I'm now sitting in my cabin aboard our ship the Amadeus II Silver. We came aboard late this afternoon after a full day in Amsterdam. This morning our art historian ( Max) gave a lecture about the 17 th century art in the Netherlands-- the " golden age." He's very knowledgeable and enthusiastic and brought to life the artists such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, and others. This was a prelude to our visit to the Riksmuseum. He took us on a short " greatest hits" tour of the museum. These were masterpieces for sure.
Unfortunately this is the week before Easter and we discovered that this city was extremely crowded with tourists ( oh dear) and hoards of school children from all over Europe on vacation. So navigating the museum --and really all over town --was not fun. Locals said the number of tourists in the city has gotten out of hand and we sure saw that. Anyway, we did see some excellent art.
Some overall impressions of our stay in Amsterdam:
-- I really liked this city. Lively, beautiful, easy to get around ( tram or on foot). I'd be happy to return here.
--yes indeed I smelled that special herb often on the streets
-- we only accidentally walked down a street in the red light neighborhood but did see examples of ladies in windows
-- we experienced some intermittent sunshine, and quite a bit of grey and overcast skies
We boarded out little ship around 4 pm and got settled. Our group of 21 is only a small part of the approximately 130 travelers aboard. Merle and I wanted to sign up for massages tomorrow before all the slots were taken, so we did that ASAP.
Our cabins are gorgeous! The ship is only a couple years old, and quite spacious cabins and new. I'm very impressed with that so far.
Dinner was delicious---- high quality. I had salmon. I expect we will eat too well!
Was surprised to learn that the ship doesn't depart till tomorrow afternoon so we are moored here in the harbor in our floating hotel room.
So far so good!
Tomorrow is Roger's birthday. Sorry to be missing it ( and him).
Jane
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