Tulip Time River Cruise Day 1

Fri. Apr. 4-Sat. Apr. 5: Kris and Heidi picked us up at 4:30 in the afternoon and, despite some heavy, slow traffic and light rain, we were at Detroit Metro before 6:30 for our 9:30 flight. We all got some exercise, walking around the airport, to be ready for our nearly 8 hour flight directly to Amsterdam. Our plane was a 767 KLM with spacious seats and personal entertainment screens offering a variety of movies, games, TV and music which made a pretty pleasant overnight flight but none of us got much rest. Our cruise line, Amawaterways, had a young man to meet us at the gate and get us to our bus that took us straight to the dock where we could drop our luggage and have sandwiches, soup and cookies for a light lunch. 

Our first views of Amsterdam from the bus

It was around noon in Amsterdam and we couldn't get into our state rooms until 3:00. As we rested in the warm sun on the sun deck Kris's Dutch friend, Johann, whom he had contacted by email, found us on the boat and took us on a walking tour of the nearby city center, showing us the canals, edge of the red light district, the so-called Old (1400s) and New (1500s) Churches and the royal Palais. 

Poolside on the deck

Johann, Heidi, Peggy & Kris

Bikes, bikes, bikes!!

Typical canal view. Note the high hooks from the cornices
for hoisting furnishings to upper floors 

The churches both had high curving wooden ceilings used because they are much lighter and flying buttresses supporting other materials would just sink into the mucky soil. He was a delightful and knowledgeable tour guide. In the center square we arrived just as a huge crowd broke out into a giant pillow fight and feathers were flying all over the place and lying on the ground 6 inches deep. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and there were many people out and about enjoying the vibrant city center. We saw none of the legal prostitutes for which the Red Light District is famous and Johann told us that city officials had cleared them out recently, feeling that it was not appropriate for such a busy, sophisticated area. No one else has mentioned it so we're not sure if it's true but we certainly didn't see any.

Royal Palais

Saint Nicholas Church

 We came back to the ship and checked into our state rooms where our luggage had been taken and got upstairs in time for the 6:00 orientation and introductions of the crew. Peter is our entertaining Australian tour director who will keep us on schedule and on our toes for the week.  After our Champaign toast we went for the first of many fantastic dinners in the dining room. We sat with Jessie and Carol, sisters-in-law from Texas, whom we would see more of during our time aboard. By dinner's end about 9:00 Heidi and Kris were ready for bed but Marv and I decided to relax for a bit in the whirlpool on the sun deck. The water was pleasantly warm, not hot, and we could see the moon and some stars over the city along with the lights. We hardly saw any other people despite being moored between two other river boats and it was really lovely. Back in our room we found that the steward who turned down our bed and put chocolates on our pillow had made an arrangement of my "Pajamooses" night shirt on the foot of the bed! When we finally fell into bed I had trouble falling and staying asleep but Marv slept well.