bamoore

Day 10 - Thursday

Time to say goodbye to Viking. Off to the airport for an 11:00 flight. Nothing really to report on this. We had breakfast in the dining room and headed out. Needless to say the airplane ride was long. Amsterdam to Chicago, yuk. I can't say to little about what I think about air travel and airports.

Just a few thoughts looking back on the trip. The only thing I can compare it to is the Budapest to Amsterdam cruise on Viking last year. The passengers on this cruise were definitely an older group which resulted in a slower pace. Not complaining, just stating since I am rapidly approaching that speed. If you are looking for the grand scenery, cities, and monuments, this is not the tour for you. We saw a few cathedrals (nice but not on the scale of what you see in Koln). Most of the scenery was nice but a lot of it consisted of riverbanks and freight barges.

The cruise lines are reaching a little for things to do in this area. The one day that we saw the tulip farm and wind turbine is a good example. The tulip farm was in line for what we expected to see and came for but the single wind turbine was a little bit of a stretch for things I go on vacation for. The only thing that made it fun was the very nice lady that made it entertaining and fun. Another example was the town that I couldn't remember (and still can't) the name of. It was simply a two hour filler. There was really nothing to do there except sit down and enjoy a hot chocolate and apple pie.

Bottom line comes down to two questions; Would I do it again and would I recommend it. Yes I would do it again, I had a great time and met some wonderful people. Yes I would recommend it but not to a younger group for two reasons. First because it really is mostly older people on the boat, 60s and 70s. Second, the pace may be a little too slow for you. Just about every one we talked to has already seen the grand cathedrals, castles, Paris, Oktoberfest, etc... Do those first and save this for later.

As far as Viking goes. I consider them and excellent company. The boat was great and I have only good things to say about the crew. It is worth getting to know them as you go along. They are great people.

Bye bye. Hope this helps.

Day 9 - Wednesday.

I'm posting a little early today. Its only 5:00PM but our day is almost over. We have an early bedtime tonight for an early flight home tomorrow and we still have to pack to be ready to go. I really don't think that a lot will happen for the rest of the day but I will post one more time just to say how the ride home was. I'm guessing at this point that it will be long.

Today was great. We sailed all night from Rotterdam to Amsterdam and docked about 8:30AM. Busses were waiting to take us to the Keukenhof Gardens. I have only thought that I have seen gardens and botanical gardens before. This is probably anything I've ever seen times 10+. Its only open for 8 weeks out of the year and supposedly there are about 3 peak weeks when it looks its best. That is when everything is in bloom. We were very lucky that this is probably in the middle of those peak three weeks. It is several acres (I don't know how many) of beautiful gardens. It is probably mostly tulips but there are several other flower types. I had no idea that there were as many different types and colors of tulips. The first buses left to take us back to the boat at 12:30PM. It was optional to stay until three and we did. I'll say again, worth it. The only thing that I will recommend not to do is the little boat ride. We got to the first turn and our motor came loose in the boat drivers hands. It is an electric motor and the pivot mount broke. The only thing that kept if from going to the bottom was the electrical cables. We had to wait about a half hour to get towed back in and change to another boat. We finally did the 45 minute tour in an hour and a half. You can't really see anything. The tour is out into the fields and back where some tulips were blooming. You sit in a low boat in the canal below the surrounding fields. The only way to see anything is to stand up in the boat. Not the best idea. Even then, there was not much to see. The time would have been much better spent walking around the gardens.

We came back to the Skadi arriving around 3:30 and rested up a bit and here we are. Now its off to packing and finding some friends to eat with.

Day 8 - Tuesday

This was a little more relaxing day. We arrived in Bruinisse at around 8:00AM. By 8:30 we were on a bus for what I can only call the Netherlands island tour where we visited a museum to remember the flood of 1953, a small town, and the sea wall. I did not know this but this this entire region is made up of several islands. All of these islands are now connected by dams or bridges. We traveled in a large circle over several of the islands. For some of the changes to island you can't tell that you just went from one island to another. I only knew because the tour guide told us.

The museum was quite interesting. It was built inside of three of the WW II caissons used plug up one of the last gaps in the dam after the 1953 flood. The tour took about 30 minutes. After the tour we got back on the bus and went to a small town (sorry, I did not write the name down and I cant remember what it was) and walked around in the square for a while.

Back on the bus and off to part of the Delta Works. This was impressive. It is a series of dams and dykes built across the southwest Netherlands to protect the coastal areas from flooding. The part we visited were the dams that face the North Sea. The gates are generally open to allow the normal tidal flows to go in and out but closed when the storms push the waters of the North sea into the area. While we were there the tide was going out. A lot of water moved through the gates every day. It really is impressive to realize just how much earth the Dutch have moved and how much they have reshaped the area by reclaiming land from the sea.

