A very enjoyable trip from Amsterdam to Bruges (if I could give 4.5 stars, I would)

Just got back from an August bike/boat tour from Amsterdam to Bruges on the Manifique. Overall, the experience was great. The crew was somewhat new to each other (and the boat), but they all had a positive attitude for the most part (there was a little friction between the guide and the captain at one point about scheduling). The biking was pretty easy for me (I ride a lot), but I wasn’t in it for the exercise (more for the beer and scenery!) and my wife had an electric bike which was a good decision (one or two other bikers on the boat decided to go for the electric bike as well). It really does pay to get into biking shape for one of these trips – simply sitting in the saddle for extended periods of time can be a challenge – especially on a different kind of bike. The soft saddles of the Dutch bikes can be a little difficult to get used to. Food was generally pretty good – we elected to eat off the boat in Antwerp (in addition to Bruges) which helped break things up a little in terms of food variety. The BBQ was a big hit and it was nice to be able to eat outside on the deck that evening. The boat was kept pretty clean during the trip – although I would suggest that they change sheets at least once during the trip. We had one of the larger rooms with a “sitting area” – which didn’t really provide that much space for actual sitting, but the additional chairs served as an extra area to dump our stuff at the end of each day. Bathrooms are also clean and a fairly good size – considering this is a barge. One drawback was the fact that we went in August so many of the smaller towns we passed through were pretty quiet (everyone was on their holidays) – St. Amands was pretty much a ghost town when we got there. This wasn’t a problem in the bigger locales (e.g. Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp). All in all, this was a very enjoyable experience.