Amsterdam, Holland

Rotterdam Harbor

Our ship docked in Rotterdam, one of the busiest commercial ports in the world, serving not only the Netherlands, but most of Northern Europe.  Most rivers along the coast of the North Sea tend to spread into a delta of streams, but long ago, the Dutch learned to squeeze them into channels then deepen them for navigation with dams and levees.  Such was the construction of a dam on the Rotte River, thus Rotterdam.

We traveled by bus to Amsterdam which is technically the capital, but The Hague is the seat of the government.  Holland is very flat, since most of the land has been reclaimed from the sea.  On the way we passed a few of the old windmills.  There are approximately 700 remaining of the 10,000 that used to operate in the country, both to mill grain and to pump water.  The weather was overcast with temperatures in the upper 50’s. 

The old city of Amsterdam is made up of a series of horseshoe shaped canals facing the Amstel River, which separates the old city from Amsterdam North.  We started our visit with a canal tour that covered much of the old city, including the Ann Frank house as well as several museums, churches and bridges.  There are houseboats of all sizes, shapes and descriptions lining the canals.  Some are well decorated and obviously well kept, others are run down and look like they are about to sink.  Houseboats have been allowed for many years, but the number is capped at 2,600, so even the decrepit ones are valuable, just for the space they occupy since no more can be permitted.  Following the canal tour, we reboarded the bus for a city tour which covered the main shopping area and several parks and squares.  We finished our guided tour in front of the Central Station of Amsterdam.

After an excellent lunch consisting of split pea soup (much better than Andersen’s) and a toasted ham and cheese sandwich (yes, Tom’s stomach is much better), we set off on foot for the Red Light District.  We saw several ‘ladies in the window’ advertising their wares, but I think we caught the day shift, because there was no one even remotely attractive, in our eyes.  We did pass a number of ‘Coffee Houses’ that sell ‘soft drugs’, but the more conservative element of our group were anxious to press on. 


We wandered through the shopping area but made no significant purchases, then headed back to the Central Station to catch our bus back to the ship.  When we got there, the line stretched for at least a block and we found out that there were 17 busloads of people from the ship who were all waiting.  Before we got to the head of the line, it began to rain, so those without a raincoat or umbrella got soaked.  Tom, who was standing in line, borrowed an umbrella from our friend, Ed, while Debbie and some others from our travel group decided to wait out the storm in a pub.  They caught the last bus back to the ship and arrived on time and in good humor.  Neither of us remember much of the trip back, but instead took the opportunity to examine the insides of our eyelids for leaks.

The ship left the dock in Rotterdam at 6:30 PM, and since the ship was too long to turn around in the dock area, we backed up for over two miles to a wide spot in which to turn around and head out to sea. Thursday is our last day at sea.  On Friday, we dock in Oslo, Norway, then sail overnight to Copenhagen, Denmark where we will disembark on Saturday morning.