Rhine Getaway Viking River Cruise
Day 2: Monday, November 01, 2021 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The day's statistics:
- Weather: low 50s
- Steps: 17,033 Linda; 16,877 Steve
- Miles traveled (approximately): 2,116
We awoke to... food. How much of an appetite can someone develop sitting stationary in a seat for four to five hours? We had egg sandwiches and coffee. No picture of this. It was an egg sandwich, afterall...
Daylight was upon us. Nothing too special to see but clouds. And wind turbines. It may be hard to see in the pictures -
these were cell phone images as the good camera was stowed away in the carry-on - but the little white marks, beyond the
clouds, are actually turbines. One farm had about 100 of them. These are in the North Sea.
(These should all be different images of different farms.)
Laaaaaaaaand hooooooooo! The Nederland's coast, some canals, and the countryside.
We landed at 5:28 AM EST (10:28 AM local time) at Amsterdam International.
After we collected our luggage, we found the Viking Chauffeur, Arthur, who directed us to the "shuttle" to take us to
our hotel, Hyatt Regency. And by "shuttle", I mean a Mercedes S class. And the seat controls are for the
back seat passengers.
(The shield was to assist with social distancing.)
It was a brief 15 minute hop from the airport to the hotel.
I snapped this out the rear window in transit. Thought it looked interesting.
After checking in, we met our on-site Viking Host, Dominique, who gave us some local information. We went to our room -
it was only 11:30 AM, and it was ready already - and freshened up a little.
There was no bedside USB charger and the outlets were foreign (though we did take our adaptor).
I tried to stitch these two together, but Affinity didn't want to cooperate.
The mirror had a clock embedded in it, but it was off.
Between the sleeping area and the bathroon, there was a hallway that had a closet, and a countertop with a coffee machine, and a fridge underneath.
We started to make our was to the Van Gogh Museum since we had tickets for 1:00.
After walking a block and a half, we realized it was a little colder than we thought it was going to be, plus we
realized we were going from the VG Museum to a Canal Cruise, so we decided to go back and upgrade our jackets.
Turns out that was a very smart decision.
Anyway, here is an approximation of our journey.
- Red line is the start and return to the hotel that I just explained due to the weather.
- Green line is the walk from the hotel to the Van Gogh Museum.
- Dark blue line is the tram ride from the Van Gogh area to the north.
- Pink line is the attempt to get to the Anne Frank House, where the canal cruise was supposed to originate.
- Medium blue line is the tram ride back south.
- Light blue line is the tram ride to near the hotel.
- Orange line is the walk from the last tram stop to the hotel.
One common theme we noticed in Amsterdam, as well as all the European countries we visited, was that there was a large
quantity of... bicycles. Lots and lots of bicycles.
There were a LOT of electric vehicles too. And what we would call "hatchbacks" here in the US.
There were quite a few Porsches, and about 4 Maseratis including a Maserati taxi.
We followed Sarphatistraat all the way to the Rijk Museum. About half way there was this "rock garden".
We also passed the Heineken factory.
We eventually arrived at the Rijk.
We arrived from the side on the street in front of the museum, so not from a distance.
Here is a close up of the clock on the left tower.
We walked through the tunnel underneath the museum. We didn't take too many pictures around here because we were a little pressed for time, but we do have a couple more images on tomorrow's entry.
We sort of got a little lost trying to find the Van Gogh (VG) Museum. We beared left instead of right on the other side of the Rijk. After about 10 minutes, we figured out what was going on, crossed the plaza to the other side, and found where we needed to go. We had tickets and went right in. They prohibited photography, and being the good doobie that I am, I obliged. I was a little annoyed seeing others not being so polite.
After spending almost two hours at the VG Museum, we had about 45 minutes to get to the Anne Frank House (AFH). Not because
we were going to visit the AFH (not that there is anything wrong with it), but rather because that is where our Canal
Cruise started.
OK, at this point I can only imaging what you are thinking: "Aren't you on a cruise vacation? Why are you taking a canal
cruise?" But that answers the question: we are taking a CANAL cruise, while the core of our vacation is a RIVER cruise.
AND the river cruise starts in Amsterdam and leaves.
Anyway, we'd already done a decent amount of walking, and decided to take the tram north to the cross road we needed.
There are essentially two types of tram tickets: 1 hour, and 24 hour. We scanned our credit card to get two 1 hour tickets.
