Flew out of Syracuse NY on Friday 4/15 and arrived at JFK around 1:30. Quick taxi ride to the Andaz Wall St to have dinner with my cousin then Avenue Q, which was hilarious. Had 9AM tickets on 4/16 for the Statue of Liberty with pedestal passes, never actually seen it except from the window of an airplane flying out of Newark…from a great distance. Had our AAA price included breakfast at the Andaz then off to the SOL. Very cool. The weather in NYC was very windy and maybe 50 or so with overcast skies. Had to skip Ellis Island since we had a 4PM flight to Amsterdam.
Just beat out of town prior to the large storm system coming in but it worked to our advantage making what was supposed to be about and 8 hour flight into 7 hours. Arrived at Shiphol around 5AM on Sunday 4/17, collected our luggage and made off to “the meeting point”. Turns out “the meeting point” is harder to locate than one would expect with a name like “the meeting point”. The directions were to find the red and white cube and we would be there. Found the R&W cube but could find no indication of where this alleged “the meeting point” was. Finally asked some airport people who hand held us a mere 10 feet across from the cube to the terribly marked “the meeting place” Now….waiting for the car service since we are an hour early. The car service people are not too aggressive looking for their customers so we had to take the initiative to ask each person who looked like they had a sign if they were looking for us and sure as heck the one perched on the cube was our driver. Finally on our way to the Movenpick Hotel. After a short 45 min ride we arrived and were told that our room was not ready (I did not expect it to be) and that “do you realize how early it is”?? Of course we did, we had been up for 23 hours at that point. At any rate we stored our luggage, had breakfast upstairs in the restaurant, buffet for $23 EU each, that was expensive for a buffet! Got better tram information from the waitress than the front desk and with that info in hand we were ready to explore Amsterdam on our own.
Sunday 4/17-Sunny, upper 60’s low 70’s
Started walking down to Central Station (where all the trams originate and end up) and tried to figure out how to get a ticket. I guess we looked confused and were told that we could purchase the tickets on the tram for 2.50 EU for an hour or 7.50EU to 24 hours. Got the 24 hr. Looked at our nifty tram/city map from Movenpick and went off to check out the Anne Frank house for which we had reserved 9:45 tickets. Good thing, the line was huge at 9AM already and we once again had to figure out how to actually get in without being in this line since we had “reserved” tickets. Dumb luck we stumbled upon an unmarked entrance just 10-20 feet beyond the hugh line which had a very small sign that said “reserved entrance, press bell”. We also opted for the 30 min pre-tour informative lecture, which I would highly suggest you do, then off to wander thru the house. Very steep stairs, no furniture, display cases, etc greeted us. It was interesting, glad we had reserved tickets since I do not think I would wait in line so long for it otherwise.
Figured out how to get back to Central Station and Movenpick, turns out there is a tram stop about 100 yards from the hotel, the number 25, so we took that back instead of walking. It is about noon now and at check in they indicated we could upgrade for 65 EU to the executive room which entitled us to breakfast in the AM, 2PM instead of noon checkout, free beverages in the room and executive lounge, as well as internet….this was a no brainer based on the cost of breakfast and the later check out since we did not have to be at the boat until 3PM…..sweet! Went up to the room, re-tooled, showered then geared up for another exploration trip to Amsterdam via tram. Our destination was the skinny bridge on the WaterlooPlein stop, #25 tram to Central Station then #9 tram to Skinny Bridge. Did I mention the bikes yet??? 750,000 residents and 600,000 bikes, there are bikes everywhere…..everywhere, bike paths with stop lights, yield signs. Pedestrians are on the bottom of the food chain in Amsterdam, bikes have priority over everything and they know it. It was complete chaos and by sheer luck we did not end up road kill to a bike. In hindsight we should have brought our video camera to record this since nobody is going to believe it. Make a recording and set it to flight of the bumble bees and you would have the idea of the magnitude of it! Stopped for some eats at a local establishment, Found skinny bridge, scanned over the tram map and worked our way back to the hotel via the #10 (the death tram) to Central Square then #25 to Movenpick. By now we are toast, dog dead tired, unwound then sleep to re-do this all over again Monday morning.
