Three flights and 30+ hours later we are wandering the streets of Amsterdam bleary-eyed, killing time till check-in at the Hotel Eden. We are here for a week so after we got settled we were off to dinner at Lucius, a casual seafood restaurant with an aquarium set into a wall and luscious food we loved.
Ubiquitous tulip bulbs at the flower market.
With London friends, John & Kate, we begin our A’dam visit with a private canal cruise (no one else showed up) to get our bearings. Turns out our route is pretty short when we learn there are 165 canals over a distance of 100 kilometers (66 miles). During the entire week we see only a fraction of the 1,700 bridges.
Bejinhof is a secluded courtyard surrounded by well-maintained old houses. It is considered one of A’dam’s secret treasures given its history.
Hundreds of tiny bells perched on wire are on temporary display at Oude Kerk, the oldest church in A’dam.
During the Dutch Golden Age of religious freedom Catholics didn’t have this right and worship was held secretly in attic churches at home. Our Lord in the Attic Museum can be visited in a 400 year-old house.
John makes a fine clergyman.
Following a 30 minute train ride to Leiden, we discover the annual Rembrandt Festival is in full swing. The small city celebrates the artist’s birth in 1606 and features costumed locals, artists in training, street theatre, and a plethora of displays and joyful activities, like nuns on swingsets. After two years of cancelled dates, the Dutch were ready to make this the best of fests.
Kate with the incredible Titan Arum, a plant whose huge annual bloom stinks like rotten meat.
Bicycle parking in The Netherlands.
A couple days after our arrival in A’dam the worst possible thing is revealed…positive tests for Covid. We cancelled all planned activities, sent John & Kate off with new arrivals/cruising friends, Jan & Al, while we kept to ourselves. Luckily our symptoms were mild and the cruise ship agreed to our boarding on schedule, only requiring us to isolate in our cabin for 3 days.
APT’s AmaReina is our floating home while we cruise the Rhine, Main & Danube Rivers to Budapest.
The occasional quick check on us.
Meals were delivered to us 3 times a day and we weren’t complaining about the quality.
With our sliding doors open the width of our cabin we could enjoy the passing countryside.
We could touch the walls of the locks. Really eerie the first time but after 66 of them, we were nonplussed.
