Day 6: Friday, 13 May 2011

We all slept great our first night on board. First thing this morning, I ran up to the sun deck to try and get some sunrise pictures, but the sun was pretty well up by the time I got there. I joined Mom, Dad and Aunt Peggy for the wonderful buffet breakfast that we would come to love. After breakfast, we divided into our 4 teams and went into Amsterdam by bus for our city tour.

Let me just say that so far, I am NOT a fan of bus tours for the simple reason that I can’t take many decent photographs through glass. It’s hard to capture castles, monuments and architectural brilliance when shooting through a window, but I did the best I could...recognizing the amount of hours I am going to have to put into editing the photos when I get home. (sigh!)

I like Amsterdam, and I’d like to come back again and spend some more time here. I think I’d rent a bike and just go exploring with a GPS or someone else to guide me, of course. (There are bikes than cars here in the Netherlands.) There is just so much to see. I love the canals. I didn’t realize there were so many in Amsterdam.

I became fascinated with the hooks hanging from the top beam of the houses. Apparently, it is used as a pulley or hoist to aid with moving people in and out of these older buildings that don’t have elevators, etc. We passed the Anne Frankstraat, and Tineke told us a bit of the history of Amsterdam during WWII. We passed several landmarks that I recognized from the Madurodam tour only the day before as well. Kinda cool to see the real thing!

The Rijksmuseum (the National Art Gallery of the Netherlands) is currently undergoing a serious renovation, and so a lot of the museum is closed to the public, but the museum wisely chose to move most of their Dutch masterworks into one gallery so that we could still visit the best of the best like Rembrandt, Vermeer, etc.

During our tour, I was assisting some of the older people in our group. I didn't want us to lose anybody since the museum was crowded, and I so I tried to keep my eyes on them and wait for them to catch up to the rest of the tour. 

I helped a couple people find and get on the elevator, but then I opted to take the stairs myself since it was crowded. Aunt Peggy was on the elevator, and apparently, several of the elderly people in our group were asking where “the girl” went. HA! So I am now known as the girl. I do believe that I am the youngest passenger on the ship. Some of the crew are definitely younger than I am, but I am definitely the baby passenger. It’s kinda nice.

We had lunch back on board the ship while the captain prepared for departure, and soon enough, we were headed along the Amsterdam Canal. We’re off. At lunch, I tried my first cold soup on the ship and fell in love instantly. It was like a smoothie you eat with a spoon. Yummy!

After lunch, I headed up to the sun deck to take more pictures. I’m fascinated by the diverse bridges we have seen thus far. So fun! And I finally got some decent shots of a windmill this afternoon. WOOHOO!!

We came upon our first set of locks that we had to go through. It was utterly fascinating! We were all totally into it. I think I was taking a photo every couple of seconds just to capture it all. We got so into it all that Dick, Audrey and I skipped the “captain’s cocktail” hour to stand up on the top deck and watch the progression. I don’t think we missed much really because we were just having so much fun watching the whole lock process. It was great fun, and I was elated at the experience. I’ve never gone through a set of locks before. (Little did I know then, that this was #1 out of 68 locks we would pass through on our way from Amsterdam to Budapest. HA!)

We all ran down to dress for dinner. Tonight is the captain’s welcome dinner, and so everyone dressed up a bit more. The whole meal was wonderful.

I managed to get a few pictures of the sun as it starting setting beyond one of the bridges. It had been a lovely day!  Mom, Dad and Aunt Peggy played Mexican Train in the library for a while, and I stayed up on the top deck visiting with Susan (from Colorado). We finally got chilled to the bone and headed inside for the night.

Favorite Thing or Funny Moment

• Aunt Peggy:  the hunting pictures in the Rijksmuseum and seeing Vermeer’s Dutch maid painting
• Mom: the captain’s welcome dinner
• Me: spending the afternoon with Dick and Audrey on the top deck and maneuvering the ship through the first set of locks – so cool!
• FEELING: Elated!!