Back on the bus again and back to the boat by 1:00PM for lunch. We had a nice afternoon of cruising headed to Rotterdam arriving at around 5:00. We only stayed in Rotterdam for a few hours, leaving at 11:30PM. We got off of the boat and went for a short walk just to say that we have been in Rotterdam.

While we were cruising we had our disembarkation presentation, all we need to know about leaving the ship in a few days. We also had an opportunity to visit the wheelhouse for an explanation of how the boat works. After the evening meal we were entertained by the Shanty Choir in the lounge, very nice.

Day 7 - Monday

This was probably the best day yet. We woke up in Ghent. After breakfast we started our 8:15 bus trip to Bruges. Understand, I love Bruges. We had the opportunity to spend a week there several years ago so going back for the day was like a trip to the past for us. The morning consisted of a 2 hour walking tour of the city. I wish we had done that as the first thing years ago so we had some idea of what we were really looking at. At 11:00 we had the option of returning to the Skadi for lunch and spending the rest of the day in Ghent. We opted to stay in Bruges until the 3:00PM meet up time for a walking tour back to the bus and a ride back to the boat.

The afternoon consisted of a waffle with ice cream, chocolate, and strawberries for lunch followed by a tour of the De Halve Man brewery, the only brewery in the city. As I said in the last post, I'm not a fan of Belgian beer, but the beer you get at the end of the tour is very good. Cold and unfiltered makes a big difference. We really didn't understand a word the tour guide said because of all of the background noise and her accent but it was still a lot of fun. After that I found a cupcake for desert. We still had a few hours to kill so we just walked around and looked in the chocolate shops and had some fries (French fries) before boarding the bus. You can probably tell our food choices were not really the healthiest but sometimes you just have to do it.

The evening meal onboard was fun. Instead of a sit down meal, there were buffet stations set up in different places on the boat including the galley. The food at each station was similar with slight variations. Food included beef, chicken, lamb, breads, different types of potatoes, salads, and deserts, including waffles ( I know I left things out but...). The only problem I ran into was the waffles were at the front of the third deck while the ice cream was down on the second deck. I managed to overcome the oversight. During the meal we had local entertainment in the form of accordion players roaming the ship.

That's it for today. There are more games and entertainment going on in the lounge but I am going to call it a night on this one.

Day 6 - Easter Sunday

We woke up this morning to find the Skadi in Antwerp. It arrived around midnight. We docked right at the old town rafted up to the Viking Delling, another long ship that we have seen several times on this tour.

A walking tour of the city started at 9:00 AM. There were 5 groups today. One of the groups was slated to also do a beer tasting stop at one of the local pubs, cost was seven Euro per person for the beer tasting add on. Of course we choose that one. The city tour was great. This was by far one of the best tour guides that we have had on any trip. One thing we learned was that each type of beer has to be served in its own glass style in the pubs. To serve beer A in glass B is a major offense. I can't say I'm a big fan of the Belgian beers but this was fun.

The walking tour ended at noon. There was a second tour of the Cathedral of Our Lady (The main cathedral in the city center) starting at 2:00 PM so we just decided to stay in Antwerp and have lunch and wait for the tour at the church. We had a great lunch in an out of the way restaurant that included some of the local fresh white asparagus.

We met up with the tour at the cathedral at a little after two and were lucky enough to get the same tour guide that we had in the morning. We have seen plenty of European cathedrals and the architecture is always spectacular. This was no exception. One very nice bonus was that this cathedral contains several original works of Rubens. They are normally kept behind closed doors and only opened on special occasions. Easter was one of those occasions.

After the cathedral we bought some chocolate from a small shop and headed back to the boat for a 7:45 PM departure to Gent. Following the meal was more entertainment in the lounge. This time it was "Going Dutch" which was an opportunity to sample cheeses and Jenever, the Dutch juniper liquor.

Something worthwhile to mention is that every evening just before the meal there is a briefing by the ship program director on the next days activities. For both this cruise and the last one, they are very informative and worth attending. They include everything that we will do the next day and where to be when. Do not skip them.

Day 5 - Saturday

Before I forget again, I left off a part about the evening entertainment for the previous post (Friday). At 9:00 Viking had some a local group come onboard to put on a show about local customs, dance and music.

Friday was a much slower pace. We cruised up rivers/canals from Arnhem and arrived on time at Kinderdijk at noon. After lunch we toured the one windmills that is open to the public. This is the second time that we have done this particular tour and the only part of the trip that overlapped the Viking trip we took last year. Funny but the only day so far that the wind was not blowing turned out to be the day we got up close to a windmill. They are actually pretty impressive machines. The windmills in this area have to be maintained and constructed by the same methods of old, all out of wood and the same tools.

