DESTINATIONS
Springfling c
Jane Archer gets back to nature along the Dutch and Belgian waterways on Great Rail Journeys’ first whole-ship charter
harlie Dimmock is waxing lyrical about shrubs and grass and regaling us with behind-the-scenes stories from TV show
Ground Force when, together with Alan Titchmarsh and Tommy Walsh, she would roll up her sleeves and make over a garden in just two days. Ground Force ended in 2005, but Dimmock keeps her hand in TV as part of the Garden Rescue team, and has even taken to the stage in Christmas pantos and Calendar Girls. Today, she’s guest starring on a one-week river
cruise around the Dutch and Belgian waterways with Great Rail Journeys. A rail specialist offering river cruises might seem
a tad contradictory, but Great Rail has been taking groups on the waterways of Europe for years. What makes this cruise different is that I am on the first of several whole-ship charters, where everyone is a Great Rail customer and their tour managers run the
show. Other cruises this year and in 2020 will be on the Rhine, Danube and Rhone, with Dimmock back on two voyages next spring.
MAGIC TOUCH Head of trade sales Lindsay Dixon says: “Our customer demographic loves river cruising, so our ambition is to introduce our winning ‘GRJ touch’ to the cruise market.”
If the cruise I was on – a tulip-themed voyage
round-trip from Amsterdam on Amadeus River Cruises’ Amadeus Silver II – is anything to go by, they’re certainly succeeding in that aim. Almost everyone I spoke to had been on a rail touring holiday with Great Rail, and many were tempted onto the water through their loyalty to the brand. The itinerary was a fairly typical springtime cruise combining history, culture and tulips, except, in a nod to its train roots, Great Rail had packaged ➣
travelweekly.co.uk 20 JUNE 2019 DUTCH WATERWAYS | CRUISE
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