We had another beautiful day in Amsterdam. After waking up with dehydration headaches, mom and I decided to not rush out the door. Carol and George went to the Van Gogh museum and said it was fabulous. It took them three hours to go through, fortunately they started at 8:30. But it wore Carol out for any museum the rest of the day. Instead we showered, and walked to Nine Streets to grab breakfast at a pancake place. We found a cute little narrow restaurant that was three floors. The kitchen was on the basement level and we sat on the second level. It was a creative use of space, and only sat about 10 tables and no 24 people. The only thing on the menu was pancakes and drinks. Mom ordered a cinnamon apple pancake and I had a banana almond chocolate pancake. Later we learned that Carol and George went to one too, and she has a lemon curd, and George cinnamon, Apple with ice cream.  See the brother/sister similarities yet?  They were beautiful and huge, but not at all like an American pancake. It was thin like a crepe and delicious.

After breakfast we went back to the room, packed, checked out and went on a canal cruise. The boat sat 10 people, was owned and run by Pulitzer Hotel. It was beautiful and the caption was quite nice. The tour was 75 minutes long and we loved every minute of it. We went out into the harbor, and saw Nemo, the children’s science museum, the Eye, the Amstedam tall ship, the front and back of Central station and where our ship was docked. We learned that there are exactly 2500 house boats and not one more on the canals. All of the boats are quite old, and quite beautiful. We saw the Tower of Tears where wives would say goodbye to their husbands. We drove by the seven bridges, and traversed most of the canals including Amstel, the one in which the city was named. I think I had the best spot on the boat, in front right next to the captain and an unobstructed view for photographing.

After the tour, we decided to sit at the outdoor cafe at the hotel, where we ate Reypenaur cheese, bread and sparkling iced tea. Then instead of waiting in line at the Van Gogh, we went to the Canal Museum. We learned about it from a couple on the cruise. It was about the history of Amsterdam, not just about the canals. It was called the canal museum because it was on a canal. It was interesting and no lines.

We then walked back to our hotel, got our bags, and took a cab (only 5 min) to the Baldur, our Viking ship. George and Carol had also just arrived and were checking in. We went to our room, unpacked, and within 30 minutes Mom had lost her room key, Without leaving the room. Funny part was, George had accidentally left his jacket in the closet at their hotel, but when he went back to get it, it had disappeared. Similarity #2.

We toured the ship, got our bearings and met Nancy and John. They arrived at 9am, checked in at the boat, and went on a tour of the city. Bowman and John arrived around 4:30/5:00. We all went to the lounge for a drink. We listened to our safety briefing, and a few of the ships crew. We learned that we might be the first Viking boat to travel the whole trip from Amsterdam to Budapest. Because of the weather being very dry, and in some places near Passau, only the river is only 1 meter deep, that people have had to change cruise ships midway through the trip. It’s been raining in the Black Forrest, so we’re crossing our fingers that enough will fall for us to go through.

We had a delicious dinner that everyone seemed to enjoy. Afterwards the 8 of us decided to walk to the red light district for an evening stroll. What an experience. We were having some difficulty finding the district until John pointed out that, shouldn’t the red lights be telling us something. We saw lots of prostitutes on display wearing almost nothing. We weren’t allowed to take photos but Carol and I snuck a few. Mom kept saying, “this is just amazing.

We returned to the ship, are all tuckered out, and hope for a good night. It’s 11:50 and our boat just pulled away from the dock.