May 8 Monday cruising to Amsterdam

Early in the morning the captain turned off of the main stem of the Rhine onto the busiest artificial waterway in the world, the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal .. 100,000 ships ply this 45-mile long canal annually.

Here's the early morning view of the Rhine before we turned :

We entered the canal with bucolic scenes along the side :

We arrived at the last of the 43 locks on this trip ..

Lot of room in this lock!   Unlike the 6-12" on each side in the locks on the Main River.

Now we're out for some easy cruising to Amsterdam.

Time for breakfast.

Jan ordered an omelette, I ordered the 'special' .. eggs benedict with salmon.

Continued cruising to Amsterdam .. spotted a golf course :

We attended a presentation by Maddy of a description of all of the river cruises that Ama offers in .. Europe, Africa(safari & wildlife viewing), Egypt(Nile), Columbia(Magdalena), and Vietnam & Cambodia.  Afterwards we had lunch and then we gathered for the afternoon excursions.  We opted for the canal cruise through central Amsterdam.  Here we are gathering:

We started out in the main harbor and traveled by The Basilica of St.Nicholas :

We then cruised down a main canal, the Prinsengracht, and by thousands and thousands of bicycles and interesting buildings from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.

We cruised by the very popular and historical Anne Frank house.   Lines & lines of people!

Look at all of those bridges in the background!

This is the Amstel River for which Amsterdam is named for :

This is a replica of an 18th century cargo ship of the Dutch East India Company which is docked next to the maritime museum, the Scheepvaart.   The original ship was sunk in a storm in the English Channel in 1749.

Amsterdam has .. 70-museums, 165-canals, 2500-houseboats, and 1281-bridges !

Before dinner we enjoyed listening to a very talented local trio, a guitarist and two violinists, the 'Strings of the Lowlands'.   

Then it was time for dinner.   We enjoyed dinner with our very good friends from Cornelius and British Columbia.   Very good company and fellowship!

appetizer : asian marinated beef tataki, vegetables vinaigrette, beet root jelly, sesame hollandaise

soup : green peas cream soup, croutons, foam

main course : herb stuffed chicken, port wine jus, glazed vegetable, porcini risotto, beet root puree

dessert : forest berry tiramisu, lady fingers, mascarpone cream, forest berries ragout

Another fun day cruising on a river ship!    Jan is packing her suitcase while I finish this blog post.   It'll be my turn next.    We'll eat breakfast on the ship and leave around 9-am, walking to the Amsterdam Central Train Station and buy tickets to get to Haarlem.   We'll find a laundromat and clean clothes for the last part of out trip.

This was Jan's 7th river cruise and my 4th.   We sure love these!    So many interesting excursions and sights!   This truly is vacationing!    They really want to serve you and make your stay comfortable.  And .. the food .. is superb!

Hope you're still with us.   Much more to see and read.   

Take care,   Jan & Joe