October 31, 2018 Traveling to Kinderdijt and Windmills

The ship traveled through the night from Amsterdam to Kinderdijt .  It was so smooth , we never felt a thing and slept through it all including when the ship went through a lock in the river.  This morning after  breakfast, we headed out on our windmill excursions.  George on the bike tour and Barb did the walking tour. There are 19 windmills in this area and they are still in operation.  Families actually live in the windmills and pass them down through the generations even though the Netherlands owns them.  They move  water from one dike to another to keep the surrounding fields or polders above water.  They have

View of our storeroom 

Windmills

installed diesal and electric pumps to provide additional water pumping when there isn't enough wind to turn the spars  The Miller's can adjust the upper spars to face into the wind.  A very interesting process.  We got to see the communities around the area with excellent livability and plenty of biking/walking paths.  We returned to the ship in late morning for lunch.  We are still feeling the jet lag so a short nap was in order.  The ship is on the river heading to Germany where we crossed into this evening about 9:00 p.m..   We will dock tomorrow somewhere above Cologne.   While the ship was in route, we enjoyed the upper deck.  12 times around is one mile on the track and I tried putting on the miniature golf .  I'm still not very good at it.  Every evening, we have a briefing covering tomorrow's activities and we got to meet the Captain and his staff.   (So who is steering the ship?).  We then enjoyed a great dinner.  The food has been excellent with healthy portions and tasty desserts.  Oh yes  and plenty of wine. 

October 30, 2018 Touring Amsterdam

After a quick run through Dutch customs, we retrieved Barb's bag from Baggage.  We met the rep from Viking who put us on a bus running into Amsterdam.  We joined the rush hour traffic in the pouring rain.  The bus driver provided alot of insights into Amsterdam's  development.  They continue to reclaim land from the sea and nearby A Amstel river.  The land is 22 feet below sea level.  The examples of engineering from the old windmills to the present are amazing.  The old architecture is blended with the new designs.  The bus dropped us at Ingvi, our ship for the next several days.  We got to meet some nice folks wto were also on board from Virginia.  Small world.  We moved into our deluxe accommodations, did a quick freshen up and then bolted into town before we collapsed from lack of sleep.  Fortunately, the rain stopped.  We walked through the Old section crossing numerous canals.  I have always heard that Amsterdam is a bike friendly city but I was astonished how well the infrastructure supports all modes of transportation.  There are about 851,000 people in Amsterdam and twice as many bikes.  People have their good bikes that they enjoy on the weekend and then have one or even two beater bikes for commuting to work.  Bike thefts are common so you see large locks on each bike.  Usually young guys get drunk and steel a bike then throw it in one of the canals when they are done riding it.  They drain the  canals periodically to remove all the bikes.  You have to be careful crossing the bike lanes as there are frequent accidents with pedestrians.  Aside from that, Amsterdam is a very clean and walkable city.  In our travels, we found the Anne Frank House.  The original row house is still preserved and they added a large museum next to it.  It was very crowded and hard to get a pic of the house.  We then set off for more exploring.  We found a nice little restaurant for lunch.  Also discovered that using a public restroom  or WC(water closet) is not free.  It cost us each 0.40 Euros.  A lady sitting at the desk took our money.  I have to say that the restrooms are very clean and well kept.  Lunch was delicious complimented with some Dutch beer recommended by the waiter.  We were getting ready to order and I was struggling reading the Dutch menu.  The waiter showed us the English section a few pages back.  After lunch, we hiked on then took a 1 hour canal tour boat.  The tour was excellent giving us a lot of Amsterdam history.  Back to the ship to rest up.  We have to attend the Captain's briefing at 6:15 then dinner is served at 7:00.  Then back to the cabin for the night.  Our cabin has a veranda so we can watch the sights as we travel along.

Baggage Claim at Shiphol Airport

Bikes all over

Canal tour boats

Home of Heiniken Beer

De Waag Building

Nine Streets Shopping District

Magna Plaza Shopping Center

Lunch with Dutch Beer

Little Dutch girl too big for her shoes

View of seven bridges from the canal boat

Unique blend of architecture 

Amsterdam Central Station

October 29, 2018 Traveling to Amsterdam

We drove to Ashburn, VA a day early to stay with our son, Jim.  Jim conveniently lives close to Dulles airport outside Washington, D.C.  This is a real break when we want to fly a direct route.  A short cab ride in the Washington Flyer got us to Dulles.   Checking in and going through airport security was a breeze.  We went from curb to gate in about 30 minutes.  This has to be a world record.  At 6:30 p.m.,  we took off on a big 767 for our 7 hour flight to Amsterdam.  This was an overnight flight so getting any kind of sleep beyond a catnap is difficult at best.  We had a big tailwind which put us into Amsterdam's  Schiphol airport at 6:30 a.m.  Europe time.  It was still 1:30 a.m. back home.  No sleep until tonight.

Waiting for the flight to leave.

Good time for a little cheer to help get us off the ground.

October 25, 2018 5 days to go.

We did  a final check of the documents and contents of our suitcases.  We have been monitoring the weather in Amsterdam, Heidelberg and Lucern.  It looks like cloudy, wet and cold so double checking our bad weather clothing.  We will not let the weather slow us down.  We heard from the Viking people that our ship, Herja is unable to make it back to Amsterdam.  So we will be boarding Ingvi, the sister ship.  The Rhine river has been experiencing record low water levels.  The ships are having trouble with navigation.  They are planning to carry us around the low section and we will meet up with Herja.  I have been in contact with Freddie and Ecaterina.  We are excited to meet up with them in Heidelberg.  I met them during the Trans am bike trip in 2017.