Saturday: September 28
Amsterdam, A Slow Start
After we landed, as requested, we waited for people with short connections to deplane first, and then when things quieted down, we got our carry-ons and left ourselves.
As was the case on our last visit to Schiphol airport (which is apparently quite large), we did a lot of walking. We eventually found a long line and it appeared that this was where we were destined. Fortunately the line (for passport control) moved fairly quickly. It turns out that there was a long line up on the concourse, and periodically they would let a batch of people progress down some stairs to the “people maze” just before passport control. So after we made it through the concourse line, that just allowed us to enter the normal line. Fortunately, as I said, it moved fairly quickly.
I was wondering about our luggage, as we had spent a fairly long time waiting to get through passport control. I really expected that our luggage would either be piled up on the side or stacked up on the carousel. We found the carousel for our flight, hiked over to it, and to my complete surprise, my suitcase came out onto the carousel literally seconds after we arrived. I thought “what are the odds of that?!!!!” Amy’s came out shortly thereafter.
We had seen another couple in Logan with Viking tags on their bags. We checked in with the Viking staff and then were shortly joined by the other couple. Apparently there are at least two Viking boats being loaded today, as we first went to one Viking person, who when they found out what boat we were on, directed us to another person.
We waited a bit for a large van, then along with two other couples, we were escorted to the van for a short drive to the boat. So far, the weather is partly sunny, with occasional bouts of light rain. At the boat, they of course took care of our luggage, so we just went on board and checked in. Our room wasn’t ready yet, but the lunch buffet was underway, so we went up and had lunch. It was a very nice buffet. I am now writing this up in the lounge waiting for our room to get ready. I wouldn’t mind going into town and exploring, but we need to wait for our room to get ready so that we can get to our luggage and get jackets.
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We went down and checked, and our room was now ready. They first screwed up and sent us to room 212. When he tried to give us our key cards, Amy noticed that the names on the cards were not ours. It turns out that we were in room 221.
For this trip, we got a “stateroom” which includes a small balcony. The room that we had on the other two trips (veranda?) had a sliding glass door, but the door was essentially flush with the side of the boat. The main corridor is offset from the center of the boat. We had thought that the rooms were the same, it was just that one had a balcony and the other one didn’t. That is, the corridor was offset by half the width of the balcony.
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However, as we unpacked stuff, things didn’t seem quite as cramped as we remembered. We didn’t *think* we brought less stuff. Eventually we decided that not only do the staterooms have a balcony, they are also marginally bigger. It is only 2-3 feet longer, but it makes a big difference, both in terms of having space to do something, but also in that much more storage.
It was at this point about 1:15, and there was a “welcome to Amsterdam tour” starting at 1:30, so we decided to join that. It was a very mellow (slow) stroll. The weather was mixed. We started in sun. About five minutes later, it started drizzling on us. A bit later, it started to rain lightly (and I took out my umbrella), then in 10 more minutes, it stopped and was dry for the rest of the walk.
If ever there was a city that was bicycle-friendly, it is Amsterdam. I think there may be more bikes here than people. There are large dedicated bike lanes and huge bike parking lots. A lot of people were apparently biking just to get somewhere, including musicians with instruments slung over their backs. A lot of them are e-bikes, but a lot are not.
They have one interesting style of bike. It is elongated, with sort of a “bathtub” “sidecar” in front of the biker. From the back to the front, there is the back wheel, the cyclist, the handlebars, the “sidecar”, and then the front wheel. It looks rather strange, and I imagine the dynamics would be slightly different from a normal bike. I think it is typically used for passengers (children?) and occasionally for things.
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One interesting thing that I learned was that there were these small ferries crisscrossing the river. I learned that they were for pedestrians and cyclists, no cars, and that they were free.
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We got back to the boat just before 3:30. There was nothing scheduled until around 6:00, so Amy stayed on the boat, and I went out for a walk. In a fit of stupidity/carelessness, I glanced at the map, but then left it in the room when I went out.
I went back the way we came, crossed the river on one of the free ferries and checked out the marina. There were a few houseboats there, and one interesting one with a concrete hull. It was built just before D-Day to move munitions across the channel. Somehow it ended up in Amsterdam, and someone took the topside off and put a house on it.
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I crossed a canal on a set of wooden locks, and went past a tall building. You can go up to the roof (for a fee, I’m sure) to see the city from above. More interestingly, you can get on this swing which rises up at an angle, so that after it is raised you are not only higher than the roof, but also swinging out over the edge. Not something that I would be interested in experiencing.
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I took a different ferry back, to get to the train station. I timed the ferries almost perfectly. On the first crossing, after I got on, I think it was about 30 seconds before they closed the ramp and started across. On the way back, they were sounding the tone to indicate that the ramp was about to close. After I got on the boat it was literally just seconds later that they closed up the ramp.
I had thought about trying to find the Anne Frank annex, but without the map I left behind, it would have been pointless. I went away from the river a ways, moved to the side a block or two until I hit a canal, and then came back. After a while, when the canal showed no signs of getting back to the river, I was wondering if I had gotten turned around and was heading in the wrong direction, but shortly thereafter I caught sight of the big square opposite the train station.
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The weather was actually much better for my private walk. It was mostly sunny and I was actually getting a bit warm walking in the sun. I won’t complain, however, as the sun will be in very short supply for the rest of the trip.
According to my watch, between walking through the airport (which was not insignificant), the official stroll, and my private walk, I ended up walking about 9 miles.
I got back maybe around 5:30. There was the safety drill at 6. We had to go back to our staterooms, get our life jackets, and when they sounded the alarm go to our muster station
Amy wanted to check out a bridge a short distance up from our boat, so after the drill was over, we took a quick walk over to the bridge. We came back and immediately joined the welcome briefing (missing the beginning portion). After that Amy got us a spot in the dining room while I brought our jackets back to our room and then joined her for dinner.
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It is now time to hit the sack a bit early. I’m presuming that I won’t have trouble sleeping after getting very little sleep the previous night. Then we are up bright and early for breakfast and the biking to the windmills. If I understood correctly, Amy and I are 2/3 of the entire group to go biking.