WORK IN PROGRESS

My brothers and I decided over a year ago that we had not had a family trip since we were all very young.  After a lot of discussion, we decided to take the 15 day Viking Grand European River Cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest.  We also decided to reach Amsterdam a day prior to ship departure, to help with jet lag and to give us more time to explore Amsterdam.

September 30

We were ready to leave Jane’s house at 7:30 AM.  We stopped to pick up Tom and then we were off to the airport.  Our flights started in New Orleans to DC with a layover, then on to Amsterdam.

October 1, Amsterdam

Dave and I got to Amsterdam about noon on a rainy October 1.  We had decided not to use WiFi and had forgotten to load a map to our hotel onto one of our phones.  We had to ask directions and were given some bad info.  We ended up taking a really long walk!  Oh well, for the most part it was not too bad.

It was too early to check into the Hotel Prins Hendrik but we were allowed to store our luggage there.  While trying to lift one suitcase up a couple of steps, with wet shoes, I slipped and went down.  All I could think was that I was going to have broken bones before the trip started.  Thankfully I just ended with a huge bruise that I still have 3 1/2 weeks later.

We walked around for a while in the Red Light district.  It was still raining and chilly so we went into the bar attached to our hotel (Made of 11 separate buildings all connected and includes a restaurant and bar; now buildings across the street are also included) where we enjoyed a meal of split pea soup and a local beer.  Before we finished, the rest of the family arrived.

We had to give them time to rest up, then went exploring a bit more.  We soon went to our own rooms, met in the dining room for supper and called it a day.

October 2, Amsterdam

It was a busy day, so we all met for breakfast in the dining room, then went to check out of the hotel.  We left our luggage in storage at the hotel and set off. 

We had scheduled a private tour of Historical Amsterdam and our guide was Wendy.  We met him at The National Monument on Dam Square which commemorate war casualties of the Netherlands. He took us on a 2 1/2 hour walk around the city and had many interesting facts. For instance, we found out that Holland is a region, the rich part, of the Netherlands.  We saw the University of Amsterdam, once the office of the Dutch East India Company and Dutch West India Company.  We saw many flower decorated bikes, started by artist Warren Gregory to help his wife find her way home when she started to develop dementia.  They are still popular.

Then, we had to make our way to the dock to find our ship, the Gymir, pulling our luggage with us for 45 minutes.  There, the tags we had put on helped the crew get our luggage to our assigned state room.  Everyone had lunch in the lounge and it seemed a bit disoriented, probably because almost everyone was embarking at the same time.

Soon, we had to leave for our tour of the Anne Franke house and had still not gotten to our state room.  Kent thought it was best to get an Uber since we had already walked a lot that day.  He called for one and it never came so we found a taxi waiting and got a ride to the Jewish Museum.  We were a bit late but someone led us to our group which was just starting.

We had another neat tour with more history.  One of the best parts was the National Holocaust Names Monument.  We ended our tour in front of the Anne Franke house which no longer looks as it did but has a plaque on the front.  I was greatly disappointed because I was the one who had made the reservations and was positive I had chosen the tour which included her house but I had not.

Now it was time to walk back to the ship, another 45 minutes.  We were all exhausted.  Dianne and Darlene eventually hailed a cab for the last part of the way.  We finally arrived shortly before dinner was being served.  We had put in over 22,000 steps that day.  We got keys to our room, checked it out quickly, then went to eat.  We had a cocktail in the lounge after supper but went to bed early.  We did not even unpack except to find toiletries.  Also, the ship was underway.

October 3, Kinderdijk, Holland