LAT report
Arrived after a very long long time in an airplane. The weather is spectacular!! it is SNOWING!!!The airport is about 30 minutes from where our ship is docked. The architecture of the buildings on the way were all very modern looking...not at all old European. We immediately went to the bar at the front of the ship to check it out. Dick and I had to test the local beer...not as good as Vietnam interestingly enough. We had a nice little lunch prior to taking off for the city walking tour. Mind you we had not really slept in now what seemed like days..but we wanted to adjust our schedule to Amsterdam time...so we felt we had to keep going and keep busy. The walking tour could be described as less then good...it was about 1.5 miles to the city and along the way the guide would point things out that nobody could hear. When we got closer to town you could finally see the old European buildings and they are spectacular. The guide pointed out every ATM machine along the entire walk. The streets are very uneven and slant and my leg muscles are worn to a frazzle. Linda, Dick, Candy and I split from the group as we could not see one more ATM ...we stopped at a couple of shops but everything was so crowded and so not exciting that I just wanted to head back on the long trip home to the boat. So off Linda and I went ...for as one might say the "long walk back home" ...the whole thing was crazy, cold and hard on my legs! We took a short nap still in our traveling clothes from the day before and when we woke we went to a group meeting that I could have slept thru and then on to dinner. Both Linda, Dick and I had a steak and we thought it was good...Candy had the veggie plate and hated it...we met this crazy couple who sat with us at dinner, they are from the UK...Brian and Danielle. I loved Brian's accent I told him he sounded Scottish which right off ticked him off...he loved Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Regan ..so you had to know that created some lively discussion especially after several Heinken's....but we still got along on many other issues! Linda and left early to go to bed!!!! So good night!
LMR report
Travel all day- Portland to Dulles to Amsterdam. All went well. Arrived here at 7:00am. Little confusing since we had been up since 4:00 am the day before. Ship is much bigger then the Pandow (ship we had on the Mekong). Had wine and beer on board, then a light lunch. Then went on a walk around the city tour that was to last one hour. The walked turned out to be 2 1/2 hours. Our guide loved ATM 's she showed us every single one one the 2 1/2 mile walk. The temperature was -1c when we arrived with snow showers. Dinner was good, lots of choices ...beer and wine is free with dinner but is charged for other than that, in Vietnam it was free on the ship. We collapsed after dinner- totally exhausted. Durning the night Amsterdam went to daylight savings time..so we lost that hour!!
