Don´t just book it

Don´t just book it ....Thomas Cook it was a slogan years ago.
And perhaps  our Reverend was one of  the first to do so .
This week in Who do think you are ?  was mentioned that the first package holiday a `grand circulair trip `to the continent was done in 1856 completely organised  by Thomas Cook.
So we looked at the passport of our reverend J.N.Vlieland and looked at the date .
!856 it was and so they could have well been the first Thomas Cook customers.



The passport was issued in London on the 6th June 1856.
Stamps on the passport start 27th June 1856 with mention of Paris and Belgium in the stamp .
On 15 July 1856 after 18 days into the journey there is a Paris stamp.
What were they doing for so long in Paris and why is there a stamp leaving or reentering Paris.
Could he have been on a ship out of France as there is no stamp of another city on the continent?
We know from the stamp they stayed in the hotel Girard in Paris.
A week later is the next one 23 th July a stamp Rijkspolitie -Rosendaal .
Which means entering Holland by train from Belgium.
On the same page a Rotterdam stamp and in letters next to it in Dutch
gratis
gezien gaande naar Amsterdam en terug naar Brussel.
Which means free going to Amsterdam and back to Brussel.
by inspector first class .
On the 25 th July there is mention of Amsterdam and `s Gravenhage.
In Den Haag they stayed in a very luxury hotel Du Vieux Doelen .
The etching is from the same period.

on the last page there is another stamp is for entering France 27 June 1856
and one of 15 july 1858 which suggest a second journey.
Although the copies from copies are not that good it gives a picture.

On this list is the passportnumber of Jerome Nicholas the younger.








It was not booming business but still it was a party of 50 people.