We arose this morning at 6:30 am and got ready for the day. We had breakfast in the main dining room. You could do a buffet with the normal US fare (scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, etc.) and/or order from the menu. We both did the buffet only this morning.
After breakfast, we were divided between two motor coaches and headed off toward the Rijksmuseum, the national museum. Before getting there, we drove around the city awhile with Jennifer pointing out the major attractions. I wish we had gone into the Portugese Synagogue on Friday. We walked past it but did not go inside. According to Jennifer, it is the oldest synagogue in the city (1675) and restored to its original condition, no power, just candles.
The plan for today is to take a brief tour of the Rijksmuseum using a local guide, then take a lunch canal cruise. After that, we should have about three hours of "free" time to do whatever we want to do. Then we get on the bus to catch
up with the ship which is on its way to Nijmegen.
The Rijksmuseum was designed by a Spanish architect (Pierre Cuypers) specifically to be the national museum. The design was not generally well-received; people considered it too mediaeval, not Dutch enough and looked too much like a Catholic church...not a good thing for a Protestant country! The official opening took place in 1885 after nine years of construction. According to Carola, the King of the Netherlands refused to attend the opening due to the strong Catholic influence. Many changes were made to minimize the "church-like" characteristics. Recently however, all or most of the changes were reversed during a major renovation, so that today, it is close to the original design.
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| Rijksmuseum 1885 |
Similar to the short guided tour Laura and I took in Madrid, our local guide (Carola) had some very specific paintings in the Rijksmuseum she wanted us to see.
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| Rijksmuseum entry courtyard |
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| Carola, our guide |
We then walked over to the canal and embarked on our canal boat for lunch and canal cruise. On board, we were offered some interesting tidbits of information about Amsterdam, including:
- 2,500 house boats (introduced in 1960's as a result of a housing shortage)
- 1,539 bridges
- 165 canals with a total length of 62 miles
- Canals are 3 meters deep (1m of dirt, 1m of bicycles and 1m of water)
- Parking in Amsterdam costs 5 euros/hour
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| Our hotel from the canal side |
After the canal cruise ended, we had about three hours of free time. David and I went back into the Rijksmuseum.
We could have spent several more hours (or days) in the Rijksmuseum, but we had to leave to catch the bus. Before I left, I visited the museum shop and got a souvenir, a rooma...that's how the saleslady called it. There were many originals in the museum displays. The "nubs" on the stem are to help with the grip since in the pre-19th century, people ate with their fingers and therefore were greasy.
On the road to Nijmegen. Lots of modern windmills.
We caught up with the ship in Nijmegen on the Rhine. We got on board at about 5:45 pm and the ship started toward Germany at 6:15 pm. In our room, we each found a little "gift" from the tour directors, a Night Watch coaster to commemorate our visit to the Rijksmuseum.
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| Nijmegen brides looking north from the top deck |
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| Nijmegen brides looking south from the top deck |
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| Nijmegen steeple from the top deck |
Around 7:00 pm, we stepped over to Arthur's for dinner. Again, I had a burger and David had a sirloin.
We crossed the border from The Netherlands to Germany around 8:15 pm. Tomorrow we will dock in Cologne, Germany around 1:00 pm. We will take a tour of the Köln Cathedral and other optional shore excursion(s) (TBD).
Today we walked about 3.0 miles. We have been repeatedly reminded that the weather we experiencing is very unusable. It should be raining.
Found a guest list in our cabin this evening. There are 88 guests (94 capacity). All but four are from the USA. Two are Australians and two from Colombia.
On our way to Budapest, we will pass through a total of 68 locks. Adding up all the elevation changes through these locks results in a total of 1,742.47 feet.
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