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Cost of this trip: EURO 62.50.
It’s important to note that hotel and meals for the pre-convention trips on Monday and Tuesday are not included in the Convention fee!
You can make a reservation for the same hotel(room) but you have to pay your own cost for the room and meals.
It's still a long time to go before the convention starts and the following itinerary may undergo changes.
On Tuesday July 8 2008 coaches will depart at 8:00AM from the Convention Hotel for a short transfer to Delfshaven, in West Rotterdam. From Delfshaven July 22 AD 1602 the Pilgrim Fathers began their voyage to America, via Plymouth, England. The night before the embarkment they attended a service in the Pilgrim Church (rebuilt since then). Apart from the Church you will find antique shops, art dealers, small shops and restaurants, a museum, a brewery and a corn mill in Delfshaven
After about sixty minutes of sightseeing we embark on a riverboat for a one hour trip along the river Maas through the center of Rotterdam to the windmills of Kinderdijk, about 10 miles East of Rotterdam. You will see a network of 19 windmills, dating from the 1500s and still in working condition, ready to serve in case modern equipment breaks down. These are water mills, used for drainage of the land. First, the mills drained water from the lower basins and polders. Then, they channeled the water to raised reservoirs. Lastly, the excess water passed through half a dozen locks before draining into the river. All the mills are inhabited. One of them is open for visitors. This whole area is on the World Heritage List of UNESCO.
We will spend an hour in Kinderdijk (there will be a guide), before we take the boat back to Rotterdam. A light lunch will be served aboard.
The coaches will take us from Rotterdam to the city of Delft, for a visit to the Royal Delft Factory (the last remaining Delftware manufacturer surviving since the 17th century) and a guided tour of the city with visits to the ‘New Church’ (constructed between 1614 and 1622) where members of the Dutch Royal Family are buried (among them Prince William of Orange, founder of the State of the Netherlands), and the area where Johannes Vermeer situated his famous painting ‘The little street’ (to be seen in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, see also the slide show). The search for the real location has no end; it may never have existed in the form it was painted by Vermeer around 1657.
There will be an opportunity to have dinner on your own in Delft, with return to the Hotel around 09:00PM.
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