Monday 4/18- Sunny lower 70’s
Up for our Executive buffet breakfast, then the number 25 for another blast at Amsterdam. The previous day prior to catching #25 back to Movenpick we stopped to buy the hop on/hop off canal tour passes (20 EU each) for the next morning. Got to Central Station and walked to the “green line” hop on/off dock and got on the boat for what should be a relaxing way to see the city ( 1 ½ hr trip) from the canals…..not! Two stops into the tour we all had to hop off since the canal was closed, it was being dredged by the police and not for a rogue bike. Unfortunately 3 of the 4 hop on/off lines went thru this section of canal so we got off, looked at the tram/city map and tried to make our way to the remaining on/off line on the other side of town. It was an experience left to the brave. When we finally got there to discover we had missed the on/off stop and needed to get catch #9 then #25 back to check out and go to the ship for the start of our 7 day river cruise. Once again took a break prior to tackling the tram back to have a drink and watch the bike chaos form a seating location right on the side walk in the thick of things.
Back at Movenpick we could get our access card to let us up to our room, apparently they want you to let them know if you are checking out at 2 and deactivated our cards. No problem, we got in, packed up and headed over to the Amadolce for the start of our River Cruise. Although the walk would have only been 100 – 200 yards the streets/bike highways, “sidewalks” are all paving stones or cobbles of varying degrees of flatness, I refused to go rumbling over these for this distance and got a cab out front for the 30 second ride and $7.50 EU, a deal in my mind! Got to the ship, grabbed a quick large beer and diet coke then headed off to the room for the obligatory room photos and shower, change. We had our Captains welcome dinner 5 course meal for dinner and by this time we were so tired and stuffed that we went off to bed.
Tuesday 4/19-Mostly Sunny 68-70
I need to give some background here for reference. Mind you, we are in the minority as far as having all of our original body parts as well as being well within the guidelines of height to age to weight criteria. I had followed the weather in The Nehterlands for close to a year and was prepared for the usual spring rain, chill (50’s to low 60’s), they get well over 200+ days of rain a year, which explains why everyone had umbrellas handy even when sunny out.
Up early around 7:30 for buffet breakfast, then 9:00 Canal (1 hour) and walking tour of Amsterdam( 1 ½ hr). The canal tour was first and we were looking forward to it because of our “incident” with the canal closure the prior day. Mind you they have a full time staff to dredge the canals and pull out 10 – 12,000 bikes a year but they were not looking for bikes the prior day. Apparently our canal tour took a bit of a detour since the part which was closed yesterday was still closed, but it was still nice and relaxing. Boarded our bus to head downtown for an hour walking tour and it was nice to have what we saw the prior two days explained as to what they were and saw some different things like the flower market, etc. Back to the ship for a noon departure for Volendam and Edam. Had a buffet lunch, with dessert of course then up to the lounge for a 2:00 briefing on the upcoming events. While in the briefing I saw a lighthouse coming up so I hoofed it back to the room to fetch my camera, up to the sun deck and clicked away as another lighthouse came into view. Made it back for the wind up of the meeting and at 3:00 we arrived at the fishing village of Volendam. We did about an hour walking tour of Volendam, pretty much a ho hum tour, not really much of interest, the town was packed because of the nice weather and it reminded me of a typical cruise port in the Caribbean, somewhat of a carnival atmosphere. We then boarded the bus for Edam and about another hour or so walking tour. Now this was a really quaint Dutch town. Some very cool buildings, history and of course…..Edam cheese of which we bought our required small wheel of it. Back to the boat for a 7PM departure to Arnhem and Nijmegen. Then our 5 course sit down dinner which tended to last from 7:30 to 9:00 at which point we were so tired and stuffed that we went to bed…..again.
Wed 4/20-Sunny 75
Got up for our 7:30 breakfast then a 9:00 departure for the Airborne museum in Arnhem. This was about a 1 ½ hour walking tour starting with a short film on the events leading up to operation Market Basket made famous by the film “A Bridge Too Far”. Some technical difficulties with the film being German, then Dutch and by the time it got around to the English version we pretty much got the gist as well as having been very familiar with this over the years, this is one of my favorite sayings, “that would be a bridge too far”. We then bused to the airbourne cemetery about ½ hour away and had a sobering reminder of the cost of war. Very interesting stuff!