At 3:30 we left KinderJijk and sailed for Antwerp arriving at Midnight. As I said, this day was a much slower pace. We watched the scenery go by, napped, and read. After the evening meal there was a Music Quiz game that we all played in the lounge.

Day 4 - Friday

We left Hoorn last night during the evening meal and sailed back through Amsterdam and on to Arnhem with a 9:30 AM arrival. We started the first tour of the day to Paleis het Loo, the royal palace. The bus ride was about 45 minutes from where we docked in Arnhem. It was a nice trip and tour. The palace was nice and well worth the trip but not as grand as some of those we've seen in Germany or France. I think the Dutch tend to be a little more conservative on things like this. We got back to the boat a little after noon. The trip was rushed some because our arrival time to Arnhem was late because of a delay we had at one of the locks during the night. After lunch there were two optional trips, one to Kroeller-Mueller Meseum & Sculpture Garden and one called Operation Market Garden. I can't tell you much about either of those since we didn't go on either.

After lunch we took FuelScience's advice in a similar thread on the trip they took on the Viking Alta last week. We took the bus to the Open Air Museum. For the both of us the bus ride was a total of 3 Euro each way on the #3 bus. The bus station was about a 10 minute walk from the boat. We got off of the bus at the Zoo thinking that the Museum was located at the same place. Wrong but close. It was about a 4 block walk uphill to the Museum (not that bad really). We enjoyed the museum with the only problem being that we got there at 3:00 and they closed at 5:00. Cost was 16.25 Euro each. It is a collection of buildings used throughout the history of the Netherlands from very old single family farm houses up to the type of multi story building you would find in Amsterdam or other cities in the Netherlands. The part we enjoyed the most was seeing how people lived in some of those houses like the one were the home was just a section of the barn where all the animals were kept. There was no wall between the two areas but they were well defined. Probably a good way to conserve heat. There is a really nice tram around the grounds that take you to the different areas of the museum. At 5:00 we caught the #3 bus at the "correct" bus stop and took the 15 minute ride back to the terminal.

That was the extent of our day. After resting up a bit we went to the evening meal. Again, good company, good food.

To answer the question about the room I would say that the rooms are small but this is a boat. There is plenty of storage to unpack suit cases and to dress without tripping over furniture. We have a veranda room. I'm not sure it is really worth it. I think the veranda room and the standard are exactly the same in the room with the little veranda being the only difference. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong on this. There isn't really much room to sit out on the veranda and most of the time that you can sit out there, you will be staring into the windows of a boat tied up next to you. As river cruising gets more popular rafting gets more common.

Day 3 - Thursday.

We sailed from Amsterdam at 5:00 AM this morning for a three hour cruise to Hoorn. This part of the cruise was very smooth with all of our time spent either sleeping or eating breakfast. We arrived in Hoorn about 9:00 AM and rafted up with another Viking ship.

After our safety drill we were taken on a walking tour of the city where the tour guide described some of the history and architecture, Very interesting. I will probably remember Hoorn as the windy city with crooked buildings. There is a mixture of settling and purposefully built tilting of the buildings. It takes a little for the eye to get used to this.

Back to the boat for lunch followed by one of the optional tours to a tulip farm and a visit to a farm that had one of the more modern wind generators built on site. We were fortunate to find that we hit the tulip season right in the middle. On this farm you could see the progression in the fields of some of the rows having already been picked to rows starting to bloom. This farm grows the tulips both for the flowers (in the greenhouse) and for the bulbs (outside fields). A nice explanation was given on how they do all of this by a very nice lady who happened to be the sister in law of the owner of the farm. Pretty much a family business.

After the tulip farm we had a short ride to another farm that mainly grows potatoes and had a modern wind turbine built on their farm. They owned the wind turbine themselves and explained a little of the economics and maintenance. Again, very interesting. Some wind turbines like theirs are owned by the farmer, some by corporations, and some by the power company. Theirs is eight years old. New permits are hard to come by because of the anti turbine lobbies. Along with the explanations of the generator we got a little feel for farm living and how the land was reclaimed from the sea. Excellent presentation with a friendliness that made you feel at home. At both the tulip farm and wind turbine we were around 3 meters below sea level.

From there it was about a 45 minute bus ride (nap) back to the boat. We finished out the day with a nice evening meal (I had the duck) and a presentation by a gentleman from a local farm that makes cheese and wooden shoes. He covered the making of the cheese and the shoes. A good shoe maker can turn out 2 pair a day doing it by hand but most of it is now done by starting the shoe out on a duplicating machine that uses a master plug. They get 200 a day that way.

