Tuesday, December 10th, 2024

Today was embarkation day and the hotel checkout was noon. We slept in a little and then got up and decided to go to breakfast. We both liked the Dutch pancakes from the food tour so we went in search of pancakes.. We found a pancake place, not far from the hotel, unfortunately we were not 100% sure what we had gotten on the food tour except pancakes. We finally just ordered a Dutch pancake and while it was very good it was not what we had previously.

It is a pancake made of wheat and not as heavy as an American pancake. It covered the whole plate and we probably got 1/2 pound of butter with it. Add the thick syrup and maybe some cinnamon sugar and 5000 calories later…..

We walked back to the port to see if the boat was there and what the luggage situation was for dropping it off. There was a Viking tent and 1 guy and we asked if we could drop our luggage off and he said sure and that we could also board the boat. So back to the hotel we went, checked out and walked the 1/2 mile back to the port and dropped off our bags and walked on the boat. So different than ocean cruising. No security, no x-rays for you or your bags and no check-in line. Our room was not ready so we hung out in the lounge and read. Our room got ready around 2 and we unpacked and signed up for the 3:30 walking tour.

The guide for the walking tour told us she was just walking around the train station so it might not be very exciting for those of us who had been in Amsterdam for a few days but we said we would go along for the steps. We are glad we went because we learned a lot and we realized it has been 10 years since the last time we were in Amsterdam. What we remembered was all the bikes lined up in front of central station and since our last visit they have built a subway system and underground bike parking that holds 11,000 bikes.

We went down into the smaller lot that holds 4000 (the other area holds 7000). Each row shows how many open spaces there are and if a bottom or top spot. The top ones are a bit of a challenge since you have to pull the racks down at an angle and then roll your bike into it and lift it back up. You can also see the green lights above each rack to show what is available. Our guide said it costs about 1.25 euros per day to park. So clean and organized. The other statistic she gave us is how many bikes they pull out of the canals every year and they only do it a coupe of times a year and they pull out an average of 25,000 annually. The last thing that she told us is that all walking tours are limited to 15 people due to congestion in the city centre.

A few more canal pictures.

After the tour we walked around a bit more and then everyone had to be back on the ship by 6pm for the safety briefing. Our “program guide” is from Scotland and has a great sense of humor.

There is only 1 dinner time on river ships and it is at 7:15 and they ask you to be on time since the kitchen is small and they want to finish 1 course so they can start on another. After dinner we went up to the lounge to listen to a local trio who played music from the 70’s. They obviously know their audience and we enjoyed their selections. Most people were still jet lagged, having flown in on the same day that we were sailing and eager to get to bed. The boat was sailing at 11:30pm to get us to Dordrecht by 7am.