Monday, July 27th - Amsterdam, Netherlands

We had arrived in Amsterdam by the time we got up this morning.  It was a cool, rainy day but after breakfast we went off on our tour of the city.  Luckily for us, they decided to scrap the walking tour and give us more of a bus tour as well as our boat tour.

The first stop was at the boat launch, not far from where our ship is docked which is just east of Central Station so very close to everything.  We had a one-hour canal tour in a glass covered (thankfully) can boat and it was really nice despite the weather.  We went past St. Nicolas' church and got the story again of how they do not have Santa Clause on December 25th but instead St. Nicolas brings them candies and presents around December 5th.

We went up and down several of the canal and made our way past many of the highlights of the city including many other churches, Rembrant House, the Anne Frank House, many museums and markets. until we worked our way back past hte train station to the dock again.  We actually had quite a tour in the bus just getting to the boat dock (even though it wan't even a 5 minute walk away from the ship) so I may get a bit confused on what we saw on the first bus ride and what we saw on the canal boat.

After the canal boat trip we got on the bus again and they took us a bit further out of the downtown area so we could see a windmill and also a statue of Rembrant in the same location because he supposedly grew up in a windmill and missed it when he was in the city.  We also drove past the Rijksmuseum and several others out in the museum district.  We saw some buildings from the 1928 Olympics which Amsterdam hosted.  At some point we also saw the Opera House and the main Theatre building.  And I know we drove past the Royal Palace and the coronation church - although they now refer to it as inauguration, not coronation.

Between the bus and the boat ride it is clear to see why Amsterdam is called the 'Venice of the North'.  There are canals and waterways and bridges everywhere.  Lots of people live on their houseboats which were not anything big and fancy and yet with a license and sewer hook-up they were costing $400,000 to 500,000.  And I'm sure we are only talking one or maybe two bedrooms and tiny spaces at that.  Not many of thee houseboats have curtains because the Calvinists were strong here and they believed there should be no secrets or bad behaviour so there was no need for curtains. 

Some of the homes or apartments on land are not much bigger that the houseboats.  Most are very tall and skinny and some of them are actually leaning into their neighbours.  Because Amsterdam is at sea level and doesn't have a solid foundation to build on, pilings are driven into the ground first to provide the foundation.  In the old days these were wood pilings and they could hold a house of  or 6 storeys.  Now they drive steel and concrete pilings 50 feet down and they can build up to 60 storeys.  This is certainly changing the way the city looks.  On the old 5-6 storey buildings they had a hoist at the top peak so big goods could be pulled up and through whatever window it needed to go.  The stairways were too small and narrow to get a fridge or couch or anything up so the hoist was, and still is, the only way to get things in.  Hard to believe in this day and age, but true.  It was also hard to believe that they have rule that you must be making four times the amount of rent being requested before you can rent any where.  Rent is very high so that would certainly rule out a lot of people.

They have lots of green in the city despite the canals and buildings being very close together and some of the streets being narrow.  They had a bad wind storm last Saturday - the same day we were being blown away on the ship - and it blew down many trees and several people were killed.  They are still in clean-up mode and removing trees from streets and canals.  It was definitely windy where we were but I guess it was a lot worse here and in other places

That is about all I can remember for now.  We got back to the ship about 12:30.  Because of the weather I had already decided that I was going to have an easy afternoon and relax in my wonderful accommodation before I had to leave it tomorrow. My first stop was to see if I could get a massage and I could at 12:45 so I had to hurry too my one-hour massage and then had to hurry after to get to the dining room before it closed at 2:00.  I made it on time and ate way too much for lunch, then went back to the room and tried to do some packing and sorting through things that had accumulated over the past two weeks.  I also did my banking and some blogging so it was a relaxing afternoon while it was cool, cloudy and drizzling outside.  I think we're all hoping for better weather in the next few days so we can see more of the city while we're here.  If it just rains harder tomorrow, we may get really wet as we try to see the sights.

Our last dinner was fantastic, as expected.  Tonight was just chicken, which sounds simple, but it was delicious.  We have had many great meals (beef, pork, lamb, duck, etc.) and we raved about all of them.  We always had an appetizer, soup, main course and dessert.  Some days we also had an entree before the main course.  And some days we would just order two main dishes because they both sounded good.  The salmon was incredibly good and it was always available as a main course substitute so I sometimes ordered it instead of the soup or appetizer if they didn't sound exciting.  There was definitely no danger of starving on the ship.  And the waiters were wonderful - professional yet very friendly and funny once they got to know us.  Our dinners were always a couple hours long and very enjoyable.  After dinner tonight we just sat in the lounge for a while and talked and filled out our survey forms.  Before long it was almost midnight and time to go to bed for our last night on the Emerald Star.  

It was a long river cruise (don't know the exact distance) over two weeks and we went through 68 locks on 3 rivers/canals (Danube, Main, Rhine) from Budapest to Amsterdam through beautiful countryside and visiting so many interesting and wonderful towns and cities.  The initial cost may have seemed expensive but with everything included it really was a great deal.  And it was definitely a great cruise.  I would highly recommend Emerald Waterways, and especially the Emerald Star, to anyone.