Nine hours fifteen minutes and 5084 miles from Seattle, I landed in Amsterdam about 10:15 local time. Through passport control and customs I met with the representative from the tour company, AHI at arrivals area 3. I was one of about a dozen folks on the cruise. Close to noon we were lead to a bus, boarded and headed off to the cruise vessel, the Amadeus Queen.
Our vessel was quite new, built in 2018, about 445 feet long, 37.5 feet wide, has a maximum speed of 15.5 mph, and has 69 staterooms and 12 suites. It has a crew of 46 and holds a maximum of 162 passengers, somewhat more than are on this cruise. On arrival we went in to lunch, after which we attended a safety lecture, then picked up the key to our stateroom. At 4 pm, we attended a lecture on “Contemporary Europe” by Willem Moolhuijsen. After the long trip and little sleep, I struggled to stay awake, but mostly managed. After the lecture, most of the passengers left for a canal tour of Amsterdam which I skipped. The temperature was in the nineties, so an open boat tour just did not appeal. I whiled away the time to dinner by exploring the boat and reading one of the three novels I brought along, then started dinner by myself.
I was latter joined by Don and Candy Teeters, from North Carolina, whose entertaining conversation helped keep me awake till 9:00 when I went to bed.
The next morning I was up by about 6:00, after a not-great sleep and took coffee in the Panorama Bar prior to breakfast, scheduled early so we could tour the Rijksmuseum followed by lunch prior to returning to the boat for a 2:45 departure. At the tour leader’s suggestion I spent most of the time at the Rijksmuseum in the sections devoted to the great Dutch painters: Rembrandt, Vermeer and others. I also spent some time on another floor because I wanted to visit the section of the museum devoted to Vincent Van Gogh. There were no Van Gogh paintings on display, but the section was interesting because it traced the influence of Van Gogh on other Dutch painters. I am hoping to visit the Van Gogh museum when I return to Amsterdam prior to my flight home.
We had lunch at the Amsterdam Marriott, then returned to the ship. I parked myself on the bow of the ship to watch the departure and stayed there until time to dress for the welcome reception at six followed by dinner at seven.
Like many of the passengers on tours, I signed up for this tour through a solicitation from Washington State University. The tour company provided us with name tags that both provide a name and a University affiliation. As it turned out, though for me this trip was cancelled twice, there were two other Cougs on board, both elderly ladies. I also met a couple from the University of Washington. Most of those on this cruise were from the Midwest: Perdue and the University of Indiana. Separate receptions will be held for both these schools.