Leaving Amsterdam By Canal

 After being up for 36 hours or so, we slept quite well last night! We're still a little lagged but feeling human again. This morning started out grey again and rain was threatening. Our first outing of the day was a canal cruise. I had seen some smaller cruise boats with food and champagne and was hoping that maybe we might be doing that but, sadly, we had the regular boat with no champagne. The water level views of the city were very interesting and it was amazing to see how tight the fit was under some of the bridges. 

Our canal boat docked close to our next destination, The Rijk's Museum. It has recently been remodelled and is a magnificent building that holds many masterpieces. Like any museum that is famous, it gets really crowded which isn't my personal favourite! This is what most areas with famous paintings looked like.

We did manage to get up close to some Rembrandt and Vermeer paintings in between the restlessly shifting hoards. I was surprised to learn that you could take non flash photos as well. It's amazing to get really close to a famous painting and see the actual brush strokes. When you look into the eyes of a subject in a Rembrandt painting it seems like they are looking back at you. 

We arrived back at the ship in a steady rain but it was ok because lunch was being served. Food always seems to make things better! During lunch, the ship left the dock and we were on our way to Cologne. It will take a full day to reach our next destination. Here are a few shots as we travelled along the Amsterdam/Rhine Canal. It's a very busy working river with constant barge traffic along with the river cruise ships. 

We spent the afternoon between the upper outside deck when it was briefly sunny and the lounge when it was grey. The lounge, with its basically unlimited supply of beverages, was quite relaxing. We've had the pleasure of meeting many people already. There are a lot of Australians and Americans on board and we are enjoying their company. 

Tonight's dinner was the Captain's Gala. It's a little fancier than other dinners with more courses and matched wines.

Scallops with shrimp risotto, lobster bisque, and saffron

Beef Consomme with Truffles and Puff Pastry

Ravioli with Cherry Tomato Sauce

Veal Loin with Domino Potatoes and White Asparagus

Champagne Mango Mousse with Raspberry Sorbet

Another great day in the books! Tomorrow we have a walking tour of Cologne and I've heard that they specialize in beer and sausages!

And, We're Off Again!

I was all excited that I could do a post to the blog from my Iphone from the airport last night. Typed it up, added a picture and hit post. Vanished into the ether! It wasn't too exciting, just airport and pretrip stuff but annoying none the less

After an uneventful 7+ hour flight we landed in Amsterdam at 6:45 a.m. in overcast weather. The Uniworld people were very efficient at collecting up various people and herding us onto a bus that took us to the River Duchess. We were a bit surprised to see how crowded the docking area was with other river cruisers but this form of travel has seen a big upturn in the last year.

Soon after we arrived at the ship, we went to the lounge to have a coffee and rest a bit. But, before we even sat down I felt a chunk of something in my mouth and it wasn't food! When I looked I knew it was a filling! This was not good. I had had the exact filling replaced a month ago because it was annoying me. Little did I know it would get really annoying in Amsterdam. Luckily, the staff on the ship was really helpful and they had me set up with a nearby dentist within a half hour. The dentist was excellent, there was minimal pain and we were back walking in less than an hour.

After the dental pit stop, we started walking as we couldn't get into our cabin until 3:00. By this time we figured it was better to just stay up and try to go to bed at a more or less regular time. We ended up walking 12 km while exploring numerous streets and canals. This past weekend was King Day which is a big deal and the city seemed hung over. There were lots of piles of garbage and many, many bottles and cans and papers in the street. We did get to see quite a few scenic locations in spite of the mess.

We wandered into a really nice looking cheese store.

I had located a neat sounding Dutch pub that had 30 local brews on tap and we used our map to find it but, alas, when we got there, it wasn't open until later in the day!! We ended up, due to the fact that we were going to fall over from lack of sleep, at an Irish pub. We had Guiness and some snacks. 

After lunch we made it back to the ship and finally got into our cabin. We both wanted to sleep but figured  a short rest would be best. We dragged ourselves to the lounge again to hear the captain and other crew tell us about safety and what we were going to do. Almost lost it! Then our first dinner aboard.  I have to say that the food on these cruises is pretty amazing. With that and the wine I'm surprised I have gotten this much typed. If there are spelling or grammar errors, I'll fix them tomorrow. Here's dinner.

Marinated Seafood

Dutch Pea Soup with Chorizo

Stuffed and roasted chicken breas.

Filet of Sole and I can't remember what was on it!

And finally, just before I fall asleep, dessert!