Treasures of Holland featuring Floriade and Amsterdam By Ferry

We depart from central London and head south, picking up en route at the Copthorne Hotel, Gatwick (overnight accommodation can be organised here or in London before and after the tour if required).  We will continue to Dover in time to catch a mid-morning ferry to Calais. On arrival in France we will head northwards through Belgium and on into The Netherlands, arriving at our hotel in the early evening. We are based at the 4-star Best Western Plus Plaza Hotel, conveniently situated in the centre of Almere, with many shops, cafes and restaurants just a stone’s throw away. The hotel is close to central railway station and is a just a short drive from the Floriade site. All rooms in the hotel are spacious and fitted with a desk, coffee and tea making facilities and a flat-screen TV with cable channels. Dinner is available this evening in the hotel’s restaurant at a supplement. Alternatively, you may wish to dine in one of the local restaurants at leisure.

This morning we visit the country house and garden of De Wiersse, described by a leading Dutch newspaper as “The most beautiful garden in the Netherlands”. Surrounded by farmland and woods lies the moated manor house, with 38 acres of garden and 74 acres of landscaped parkland lived in, designed and managed by the same family since 1678. In this historic and beautifully-kept garden a sequence of surprises awaits the visitor: avenues and pergolas; meadows and formal parterres; fountains and statues and bridges over a gentle stream. The majestic structure of the wild garden, with walks beneath ancient trees and a serpentine beech tunnel, is balanced by a practical kitchen and cutting garden and an intimate sunken garden with wide English borders.
In the afternoon we drive to the gardens at Het Loo Palace, just north of Apeldoorn. This was the medieval castle of Prince William of Orange and is now recognised as one of Europe's finest formal gardens. When the Dutch Royal Family decided that it would no longer use the palace in 1969 the government opted to turn it into a museum, fully restoring the formal seventeenth century garden to its original state. The palace's type of baroque garden is unique to the Netherlands. It is a late Dutch interpretation of the Italian-French garden dating from the first quarter of the seventeenth century. The exotic flowers and plants and the constant supply of fresh water for the fountains must have made the gardens of Het Loo a spectacular sight worth seeing even then.

Today, we have a full day at Floriade 2022 in Almere, which has been designed by award-winning Dutch architect and urban planner Winy Maas to be a green extension of Amsterdam. With its focus on ‘Green Cities of the Future’ there are four main themes: Green, Food, Energy and Health. Exhibits will demonstrate how cities can be made more attractive and resilient by creating more parks and vertical gardens; the latest ideas for sufficient, healthy and affordable food; solutions and inventions in the field of sustainable energy; and how good food, exercise, flowers, plants and trees can help with life in the city. Additional features include orchard houses and jasmine flower hotels, a restaurant in a rose garden, a lily pond swimming pool and a city arboretum with a walkway of over 2,000 trees, planted according to their botanical name. Botanical contributions around the site will come from growers all over the world and we can expect a riot of colour and inventive planting.

This morning we transfer to nearby Amsterdam, where we will visit the Museum Van Loon, a magnificent private residence from the Dutch ‘Golden Age’, with a large collection of paintings, fine porcelain and silver. The formal gardens perfectly complement the Classical style of the house.
Later, we continue to Calais to catch an evening P & O ferry to Dover. Once again we stop off at the Copthorne Gatwick Hotel, before continuing to London where we expect to arrive late evening.