On the Rhine River north of Cologne Germany. September 13
Sunday September 11 we continued our pre-cruise explorations of Amsterdam. Today we participated in another of Viking’s guided tours where we just had to show up. The focus was on the Golden Age of Amsterdam when it was a leading exploration country and becoming wealthy through colonization activities around the world.
It covered two of the high priority activities Chris and I had identified; a canal boat tour and one of the top art museums in the world, the Rijksmuseum. It would also include lunch with Dutch food and a tour of a high end canal house. By the end of the day we would be exhausted.
Viking arranged for our group to be transported to the Rijksmuseum where we and people from two other tours were divided into two groups of 12. Our guide led us on a two hour discovery of art by grand Dutch artists active during this time. One could probably spend days here but the presentation was a solid and interesting introduction into the topic.
A 90 minute canal tour followed.This was satisfactory but not great. The second tour guide gave the presentation and he was a bit rusty after working less during the past Covid period. Plus, we were starting to hear repeats of historical tidbits. However the day was sunny and warm so the canal tour was quite relaxing.
Leaving the tour boat we were thrust into the hustle and bustle of busy Amsterdam with pedestrians and bicyclists jostling for space. The group managed to make it safely to our lunch spot, the Blue Hollander, where we had stamppot and poffertjes.
Our last stop was at the Van Loon Museum where we toured the inside of a traditional canal house of a wealthy Amsterdammer. Frankly by this time we were tired and seeing how the wealthy lived was not terribly exciting. Finally getting to our ship was.
Viking provided a driver to get us to the Magni, our home ship for the next two weeks. Boy, I don’t want to drive in Amsterdam and not even sure I want to ride again in the Old Town area. I am not sure how the driver missed hitting multiple bicyclists on those narrow roads.
The Viking longship Magni and its staff are all that we expected and more. While the room is small, it is well laid out and furnished, and even had a wonderful bouquet of flowers ( provided by Deb, Rebecca, Sarah, and Sarah). It Is cleaned or freshened several times a day. The food is excellent with a wide variety of options. Staff is friendly and helpful.
Our first expedition on Monday was to Kinderdijk; this is a UNESCO world heritage site. In this location, the Dutch people over 1000 years ago began their process of using windmills and dikes to reclaim and protect land from the sea.
Our tour guide has been living in this area for almost 50 years, but of course he’s not considered a native by the natives. However, he had wonderful knowledge and presentation style to explain the history of the Netherlands, the culture of the area, and the workings of the windmill system. Of course, modern technology has replaced the day-to-day operation of the old pumping system using windmills.
This shore excursion only lasted two hours and was on flat land with smooth pavement. Besides being a interesting sight to see, Kinderdijk provides an easy introduction to the guide system, checking in and off of the ship, and the use of the individualized speaker system that each person uses to hear the tour guide.
The Netherlands is flat. No news there. Scenery has rotated from the dikes, industrial and urban areas, a bit of small towns, and some shoreline scenes with some farm animals that are pleasant but not overwhelming.
I have been particularly interested in observing the commercial shipping along the rivers. So far, most of the boats have been much smaller than the 15 unit barges and tows we see on the upper Mississippi. Our Tour Director explained to me that the single barges with pushing boat are usually owned by a family. The family lives on the boat and you will frequently see gardens and cars parked on top of it. We have not yet experienced any of the locks.
Monday afternoon we had time to sit on the top deck, or on the veranda attached to our room, and watch the boats and scenery go by. We found it very relaxing.
As promised, these blog postings are a little lighter on writing from my past blogs. No descriptions of the dike system or the length of the rivers. That information you can look up yourself if interested.
Ed and Chris
Cologne, Germany
September 13
Chris Klejbuk and Ed Heimel travel adventure 
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