First stop; Amsterdam

This morning, we arrived at our first port-of call; Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. It came after a long night of strange, and persistent, mechanical whining and banging noises that started around about 2am and went on until our arrival somewhere around 7am, distrupting our sleep and making us wonder if our wonderful cabin was probably not quite as good as we’d first believed. It sounded like some work was being done in the engine room somewhere, requiring a repeated turn of the ignition and running of some drive shaft; I’m hopeful that it was a one-off…

Our port-stop was to be a short one, with all-aboard time being 1:30pm. Since my first class was down in the schedule for 1:30, and we’d need at least an hour to set things up, it meant Tracey and I only had a couple of hours to explore the city. I’d been here before, but it was Tracey’s first time in Amsterdam, so we simply meandered, checking out a few canals and a large square which seemed like a popular meeting place for tourists. A Darth Vader Human statue took advantage of this, along with a Punch and Judy stand and a Scottish piper (who seemed oddly out of place for Amsterdam – more at place in Edinburgh). A large flock of pigeons also like to take advantage of the numbers, encouraged by a guy handing out handfuls of bird feed, they seem happy to perch on the hands, arms, shoulders and legs of the congregated visitors.

Unfortunately, the weather changed while we were out, and the rain soon cleared the square. We abandoned our target of Ann Frank’s house and headed back towards the cruise terminal, pausing only to photograph the higgledy-piggledy houses, by the quayside, none of which seemed to have a ninety-degree angle in them.

Amsterdam is burtsing with bicycles, and has dedicated cycle lanes, which local cyclists clearly take very seriously (far more seriously than we do in the UK). Canals also provide regular transport for commuters, along with trams and buses. There’s one point just near the railway station, on our way back to the ship, which is a condensed meeting place of no fewer than six different forms of transport; buses, cars and trams pass under a railbridge (carrying trains, of course), alongside a canal. To the side, is a pedestrian walkway flanked closely by a cycle track. I find it fascinating to stand and watch, and revel in the moments when all these methods of movement coincide in this small space at the same time.

The queue to get through security and back onto the ship slowed us down, but we were back on board and heading for the Craft Room by 12:30.

I’m pleased to say that my first class (The Basic Washes) went well, with a full class of 21 people and a couple of non-participating ‘sit-ins’. We were cutting it fine with the hour set-up, most of which was taken up trying to figure out the best way to lay out the tables.
At the end of the class, because I’d missed lunch, we had tea and sandwiches in Raffles Bistro (it was Afternoon Tea), followed by a relaxing sit down in our favourite part of the ship… the small garden deck at the back, with the water feature. On leaving the loch and heading out into open water, however, the prevailing high wind blew the ship into a listing position, the sea became seriously choppy, and we finally gave up our seats under the heaters and headed back indoors as soon as we saw one of the crew collecting up the cushions from the sofas there. The captain came over the tannoy system to tell us that the rough seas were due to continue on into the night, probably not calming down until around midnight. When we got back to our cabin, the man had been in to lock down the deadlights… (booo!)… here’s hoping for a calm sea-day tomorrow…