays.

   • Anne Frank House on the Prinsengracht (timed tickets, book weeks ahead)
   • Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum on Museumplein
   • A canal boat through the 17th-century grachtengordel
   • Cycling out to the Jordaan or the Albert Cuyp market

   Getting ashore

   Ships berth alongside at PTA on Piet Heinkade; it is a flat 10-15 minute walk west to Centraal Station and the top of the Damrak, no shuttle needed.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct (tulip season mid-Apr)

10. Day 10

    Amsterdam

    NetherlandsArrive

    One of the few big European cities where the cruise berth is genuinely in town - the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam sits on the IJ waterfront, a ten-minute walk from Centraal Station. Note that the city has capped sea cruise calls at 100 a year from 2026 and plans to move the terminal out of the centre by 2035, so berths here are getting scarcer. River ships moor nearby along the same quays.

    • Anne Frank House on the Prinsengracht (timed tickets, book weeks ahead)
    • Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum on Museumplein
    • A canal boat through the 17th-century grachtengordel
    • Cycling out to the Jordaan or the Albert Cuyp market

    Getting ashore

    Ships berth alongside at PTA on Piet Heinkade; it is a flat 10-15 minute walk west to Centraal Station and the top of the Damrak, no shuttle needed.

    Best months

    Apr-Oct (tulip season mid-Apr)