Riverboat Cruise Antwerp to Antwerp
 

My husband and I are considering a Uniworld riverboat cruise called "Antwerp to Antwerp". However it starts in Brussels and ends in Amsterdam with tranportation to and from the boat. Would we see a sample of Old Europe on this trip? We like riverboat travel. One of the ports is Middelburg, it looks like it is near the sea and I dont' want any sea travel (motion sickness problem). Other ports Gouda, Rotterdam, Schoonhoven. Any comments welcome. Thanks.

Have you been to Europe before?

Some of the smaller towns in The Netherlands will give you a good look at "Old Europe".

Have you conisdered "Grand Circle Travel"? www.gct.com

We took our first riverboat trip this past December, from Amsterdam to Basel Swizerland and loved the trip. My research showed me that GCT gave much more value for the money than Uniworld, although I only have the one trip to fall back on as personal experience. They are worth a look, however.

We did enjoy the small town of Nimijgen (sp) in The Netherlands ---

Please email me if you have questions about the riverboat experience - I love to talk about it!

dwzemens AT comcast.net

We've never traveled to Europe and we are in our mid-60s! The cruise we're considering is a Uniworld Grand Value Cruise and also we are trying to get to a destination where we don't have to change planes in a foreign country. We want to make our first Europe Experience as easy as possible. Next time, maybe a more complicated destination. Any info on the ports? I'll check out the Grand Circle Travel.

Seriously, please email me as I have a lot of information about cruising and tips you might be interested in.

dwzemensATcomcast.net

Middelburg is a very attractive old town on a canal. The ships that offer river cruises are certainly not suitable for sea travel and do not go to sea.

Oh yes, you will see samples of Old Europe!
Antwerp, for example, is a beautiful medieval city with a lovely historical centre, enough monuments and museums to keep you busy for a while, great shopping, eating and drinking. Antwerp is becoming a popular port of call for large cruise ships and mostly guided tours in the city are offered to the passengers - a few years ago buses were waiting to take the passengers to Brussels or Brugge for a (half) day but apparently some clever soul has found out that Antwerp has enough to offer. Most of the cruise ships dock on the river Scheldt right in front of our Lady's Cathedral. (picture on http://p.vtourist.com/1568607-Travel...re-Antwerp.jpg).
Middelburg in the province of Zeeland is a very pretty city, it's only a 15 min. drive to the North Sea but there will be no sea travel involved. Zeeland has quite some canals and waterways! Middelburg is a compact city and the monuments are concentrated around the main square. They have a very nice city hall.
Also Gouda and Amsterdam are really worthwhile. Rotterdam is a bit different. It doesn't have so many 'old' things 'cause the city has been bombed during the war, but it's an interesting city anyway.
This is going to be a very nice trip!

All of you that have left postings...... Thank you so much! I hope I don't drive you all crazy, but a few more questions. How do I pay for things? Do I need Euros? How do I get Euros? You see, I really am an inexperienced traveler. Im so glad I found this website.

You can get Euros an an ATM in an airport, but most river ships offer currency exchange to passengers.

passportplus,

You won't have any troubles 'getting' Euros - the problem will be 'keeping' them!

Seriously, the ATM's work great in Europe, too. On our Grand Circle river cruise the ship also exchanged US Dollars into Euros.

dwz

About Euros. The financial page (currencies)in the newspaper says "British Pound expressed in U.S. dolalrs. All others show dollar in foreign currency". So if Euros are listed at .8435, what does that mean in U.S dollars? Thanks

One dollar will buy you .8435 Euro.

Think of it as one dollar will buy you 84 Euro cents, or at today's rate, one Euro will cost you approx $1.19/$1.20. ((b))