Amsterdam April 29, 2012

Today we started the day with a nice breakfast. They have a good buffet with a nice selection plus you can order things from the kitchen like poached eggs and oatmeal.

We did a tour of Amsterdam on the coach followed by a cruise on the canal. Amsterdam was once a lagoon and they filled it in to create the areas upon which they built the houses.  Because the soil is a combination of sand, clay and peat, they used tree trunks to stabalize the buildings.  I think our guide said there were something like 11 million tree trunks under the city.  The canals were the result of filling in for buildings, and some of the original canals they even filled in to create roads.  That is why you don't see alleys in the city, the land is too valuable, so houses are just built next to each other.

Below are some pictures from the city tour.  The first picture is of a canal that also shows bikes parked along the bridge.  There are bicycles everywhere and they showed us different parking lots just for bikes, one that was four stories tall.  They said most residents have two bikes, the good one the keep in side and the old, rusted one they park outside so if it gets stolen or thrown in the canal, no great loss.

Picture 2 is from the Rijksmuseum, their national museum and is from the Rembrandt collection.  I am not a huge art fan, but I have to admit the paintings were quite beautiful. Rembrandt is buried in a mass grave at the church, having died a poor man.

Picture 3 is of a mini Arc du Triomphe, which is what Napoleon passed through when he laid claim to Amsterdam.

Picture 4 is of a typical canal and the bridge that crosses it. House boats line the canals, some floating on the water, some placed on a cement pad, many are old boats converted to house boats.  Our guide said they have set a limit of 2,500 of them.  Although a house boat may only cost $50,000 USD, the pad/spot to place it can cost as much as $300,000 USD.

Picture 5 is the coach that drove us around the city.  One of the guys on our bus was apparently late and missed the bus and had to take a taxi back.  We even left the museums late and were almost 20 mintues late back to the boats and he still missed his ride.  Bet he's not late again!

Picture 6 is a sample of the architecture in Amsterdam.  Each building has a lift bar that extends out from the edge of it's roof.  This is because most buildings are narrow, as are their doors and stair wells.  The only way to get things into an upper level is to attach a cable to them and use the lift to pull them up the outside of the building and in a window.  Also, houses are one, two and three or more windows wide.  This is how a house was taxed by the French, by its number of windows, so a house with many windows across was the house of a wealthy family.

The final picture is of one of the boats that had been converted to a home.  It is much nicer than some, but they all seem to be eclectic.  Our guide referred to Amsterdam to being the home of hippies and the relaxed, laid back attitude of Amsterdam.  He said something about the three stars of Amsterdam and what they really stood for were Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll.

The coffee houses in Amsterdam, of which there are well over 250, sell more than just coffee.  You can get coffee cake with hashish in it, or a joint.  They are trying to pass something so that tourists can not buy them, but that has not occurred yet.  The guide said enjoy it in Amsterdam, but at the airport they had drug sniffing dogs to be sure it doesn't leave the city.

Tomorrow is Queen's Day.  It is the birthday of the Queen's Mother, but they celebrated it for over 50 years on her birthday (April 30) that they just never changed it.  They said over 800,000 people come into Amsterdam (the city has a population ofabout 750,000 so the population doubles) to drink, celebrate, drink, and then drink some more. They said it is one big crazy drunk.  They were also concerned because there was some big soccer game and depending on the outcome, it could add to the craziness, so the police were getting prepared.  Everyone dresses in orange and you could already see the orange hats and shirts coming out.  There were signs around town announcing how many hours before the start of Queens Day and many of the doors of stores were surrounded by orange balloons.  Stores and restaurants stay open, schools, government and public transportation close for the day because it is just impossible to get around town with the crowds.  

The thing we all chuckled about were these big orange box like things with four holes that were on many of the corners.  These were for men to use when drinking too much beer.  They said women could use them too if they wanted, but this was their solution to a million plus beer drinkers in the city.

We had the Captains Gala tonight.  They opened the lounge, gave everyone a glass of champagne as we entered then the Captain, the Hotel Director and the Cruise Director toasted us as we entered.  All the staff was introduced.  Our Captain is a whole 30 years old and several people said "we have grand children your age".  They introduced the staff, most of them coming from Eastern Block countries.  Then we had a phenomenal dinner with Carpacio, a clear mushroom soup, Scallops in a sauce over spinach.  I had dover sole for dinner, which was awesome, then they had a tasting platter of desserts.  We get free wine and beer with lunch and dinner.

For the first time since I've been on the boat, I went to bed and was asleep in five minutes.  Great first full day!