To Cruise or Not to Cruise ...

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25. september 2023
To Cruise or Not to Cruise ...
Dilemma
25. september 2023, England ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C
Introduction:-.....
There is nothing quite like a couple of dilemmas before you go on holiday!!
This was our only booked holiday at the start of 2023; a Viking River Cruise sailing down the Rhine from Amsterdam in Holland 🇳🇱 to Basle in Switzerland 🇨🇭 with our river cruising friends from America 🇺🇸. It was a trip I was looking forward to as we were 10 people in 5 couples, 4 of which had enjoyed holidaying together before. Unfortunately, a couple of months earlier, Jayne and I had cancelled due to the illness of one of our dearest friends who were going to cancel. Our cancellation was accepted, but theirs not, which left us with our 1st dilemma. As we are now on a cancellation list, do we take two suitcases on our 3 day trip to Amsterdam just in case there is a no-show before the boat sets sail!
Our 2nd dilemma started a couple of weeks earlier when my mum had a fall and ended up in hospital with a broken bone in her pelvis - so if the opportunity arose, do we go on the cruise????
So there we were waiting on the train station at Poulton-le-Fylde for the 08:30 train to Manchester Airport with our single suitcase for our 3 day trip to Amsterdam to meet up with the Viking Cruisers on their pre-cruise extension.
After a short wait at the departure gate, we were soon boarding the aircraft for our short 1 hour 20 minute flight 🛫 As it was a beautiful summers day, the visibility was excellent all the way to Amsterdam. Arriving at Schipol Airport 🛬 reminded me a lot of going to New York. Not visually, but the standing around in a long queue waiting to clear Immigration. However, 30 minutes after collecting our luggage 🧳 we were checking into our hotel the Pestana Riverside on the Amstel Canal. After unpacking, it was time to go out in search of food and a first Dutch beer in Holland for 30+ years.Læs mere
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To Cruise or Not to Cruise ...
Old Haunts
26. september 2023, Holland ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
Waiting for the Americans to arrive from their various cities across the US, we (or should I say I) took the opportunity to revisit some old haunts. After walking through the tourist area of Rembrandtplein; (the famous painter who lived in Amsterdam and who's house is now a museum), with its many bars, cafes, restaurants, hotels and of course the modern sculpture of the Thinker. After stopping off at the Flower Market; famous for its tulips🌷 (from Amsterdam 🎼) and clogs in all sizes for the tourists, we walked down Leidsegracht crossing 3 of the main canals in Amsterdam. We stopped off at Leidsekade, where the hotel I stayed in when working at the airport is (no longer) there. Just 8 minutes later , we walked to our 1st destination, Cafe Helmers, on Eerste Helmersstraat, which was our (British Aircraft contractors at KLM) local bar when not working 🍻🍻🍻🍺. Physically, the shape of the bar had not changed much but visually quite a bit in the 38 years since I frequented it. So after stopping for the obligatory beer 🍺 (well, it would be rude not to and I was on a reminiscing trip). Shortly after, we left to walk 🚶‍♂️🚶‍♀️ to another important destination.
Vondel Park, where in the summer bands 🎸🎶🎷 would play, people would walk🚶‍♂️🚶‍♀️, cycle 🚴‍♂️🚴‍♀️, run 🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️, and sunbathe 😎😎. It is also the place where I knelt down to tie my shoe lace, I heard "YES" and ended up proposing 💍 to Jayne on a long weekend visit back in the late 80s 🤣🤣🤣Læs mere
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A Taste of Friendship
26. september 2023, Holland ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
Walking 🚶‍♂️🚶‍♀️back towards the hotel from Vondel Park, we stopped off at an intriguing bar called Café Slijterij Oosterling, which breathes an atmosphere as if time has stood still there for more than a century. The café is also a liquor store. The property is from around 1735, when the Dutch East India Company sold coffee, tea, and spices from the Far East. The café has been owned by the Oosterling family since 1877. The brothers Marcel and Oscar, sons of Mari Oosterling, are the fourth generation Oosterling behind the bar. We had an enjoyable couple of hours eating toasties drinking beers 🍻 and just watching the world go past. Continuing our walk back, we passed houseboats on Keizersgracht and had our photo taken by an Australian brother & sister in return for taking their photograph 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨📸
Nearing the hotel on the Amstel River, we walked past the Magere Brug or, more commonly and famously known as Skinny Bridge. The bridge spans across the river Amstel and is an Old Dutch design wooden bridge known as a double-swipe (balanced) bridge. Tradition relates that the bridge was named after the sisters Mager, who were supposed to live on opposite sides of the river. They are said to have had the wooden bridge built to make it easier to visit one another. However, it appears more likely that the original bridge acquired the name from being so narrow (mager means skinny in Dutch), that it was hard for two pedestrians to pass one along another. As traffic along the river Amstel increased, a wider bridge replaced the narrow one in 1871. Whilst Skinny Bridge is no longer skinny, it is by far still one of the most beautiful and most photographed bridges in Amsterdam.
As I have lived in Amsterdam; albeit some 40 years ago, I was deemed the perfect person to go in search 👣👣👣 of a nice restaurant for our intrepid group of travellers to eat in 🍽. So after meeting in the hotel bar, we: Steve & Suzanne, myself & Jayne, Greg & Patti, Jared & Cheryl (Steve's daughter) made our way across the Amstel to the Cafe Restaurant De Ysbreeker for a really enjoyable evening 🍺🍻🍾🥂🍷🍹.Læs mere
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Doing the Tourist Bit.......