Back to the boat for a noon cruise to Nijmegen, lunch then docking around 2:00. This is the bridge in operation Market Basket that was captured by our 82nd airbourne, intact. After docking we were escorted to the main square and had free time to explore and shop. Very cool city, lots going on and amazing buildings. Got a bunch of flowers for our room and a beer/diet coke then once again back to the boat for a 6PM departure to Antwerp and our long awaited excursion to Brussels, Belgium. At 6:15 we had another informational meeting for Brussels then a 7pm 5 course meal. Stuffed and tired…again we went off to bed for a big day coming up.
Thurs 4/21-sunny 73
Up again for breakfast then our 9:30 walking tour of Antwerp (1 ½ hr), where we saw Antwerp Castle, Great Market Square, Brabo Fountain. Back to the ship for an early 11:30 lunch prior to our Brussels Excursion (1:00 – 6:30) We saw the Royal Palace, Park of Laken, Parliament, Palace of Justice and Botanical Gardens. Most of this viewing was by bus but we did do another walking tour for 1 ½ hr . It was an amazing Main Square with many hugh old buildings. After the tour we had some free time to explore prior to going back to the ship at 6:30 for dinner then a Belgian Desserts buffet in the lounge.
Friday 4/22-sunny 78
This was to be a long day so we had to really carb up at breakfast, of course. We started with a 1 ½ walking tour of Ghent where the traffic was a bit more busy with vehicles and pedestrians and the ever present bicycles. We had free time after the tour to do a bit on our own then bused to Brugge for a long day (7 hr 15min). Brugge was as busy as Ghent with people and such since it was Friday and beautiful weather. We did another 1 ½ walking tour followed by quite a bit of free time for lunch on our own and this is where we loaded up on chocolate and lace . Later in the day we then did a ½ canal tour of Brugge then set packing for the bus back to the ship and 7:30 dinner. Tonight after dinner we stayed up with the grownups to see a great string performance by a local group called Strada. Three musicians, one on violin, guitar, cello, they were great although they only played for about 45 min it was very enjoyable! Off to bed.
Sat 4/23-sunny 75
Up again for breakfast and arrive at the Volerak Locks for a “technical stop” of 45min. What this entailed is the separate group of 91, mentioned prior, got off on a gangplank to board buses to an excursion to the water works. This was not part of our (the commoners) agenda, but no complaints! Once they all were off we continued on to Kinderdijk to see the greatest concentration of windmills in the country, 19 of them (1hr 45min). Prior to docking for the windmills we had……..lunch! The Windmills were cool. At this point I noticed that I was running out of memory space in my camera and with Kuekenhof coming up I was a bit panicked. I went into the windmills gift shop, popped out the memory card and showed it to the clerk and to my amazement they had a 4G one for only 7.50 EU, I snapped it up . After Kinderdijk we boarded the buses for a short ride to Gouda and where we had another 1hr walking tour, bought some “young” and “old” gouda cheese and decided to leave the tour at that point to rest and have a beer/diet coke. Gouda had their “farmers market” going on in the main square and it was chaos! We waited around until 5:02 to view/video the little musical and animated “show” on one of the sides of a church. I call this a “show” for lack of a better word, it was like the animated workings of a coocoo clock where there was music and movement . 5:02 finally came and as we were taping one of the local venders, apparently in a hurry to close up and go home, was honking her horn for us to get out of the way, very rude and obnoxious since this “performance” on the side of the church only last may 30 seconds, but she was relentless thus screwing up our opportunity to get this on tape, with a few choice words from myself. We then went back to the bus for the short ride to Schoonhoven where we met up with the ship as it sailed from Kiderdijk.