And it failed. The conductor told us to buy the tickets at the next metro, so this ride was free. Yay!
We got off the tram at the appropriate stop and started the walk toward the AFH. Or so we thought. We stopped in a bike
rental shop and the employee told us that AFH was in "that direction", pointing where we thought we had to go.
We kept going. After 15 minutes of walking, our crappy map didn't help much and we stepped into a cafe to ask the employee
where the AFH was. He pointed to the map and said "this canal is here, follow it to here." That was it. Straight line.
But it was a long straight line.
We eventaully arrived at the AFH.
The point of the canal cruise was to view the local sites and landmarks of Amsterdam. From the canal.
Plus we had wine and a couple different Dutch cheeses.
Our cruise was with Amsterdam Canal Cruise in Classic River Boat With Drinks & Dutch Cheese. The hosts were humerous and knowledgeable.
The host asked us where we were from. For effect, going backward, the locations were something like France, Germany, France,
Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, Delaware, Germany. So all the Americans happen to sit next to each other. And coincidentally,
the Delawareans happen to be sitting next to the New Jerseyans (if that doesn't make sense to you, look at a map...)
Here are some buildings and architectural views from the canal.
(Some are through windows that may or may not be open, and may or may not be clean... they may also create apparitions,
glares, and or reflections)
This is the main train station, called Amsterdam Central.
The A'dam Lookout. The top of the building has a restaurant, and it rotates. If you zoom in, you can see people on
the roof. Also, the buildind has swings on the roof (they are on the right side). That swing out over the ledge.
Uh, no thank you.
This one is supposed to be of the only spot on the canals where one can see seven bridges all in a row. It is also
supposed to be one of the most Googled imags from Amsterdam.
Look at the image above. This is cropped for visibility. Remember that the view is through the first bridge. Then there
are the six more bridges: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and pink.
This is the "Skinny Bridge". Couples have to get close together to pass over it because the bridge is so... skinny...
There are a lot of "houseboats" - though some are barges - in the canals too.
The cruise lasted about an hour and a half. We talked to some participants when it was over before heading to the tram.
We captured these shots - of the back of the Royal Palace and a 15th century church - betwen trams.
Across the street from the church was this Magna Plaza. It was just a mall. Sadly, a number of the stores were closed,
and almost all of the restaurants (due to COVID).
One thing that is really great about the public transportation system was the amount of information provided to riders. On
the tram, there are display boards such as this, showing what the upcoming stops are (and updated after each stop).
We hadn't quite learned the exact name of our stop yet, so as we headed back to the hotel, we got off at the stop at the
rock garden because we recognized it. We didn't know at the time that there was actually another stop closer to the
hotel. But we thought it was better to get off the tram where we knew than taking a chance.
On the walk back, I got this picture of Linda leaning over the railing at the beginning of a bridge going over
the Amstel River.
And on the other side of the bridge was the 5-star rated Intercontinental Hotel.
I walked in and asked at the reception desk if John Wick was registered and was told he wasn't... (no, not really)
Before we got back to the hotel, we stopped at the small supermarket that was across the street from the hotel, called
Albert Heijn. We got a salad, some bread, chocolate, and, of course, wine, and it cost about 13 Euros.
And the sporks were provided free by the supermarket. We are now the proud owners of three of them. It would have
been four, but one broke - what do you expect, they were free...
When we got back to the hotel, we found Dominique talking to another Viking traveler - who didn't have any luggage.
Apparently the airline lost it. She was from New Orleans and there was a last minute flight change which is believed
to have supposedly contrbiuted to this.
Back in our room, this is a shot out our bathroom window, right down Roetersstaat. We aren't exactly sure what the
lit building is.
We were told earlier in the day that everything in the city closes a midnight, and eventually the transportation system
does too, a little afterward. So it does get quiet (not that it was all that noisy anyway).
Our hotel room - and, as it will turn out, the ship, and our other hotel room - had USB chargers that we plugged
our phones into each night. Not because we used them to talk or text, but because we were both taking pictures
with them. And we DID use our phones on the hotels' and ship's wi-fi, so they were used a little for that too.
It was a long day - a VERY long day - and we didn't have much sleep, so we were tired - VERY tired. We made
our way to our room and tried to nod off to sleep by about 9:30.