27. september 2023, Holland ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
After breakfast 🍳🥐🧀 Jayne & I walked 🚶‍♂️ 🚶‍♀️towards the old town only this time via the Albert Cuyp Market, which was a first for me, having never ventured into the De Pijp area of Amsterdam. Originating in 1905 and with 260 stalls, this market is regarded as the biggest in Europe and is open 6 days a week from 09:30 through to 17:00. The market provides a real Amsterdam atmosphere and is popular with locals, students, and tourists selling fruit 🍉, veg🫑, cheese 🧀, accessories, clothes, flowers 💐 and fabrics.
Leaving the market, we headed for the oldest part of Amsterdam, which also included the famous red 🚦light district and the only remaining gate of the now disappeared wall around the old town. The Waag or weigh house in English is a 15th-century building that following the removal of the walls housed the weighing scales for the local market, Nieuwmarkt, that surrounded it. After a refreshing drink 🍺 in the sunshine once again watching the world go by we walked the few hundred yards to Dam Square, pausing on Damrak looking at the reflections from the old buildings in the canal where the canal cruising boats were moored and overlooked by the Central Railway station. Dam Square was created in the 13th century when a dam was built around the river Amstel to prevent the Zuiderzee sea from flooding the city. During the sixties, the square was renowned for its Dam Square hippies. These days, it is one of the main tourist sights where entertainment and pigeons abound. On the south side of Dam Square stands the controversially phallic National Memorial statue, built in the memory of Dutch soldiers and members of the resistance who died in World War 2. Unveiled in 1956, the monument stores soil from all of Netherlands' provinces as well as from the Dutch East Indies.Læs mere
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Dinner Reservation for 10, 8, 6.........
27. september 2023, Holland ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
Walking 🚶‍♂️🚶‍♀️back to the hotel, you quickly become accustomed to looking out for the odd bike 🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️🚴‍♀️!! Before going into the hotel, we stopped off at the Italian Restaurant Impero Romano to book a table for us all to eat dinner in that night. Not knowing that the others had an evening canal cruise booked with dinner. So from a booking for 10 people, the 4 of us had plenty of room at the table. After dinner, Greg and Patti invited us back up to their hotel suite in the clock tower at the hotel where they had prepared a belated birthday party 🥳 🍾🍷🍷🥂 for me, including a present 🎁 and card.Læs mere
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Check Out to Check In
28. september 2023, Holland ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
After a group breakfast, it was time to check out of the hotel; knowing there would be no more girls in the windows of Amsterdam. We made our farewells and a promise that we would all meet up again somewhere in the not to distant future. Jayne and I headed off to the airport 🚕 whilst the Viking Cruisers head off to the Viking ship 🚢 and off down the River Rhine through Germany 🇩🇪 to Switzerland 🇨🇭 Arriving in good time at the airport we queued to check in our bagand then joined the slow and time consuming queue through passport control and security. After a drink and a bite to eat, we made our way to the departure gate where our aircraft ✈️ was waiting to take us home.
Some 5 hours after checking in for our flight home, we had cleared passport control, claimed our luggage 🧳, and after a short taxi ride, we were checking in to our hotel (a poxy Moxy) .......... at Schipol Airport. Our aeroplane wasn't going anywhere, and so Easy Jet put us up in a hotel for the night with refreshment all free of charge. Our hotel was very basic, thankfully it was for only one night and the room did start to look a little better as we started decorating it by hanging our clothes up on the metal framework attached to the wall. We also discovered that Easy Jet had my age wrong as our evening meal was a pizza 🍕 followed by ice cream 🍦 accompanied by a soft drink 🧃. I am 66, not 6, I argued!!!Læs mere
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Do we stay or do we go?
29. september 2023, Holland ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
During the night 🌃, our phones 📞 pinged multiple times, and the news we had been dreading Patti had left the boat and was on the way to the hospital. But the patient was Greg, who had been taken ill and rushed to the hospital 🏥 So, the trip started with a dilemma and is now ending with a dilemma. Greg had been admitted in hospital, Patti was with him, and the Viking ship 🚢 had departed for Kinderdiyk with the rest of the Viking Cruisers and all of Greg & Patti's belongings. The dilemma we had was do we cancel our flight home and stay in Amsterdam to support Patti. Do we fly home and then book return flights back to Amsterdam or does Jayne stay and I fly home check on my mum and fly back to Amsterdam later with fresh clothes etc.? After much discussion and soul searching it was decided we would both fly home and then fly back if Patti needed us. Fortunately, she didn't, and Greg was discharged a couple of days later. A fast train 🚆 later, and they caught up with the boat in Cologne, Germany 🇩🇪. For us we checked out of the hotel at 7:00 am caught the airport shuttle bus and went swiftly through passport control but not without a questioning look about leaving, arriving and leaving again all within 20 hours!!!
Fortunately, a working aircraft was there, and as we taxied out; I had my final reminder of my time 40 years ago by passing the hangar that I worked on the Boeing 747's in 🛫.Læs mere
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29. september 2023