Kickin' About

We had a short and sweet flight to Amsterdam arriving about 6 pm. This time we figured we could do the train/tram venture to the hotel and it worked out well, the tram stopping 50m from the hotel. We only had a short stop in Amsterdam, 1 day, before we joined the river cruise to Budapest. On recommendation from our Dutch brother, Peter, we had booked a full-day excursion out of Amsterdam into the countryside. Due to the Sail 2025 festival currently on in Amsterdam, the meet point had to be moved. So whilst Amsterdam was quiet, being Saturday, tram repairs/maintenance made getting ourselves there a little fun. But this was accomplished without any time stress. The excursion took us to a picturesque island village, Marken. It’s an island now joined to the mainland by a dyke where the locals wander around with hand carts or wheelbarrows, and the houses are raised on stilts (often garages added underneath) and painted green. And then onto Volendam where we stopped for lunch. Volendam is an old fishing village with a colourful main street full of seafood eateries and other shops. A bit of local fare was called for – a decadent Dutch waffle with cream & chocolate!

Next, it was on to Edam and a cheese-making factory. Edam cheese originated in this area and comes in quite a number of flavours here. Naturally, there were ample tasting samples of brie to try with the accompanying opportunity to buy cheese, but still an interesting visit. We then went into the actual town of Edam, which is a charming place. Edam’s oldest brick house was built around 1530 as a private house and later converted to a museum. The house has a deeper kitchen with mezzanine living quarters above it, and leads to a floating cellar; a brick box room floating freely on groundwater. The house is also on a lean, settling like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

The last part of the tour was to Zaanse Schans, a clog-making factory and nearby windmills which are still operational. There used to be over 10,000 windmills in the Netherlands, now only about 1,200. Many are still operational but more by preservation groups than commercially. We saw a demonstration of clog making and then wandered around for a closer look at the windmills.

Monday is the day we are joining the cruise. The start point for this trip had to be moved to Rotterdam because of canals being closed for Sail2025 in Amsterdam. We made our way to the Hilton Double Tree hotel in the centre of Amsterdam to meet the Emerald Cruises people as they would be bussing us to the embarkation point in Rotterdam. Even though we were quite early, the Emerald people were there with a conference room all set up for those arriving, with snacks, coffee, etc, all catered for. It made us feel warmly welcomed. About 80 or more were there eventually and in due time we were on the road to Rotterdam. Even though it was mid avo by the time we arrived, they had held the kitchen open to provide lunch for us all. And by the time we had finished that and checked in, our luggage was already in our cabins waiting! How easy was that!

Day 1. Our first impressions of the boat, crew, and start of our time on the boat, have far surpassed our expectations. We had signed up for a cabin on the lower deck, thinking we would spend most of our time in the upper public areas and we are not disappointed. The cabin is roomy and comfortable and we are enjoying meeting all the other passengers. The food and service have been tops and I’m not looking forward to hopping on the scales when we are back. Once all on board, today is just to get to know the boat and to have the journey briefings by the Cruise Director. Before we had time to think, it was dinner time and the level of meals coming out of the kitchen was super. Wine and beer are complementary with dinner, not just a glass, but constant refilling too.

Day 2. Today, a tour of Rotterdam was organised. Buses picked us up from the boat after breakfast and took us for an hour tour around the city. We finished at the market which has a fully painted ceiling of the local produce and apartments built into the outside walls. One of the stalls provided samples of local Gouda cheese, kibbeling (deep-fried fish snacks) and stoopwaffles.

Rotterdam has interesting architecture as it was 95% destroyed during WW2, so the buildings are all quite new and innovation of design was the order of the day. Some of the really interesting places: a 15th-century church destroyed in the bombing but rebuilt from the original bricks salvaged from the rubble; the paediatric hospital inspired by a salad bowl, clad in mirror panels and with a garden and restaurant on top.

The afternoon was a lot more relaxed, and we were finally underway cruising up the river Meuse River, part of the Rhine delta. The river is very busy, lots of barges, a few other river cruise boats, and container boats with interesting bridge structures. We made the most of the fine weather and relaxed on the sun deck. Life got so tough, we just had to retire to the pool and watch the world go by from there!

The evening was relaxed, they plied us with champagne for the Captain’s Welcome, introducing the heads of departments. They also do a briefing on the next day’s activities and the chef briefs us on the evening meal menu each evening.

Day 3. We cruised all through the night and the next morning, docking at Cologne at lunch time. Our German friend, Sandra, travelled down to meet us dockside so we didn’t do the organised tour. We wandered through to the Cologne Cathedral and inside too. It’s an enormous structure, thankfully unscathed from the WW2 destruction of Cologne, and magnificent in its architecture.

The stained glass windows are enrapturing.

After, we wandered through the main shopping streets and off to the the Lindt Chocolate Museum. It’s very modern and interactive, not like other museums, and even with samples of chocolate along the way.

It was wonderful seeing Sandra again, she stayed with us in Sydney last year. She is doing so well with her acting career with some exciting prospects are on the horizon. The boat didn’t stay at Cologne after the tours all came back on board, shoving off at dinner time. There are activities organised on board most evenings but tonight we both felt like just kicking back and relaxing. As we passed by at 1 am, I went up top and saw the remains of the bridge at Remagen, the first point along the Rhine that the Allies crossed on the road to Berlin. All that is left are its twin, castle-like towers on each bank of the Rhine River, as the original bridge structure was destroyed after the battle and the piers were removed to prevent navigational hazard. But a significant historical place I wanted to see as we passed.

Day 4. Despite having been up late last night, I just had to get up early today. This morning we start down the Rhine Gorge, the iconic pictorial scenes of castles and towns on the forest-covered banks and hills along the gorge. This part of the trip was from 6ish at dawn through to about 1pm when we docked at Rüdesheim am Rhein. Half the boat was on the sun deck to view the scenery as we cruised through and it is indeed a very scenic part of the world.

The afternoon we docked at Rüdesheim for the afternoon tours. They provided tour trains to shuttle us into town to Siegfried’s Mechanical Music Machines museum. All sorts of music boxes with an amazing variety of instruments installed.

Then we had free time to walk around this charming little town. There are some quaint little alleys but the town is well served with souvenir shops ready to take advantage of all the river cruise boats that visit.

Not far upriver from Rüdesheim we leave the Rhine River and start travelling on the Mains River. The adventure with the locks and the low bridges begins 😮 ………. but that’s for the next issue.