October 2, 2015

October 2, 2015

We took a transit bus to the airport only needing one transfer and arrived in plenty of time for our flight. The KLM 747-400 flight that left Toronto at 11 p.m. arrived in Amsterdam just over six hours later, having passed through six time zones.  There was a snack of a small chicken and tomato sauce sandwich with a choice of an alcoholic beverage, juice, coffee, tea or water before the lights were dimmed for sleeping.  About 90 minutes before landing, breakfast was served. Scrambled eggs, cooked mushrooms, a hash brown potato patty, freshly warmed bun, with butter and jam, peach yogurt and a fruit cup served with either juice, coffee, tea or water.  On the flight we both dozed, but didn’t really sleep. Unfortunately, the plane’s entertainment system providing movies, news, flight information and music, malfunctioned and would not reboot successfully after several tries.  As compensation for the inconvenience, KLM provided each passenger with a voucher which is good for 25 Euros or 25 American dollars off the price of our next KLM, Delta or Air France flight.  

We arrived safely in Amsterdam, over 400 people on the plane. Clearing Immigration was smooth. While we waited in the baggage hall for our luggage, a Viking River Cruises host, Monica, met us and explained that, once our luggage arrived, she would lead us to the arrivals door and hand us over to the next Viking rep who would take us to the driver who would be escorting us to our hotel, the Movenpick Amsterdam City Centre, a 30 minutes drive.  We were on a four lane highway that took us through a tunnel under the Amstel River.  From our 16^th floor room window, we can see Old Town Amsterdam, the train station and the river cruise docks; where there were eight ships docked not far away.  We had logged 2,014 steps since getting off the plane. We sorted our suitcases and organized ourselves for an afternoon of sightseeing.  The “key” is a card, one each, to swipe the reader to enter your room and place it in a slot in the room near the door, in order to activate the electricity for the room, lights and air conditioned or heat. You also need it to operate the elevator.  

We reported to the Viking rep at the Viking desk in the lobby on our way out. He advised us on Amsterdam sights and pointed them out on our map, and of the Viking related events for the next few days.  Tomorrow, after a buffet breakfast in the hotel dining room, we are welcome to join a two hour morning walking tour, with audio systems provided, into Old Town and then have the rest of the day to do as we like. The next day, we board the ship around noon and have the option to take a shuttle from the hotel, about 500 meters, or just have our luggage transported and we can walk to the river cruise ship. We can have lunch on board and meet some of the other guests then leave for more exploring to return by 6 to the ship for a safety briefing and dinner on board.  If we still want to see more of Amsterdam, we have until 11 p.m. to explore before returning to the ship.

By 2:30, we were on our way passing the central rail station following the many canals and streets as hundreds of cyclists whizzed by in their own traffic lane.   En route we saw houseboats in some of the canals, many small wooden boats, bicycle parking lots, the tulip market where thousands of tulip bulbs were for sale, a part of China Town, McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks, H & M, Body shops, Pancake Corner, the trams, the bicycle taxies, small cars and many cafes, restaurants and shops. There are few parking places on the streets, which have pedestrian paths, bicycle paths and one lane for cars on the narrower streets that line the canals.  It was just after 3 p.m. when we saw the red and cream brick building that is the Rijksmuseum as we turned a corner.

The Rijksmuseum has a vast collection of Dutch art, some painted in the 12^th century, and also explains the role that Dutch history played to influence the artists, especially some political pictures by Rembrandt.  Other Dutch artists’ paintings that are on display include Vermeer and Van Gogh.   I liked the Monet paintings, whose work we also saw reprinted in Le Havre, France, in May.  There are paintings, furniture, jewelry, silver, gold, crystal and china objects displayed in the four floors of the museum, which we were able to see about 85% of the displays before the museum closed at 5 p.m. It was time to give our feet a break; the pedometer read 10,432 steps or about 9 km.  We ordered cappuccinos and shared a generous sized brownie.  We browsed through the gift shop before more exploring to find the Vongel park, the largest public park in Amsterdam, in the opposite direction from out hotel.

We found it only a 10 minute walk away, well used by cyclists, joggers, in-line skaters and families. The afternoon was sunny and a bit warmer than usual at 18 C as we walked the perimeter of the park in about an hour.  There were duck and cranes in the ponds, we saw and heard a flock of 7 or 9 green parrots flying from tree to tree.

We decided to walk back following the route 2 tram which goes to the central train station not far from our hotel, but we took detours to see Rembrandt Suqare, near his house museum; the Red Light District, with its sex shops, burlesque shops, brothels and casinos, as well as cafes, restaurants and pubs; and Dam Square where the former Royal Palace and the Dam church overlooks it. Again we crossed many canals on the route.  We looked for menus as we walked by restaurants and cafes, but found nothing appealing.  By 8, we were ascending the elevator to the 16^th floors to hang up our coats and go to the hotel dining room for salad and bun as we were not very hungry.  We had walked over 22,000 steps, more than 19 km and needed a rest.  We returned to the room to organize the day’s photos and write the blog.  It was after 11 when we called it a day.