10/3/14 Kinderdijk

We left on Wednesday during a light rain to make our way to Logan airport in Boston.  We decided that to avoid a number of complications involved in taking the bus or train to Boston, we would hire a car.  What a good decision!  Our driver, John, was both competent and delightful.  He drove through the rain, which went from light to moderate very quickly and even found a less traveled road when the traffic got heavy.  We got to the airport early and had an early dinner before boarding.   Susanne and I had trouble falling asleep so we were a little like zombies in the AM.  We were met in Amsterdam by a Viking agent and after a short wait, we were bussed into the city center to see our ship, the Bestal, for the first time.  It is longer than I imagined - about 400 feet.  The staterooms are lovely complete with every amenity you can imagine.  After dropping our things in the room, four of us (Lana, John, Susanne, and I) went for a walk into the city after a light lunch on the fantail of the ship.  Dave stayed to take a nap.  We wanted to visit the Anne Frank house, but when we got there, the line was really long - wrapping around the block - so we took pictures of the outside and continued our walk next to and across the many canals.

There are so many things that are the same from when we were here 20 years ago - bicycles everywhere, the flowers, the canals and houseboats, but some things have changed.  Everywhere you walk, you can smell marijuana smoke - before there were some "brown cafes", but now they are everywhere and also many shops where you can buy weed candies, etc.  We also saw more graffiti than ever before.  I also think there are more young people here than ever before.  The city is very much a vibrant one, but I think I prefer the smell of fresh bread baking (from 20 years ago) to dried weed smoking of today.

We came back to the ship to take short naps and then Dave and I went for another walk into the city.  I saw a bicyclist getting a ticket from two policemen - how funny!  I wonder what his charge was? - biking under the influence?  failure to stop?  failure to give a hand signal when turning?  We had a great walk meandering here and there, but eventually made our way back to the ship.  I found that the cobblestoned walks were hard on the knees.  This is a funny city as the sidewalks and back roads are quite narrow while the bike paths are wide.  We met up with everyone in the lounge where cocktails were served while we listened to the resident pianist.  We then had a welcome reception by the program director explaining about the ship and our activities for the next day.  We all went down to the dining room at 7 to partake of a delicious dinner.  I can see that we will have to do a lot of walking in order to balance the fantastic food that is served aboard ship!  For the main course, Lana (faithfully) had her salmon, John - halibut, Dave and Susanne - mushroom stuffed chicken, and I had pumpkin ravioli.  We all had blueberry cobbler with almond ice cream and lavender brittle for dessert (Dave had the sorbet).  Thoroughly stuffed and very weary, we make our way back to our cabins.  I tried to read, but only make it through a chapter before passing out.

We are going to visit the windmills this morning so I will try to get on later and add some pictures.