To answer a few questions, the internet is OK. Don't expect to stream any movies or get quick results. Everything funnels through a satellite channel so it is all dependent on how many people are using it. One interesting thing, I did try to look at a few movies on Amazon and the major US networks. Even if the connection would have been better nothing works because of licensing. You get a "sosadtobad" message.

The food is very good. The portions are not huge but they are more than enough to satisfy. And if they aren't enough, just ask for more. The staff understands that sometimes we just get hungry. For the first course there are usually three or four choices like a salad or soup or maybe a smoked salmon plate. I usually ask for two simply because I want to try them. There are always three options for the main course with a vegetarian choice and something I can't pronounce. If that isn't enough you can always order a steak or salmon from the other side of the menu. For lunch you get a choice of the dining room where the food is served or the lounge that is more buffet style. Breakfast is a buffet with an omelet station and the option of ordering things like French toast, pancakes, eggs any style, and....

By the way. Please overlook all of my spelling errors. I'm an engineer by profession and everybody knows we can't spel.

Day 2 - Wednesday.

We spent the day in Amsterdam. Viking took us on a nice tour of the city via canal boat and bus. We ended up at the flower market for and hour of free time before the bus returned us to the boat. Since we had already visited this part of the city we opted to walk back to the boat from there, swinging by the flea market. We took our time and got back to the boat at noon actually beating the bus back by a minute. After lunch we sat around and rested up for a bit before heading out (walking) in the direction of the Botanical Gardens. We got side tracked on the way at Gassan Diamonds and took the tour. It was interesting to say the least. You get to see how diamonds are cut and polished along with some real samples of different grades and sizes (no touching, just looking). I passed up on buying the 45,000 Euro watch at the end of the tour, not my style.

We made it down to the Botanical Gardens but with only one hour left before the five o'clock closing so we decided to just head back to the boat. Again, the evening meal was great and the company was good. Tomorrow morning the boat sails at 5:00 AM to start the next part of the trip.

Day 1. (Tuesday)

Well we boarded Skadi today at around noon. Our room was ready in 15 minutes after we arrived so we were able to check in and go have lunch on the boat. I will just say that everything was as expected, wonderful.

We skipped the afternoon Viking walking tour since we spent our last two days walking our feet off. Instead we did the short walk over to the Maritime Museum. It turned out to be a great place to spend the afternoon. I sail so I may be a little bias here but climbing around on the we cutch East Indiaman was kind of a treat.

Came back to a wonderful evening meal and met some new friends. I had forgotten what I like most about these cruises, the people. This includes the crew as well as the other cruisers. Good conversation, good food and great atmosphere. It doesn't get much better.

I had originally planned on just editing my first post as I can in some other forums I post in but I can't find a way to do that so I'll just continue this way.

B

Fuel Science,

Thank you for your suggestion. We have been following your posts on Alta and plan on doing just that when we get there.

B

We will be boarding Skadi tomorrow 4/15 in Amsterdam for the Tulips and Windmills Cruise. This is going to be our second cruise with Viking. The first one went as well as can be expected considering that we did the Budapest to Amsterdam (bus) cruise during the height of the 2013 flood. Even with all of the problems Viking did a good enough job to get us back. I posted a summary of that trip about a year ago after we got home.

We got to Amsterdam on Sunday morning, two days prior to boarding so that we could do some exploring on our own. We used the train to get from the airport to the central train station that is right next to our hotel. For the rest of the day we did lots of walking and on Monday spent several hours in the Van Gogh museum. I'm not much of an art or museum kind of person but I was impressed. It is well worth the time.

Everything has been great so far - except for one thing, our hotel. We are staying at the Doubletree hotel right next to the Central Train Station. We checked in at about eight in the morning. Of course the room wasn't ready as we expected and we were told to check back later and that it may be as late as three which is normal checkin time. We checked back at one. We were told that the room was ready but it would cost an additional 40 Euros to occupy the room before three. I tried to explain that I requested early check in and that the morning clerk told us to check back early. I got a tough luck shrug and told that was management policy. I've done a lot of business travel over the last 40 years in the US and Europe and have never run into an early check in fee for a room that was already made up and ready to use. My guess is that the management at this particular Hilton brand has figured out that they can gouge the North American customers that are arriving on the morning flights with this charge. Some may think this is a little harsh but it's my opinion. This is not the only problem that we've had with the hotel. I was reprimanded by the same clerk that checked us in for using the Hilton Honours line when both of my keys quit working on the second day (Yes, I am an HH member). So..... I do not recommend this hotel unless you are willing to pay the odd fees and settle for poor service. It is close to the central train station and close to where the boats dock but I believe that they have some real problems.

Any way, this is not meant to be about the hotel. This is about the boat and the boat trip. I hope to post a little more as we go.