Despite giving real consideration to other routes/timing/ships, when four other people said yes to the April 15th tulip tour I went with what was both easy and met all my tick boxes, knowing that the probability of us (Dave and myself) getting to the Netherlands again is very low, and seeing that accommodating the wide range of specifics desired would have Dave and myself abandoning too many of our preferences without being certain of participation of others as the tours are booking quickly.  I do hope most of you will find the current plan as wonderful as we think it is.  

BTW, two of the six who are confirmed are non-riders who will relax and do sightseeing at ports as well as the bus trip to Keukenhof.  You can see the Updated Interest List

Allowing for small variation for flights, the timing will be:

April 13 or 14:  Fly to Amsterdam

April 15:  Depart on Sail/Bike Tulip Tour

April 23:  Travel to Valkenburg

April 30:  Return home.  

John now has pricing for Hotel B&B Heren Van Valkenburg The Lords of Valkenburg (de heren van valkenburg.nl), owned by his cousin’s son Olaf.  The PDF is attached.  You can twist your brain around the Dutch words to figure out:

• The total EU 3945.26 is for 10 people and includes:

• 2 single (budget) rooms (one with toilet, one with shared toilet); two friends could share a room)

• 2 standard rooms (each with different features so prices are not identical)

• 2 upgraded rooms (each with different features so prices are not identical)

• Buffet breakfast

• We are getting a 10% discount (hence the difference between Prijs and Totaal).

I took this to be an overview of room options to give us an idea of available choices.  Other Valkenburg details are still in the works, but we know Olaf can arrange bicycles for us.  I did look at one Valkenburg bicycle rental site and a bike with water bottle, maps and helmet came in at EU 26/day.  The website didn’t show a weekly rate but I expect there is one.

I have heard from a few people who are interested in doing both Valkenburg and the north Holland sail/bike tour with Nico and Barb, departing on the 6th of May.  That gives extra time for exploring between the organized activities and requires your own (or your own small group) arrangements beyond the Valkenburg plan organized by John.  

Questions answered from BoatBikeTours this morning include:

If we are 12 but we can’t all get on the same ship due to not enough space, would they still let us have the group discount:  No.

Would they hold rooms for us for a week if we knew we had 12:  Yes.  

If they were holding rooms while we got booked would need names:  Yes

If we book a ship and we want to switch to be with others from the club on a different route, can we transfer our booking:  Yes IF it is within a month.  Later there would be a cancellation fee.

Would they allow the discount for 11 people if that was the only space they had on a boat:  No

If we go ahead and book using the GROUPBBT5 code, does the discount apply as soon as we reach 12 people on the same tour:  Yes 

Dave and I plan to book the BoatBikeTour today.