Amsterdam, December 14-15, 2021

Our overnight flight from Detroit to Amsterdam landed at 8:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, December 14. Amawaterways was there to greet us as we left baggage claim. We were transported to where our riverboat AmaLucia was docked. We were able to leave our luggage at the boat but could not board until noon. We knew this was going to happen so had a plan. We took a tram to Museum Square where the Van Gogh Museum is located. The plan was for Lynda to convince Van Gogh Museum personnel that we were unable to reserve our tickets online so could they let us buy tickets on location, something that Lynda is very good at. They would not let us do this but did direct us to a kiosk where we could purchase tickets. Because we had seen the "Van Gogh Experience" in Detroit last summmer, at the last minute we bought tickets for the Contempary Art Museum located next to the Van Gogh Museum. It was a good decision as we saw a wider variety of artworks in this museum. We saw several Picasso's and Calder's as well as a Matisse and a Van Gogh that managed to escape the next door museum. There were many other works by artists whose names we didn't recognize but enjoyed none the less. By the time we left the museum it was after noon so we took the tram back to our boat where we had a light lunch, settled into our cabin and took short naps. We were scheduled to start our cruise on Wednesday, setting sail at 1:00 p.m., so we were quite surprised when the boat left dock as we sat down to dinner on Tuesday evening. It turns out that the Netherlands instituded a 5:00 p.m. curfew on all restaurants and entertainment venues. The only way the cruise line could serve dinner was to be cruising on the river. We returned to our dock at 9:00 p.m. Today, Wednesday, lunch will not be served until we are underway at 1:00. Don't ask how we got away with breakfast Wednesday morning, but we noticed the curtains on all of the windows were closed. Wednesday morning after breakfast we took an hour long canal boat cruise. The architecture of the houses lining the canals was very unique to Amsterdam. When the system for taxing houses was begun in the 17th century the tax was determined by the amount of frontage the house measured, resulting in all the houses being very narrow but quite deep. The other feature of interest was the number of houseboats that were permanently moored in the canal. Many were actual boats that had been remodeled into houses. Many more looked like small houses that just happened to be located on the canal. All of these "canal houses" have sewer, electricty and running water. There are approximately 2500 of these canal houses. This reflects the housing shortage that Amsterdam faces. Fortunately Lynda expressed no interest in buying one of these canal houses. Another interesting fact about Amsterdam. There are about 850,000 residents in Amsterdam while there are an estimated one million bicycles. Crossing a bicycle lane is actually more difficult then crossing auto and tram lanes. A few words about Covid protocals. In Amsterdam every place we went into asked to see our passports and vaccination cards. Everyone was wearing facemasks. On board our ship we are required to wear N-95 facemasks all the time except when we are eating and drinking. Our temperatures will be taken each morning when we go to breakfast, or in Lynda's case lunch. We have been given assigned tables for all meals. Only people traveling together sit together. There are no buffets. After our tour this morning Tim went to get ice. A crew member brought him the ice and asked if we would like coffee brought to our room. When it was brought we asked the crew member to come in but were told that they could not enter our room. We were told that in the lounge in the evening we must wear facemasks, even when we are dancing. If a crew member sees us dancing without a mask they will immediately stop the music until we put on our mask. We heard someone say it was interesting that we could sleep with our wife without a mask but had to have a mask on to dance with him/her. Even on our first tour we were told to have passport and our vaccine card with us on the tour. We think we are going to be safe. As mentioned earlier, we set sail at 1:00 on Wednesday. The weather is very nice by Amsterdam standards, partly sunny with no rain, so we are looking forward to pleasant scenery as we cruise the Rhine River. Tomorrow we arrive in Cologne, Germany and are looking forward to visiting our first Christmas Market.