It was around 7PM now and we got dressed for the farewell dinner. Once again we gorged and since the ship was not going to set sail until 3AM we went off on our own to visit the town. Nothing was open, of course, given it was after 9PM but we walked around and decided that this was one of the nicest places we had seen so far. Very quaint and quiet. Back to the boat around 10PM and another evening in the lounge, beer/diet coke, with the grownups again prior to the culmination of the cruise…..the tulip bulbs in bloom at Keukenhof!
Sun 4/24– sunny 72
Ship leaves for Utrecht to dock until our 8:15 departure for a 45 min ride to the gardens. It was busy when we arrived but we got our tickets and left the group to explore on our own. We were concerned about the condition of the flowers due to the weather (sunny-70’s all week) and thought everything would be spent, not so. There was still a lot of color and the mass plantings on the grounds were amazing. The bulk fields still had color also as you can see from our pictures. We had the option of staying an extra 3 hours should we not choose to take the noon bus back to meet the boat, now in Amsterdam but it was starting to get chaotic, it was a beautiful day as well as Easter Sunday, so we decided to go back at noon and take the tram back to the city of Amsterdam and try to video the mad bikers cause nobody would ever be able to really appreciate the bike traffic otherwise. So back to the boat and lunch of course then the #25 to Central Station and the #9 to WaterlooPlein. Bummer……once again seeing as it was a beautiful day and Easter Sunday the masses of crazies were nowhere to be found. We had a beer/diet coke and headed dejected back to the ship for…you guessed it….dinner. In hindsight we should have stay at Keukenhof since we missed the pavilions which had some beautiful gardens, especially the orchid pavilion. Oh well, maybe “next time”?
We got out of dinner relatively early tonight, around 8:30, just in time to see the sunset over Amsterdam, it was spectacular, bright fire ball red. After catching this event the camera battery died, what timing just at the end of our trip. Back to the lounge for our last grownups event and off to bed at 10PM since we had to depart at 7:15AM on Monday for our 11AM flight home.
Mon 4/25-sunny 70’s
Up at 6, finished packing and decided to skip breakfast, go figure. At this point in time it occurred to us that we have not been to the gym in 11 days and ate way more food on a regular basis than we would ever consider at home, including the desserts on a regular basis and then some. Once at the airport Delta seemed confused as to why there were so many people in line waiting to check luggage, so they sent out one of their people who I noticed had “trainee” on her badge, this did a lot of good, perhaps they should have know what flights they had going out at what time and with how many people on it before only scheduling 3 or 4 Agents for check in. After about 15 min things started to ease up, the extra 10 lanes with Agents opening up was a brilliant idea, and before you know it we are off…..to want at the gate. Breezed thru security, which is at the gates and not at the terminal entrance and off we were. Uneventful ride to JFK, ½ hour early though, which was great since we had a tight connection to Syracuse. Then ½ hour early to Syracuse and off to get our canine companion form the kennel and home.
Summary:

Sorry so long, but as you can see it was all action packed, there was really no down time and we got a big bang for our buck for sure! AMA Waterways does a great job (American Owned), food was good and plenty, staff was amazing and the cruise director was on top of things! The weather was highly unusual and we did not even touch the sweaters, long sleeve shirts, rain gear or umbrellas which was good since I cannot imagine doing all that walking in marginal or bad weather. The fact that 2/3 of the ship was on their own excursions etc was a major plus for a more personalized experience. We are truly amazed , remember that we are in the minority as far as original body parts and height to age to weight ratio, that the others handled it, it was very tiring and hard on the feet/knees/back but to their credit they took everything that the tours and excursion s had to offer…cheers! Oh, and the scale…….we gained 1 pound each, that in of itself should tell you that in spite of the mass quantities we ingested, the walking negated it. There are no public restrooms per say, if you can find i=one it costs .10 - .50 EU. What we did was visit one of the local café’s and have a beer/diet coke then use their restroom, kind of counter productive but it seemed to work out! I also need to thank my cruise only travel agent, Bonnie Buchanan at Cruise One http://bbuchanan.cruiseone.com/travel/HomePage.html. She organized our Alaska cruise for my family of 9 back in 2007 and everything once again was flawless.
See the pictures, broken up by day, at:
http://community.webshots.com/user/kagjjg

Should have all photos up by end of weekend 5/1/2011