Another short blog today, as we spent a lot of it travelling. It was a slightly early start for us this morning as we needed to be showered, breakfasted and ready by 8 AM to catch a bus to Amsterdam, which was a bit over an hour up the motorway from Rotterdam. It was a cracking day here today, 25 degrees and blue skies. The Amsterdam trip was always going to be a quick detour, so we arrived and walked through Ruyk’s museum and then boarded a canal boat. There seemed to be a lot more modern buildings here since our last visit, but the combination of bridges, bicycles and canals still has a magic feel to it. We toured the canals for an hour or so, returning to the starting point via the harbour.
One of the the things that really struck me as we came into Amsterdam was the amazing building architecture. There are some really innovative office buildings, usually labelled with some global tech or consulting firms, but still much better than the concrete blocks we often see. We sailed past the maritime Museum and the Movenpick Hotel where we stayed in 2009.
Following the canal cruise we took the bus back to Gorinchem a small village on the river. We had a 15 minute walk to the river-boat because the bus couldn’t go into the old town. The tour guide wasn’t 100% sure where the boat was docked so the route was a little circuitous. This brought out the worst behaviour in one of the guests, which was one of those things I always worried about on an organised trip. Soon enough we were back on the boat settling in for lunch, which was cheese soup and a plate of meatballs and vegetables.
The afternoon and evening was spent on the boat sailing down the river. We will sail all night and arrive in Cologne in the morning. Dinner was another good meal starting with a seafood cake, followed with soup and a slow cooked beef rib.
Once again we had fun company this evening as we took in the river scenes including a classic dutch windmill and a sunset over the river as we now leave the Netherlands and head to Germany.
Until tomorrow!
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