Amsterdam

Today we arrived at the first port on our journey, Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. It was a brief stop, mainly to pick up a load of Dutch and German passengers, arriving at 9am and leaving at 3pm.

Getting everybody off the ship took much longer than usual. I’ve been to Amsterdam loads of times before, and disembarkation has never been an issue. Today, it seemed, the port immigration authorities had decided to be ultra-efficient, making passport control particularly sluggish, and generating long queues as people tried to leave the ship.

In light of the queues, we took our time. We weren’t in any particular hurry anyway; we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and headed ashore when things had finally quietened down. There wasn’t much time to do anything but go for a general potter anyway, so that’s what we did.

From the cruise terminal it’s only a short 10 or 15 minute walk before you’re in the city. We walked by one of the old canals, dodging cyclists (of which there are many in Amsterdam) and photographing the old boats, interesting bridges and wonky buildings.

We followed the canal as far as we dare, bearing in mind our time constraints, and found our way, eventually, to the large square in the middle of the city, where pigeons rule, human statues stand very still and street entertainers juggle fire. We found ourselves a coffee bar and sat outside on its terrace watching the world go by.

It was at the coffee bar that I had a totally new experience. Tracey ordered a hot chocolate that looked more like a pudding, and I ordered a cup of tea. When my tea came, though, it consisted of a hot mug of water and a long plastic sachet thing that I couldn’t for the life of me work out how to open. I tugged at it and chewed at its corner, assuming there was a teabag hidden somewhere within, but to no avail. Eventually, I summoned the waiter over to ask what I was supposed to do with it. It turns out it was what is called a ‘Tea Stick’, which you simply drop in the hot water and swill around. Pretty soon, the water turned an encouraging ‘tea-colour’. It may be a new fangled thing, particularly for a dinosaur like me, but I have to say that it was ultimately not very satisfying; the water wasn’t very warm and it didn’t get very strong – I could have done with about four of them. Tracey enjoyed her hot chocolate, though (just as well at the price!…. the two drinks came to just over 14 euros!!!).

With the wind picking up, the temperature dropping and the occasional smatterings of light rain, we headed back to the ship, in time to see a load of new German and Dutch passengers checking in, and in time for lunch.

At 3pm, we set sail for our first Norwegian destination, Olden, where we are due to arrive in two days time. Tomorrow will be a sea day, which means I will be running my first watercolour workshop… fingers crossed for smooth seas…