For my first river cruise, I opted for the “Romantic Rhine” itinerary, mainly because I had never visited The Netherlands or Germany, and I really wanted to see these countries. The itinerary with Avalon Waterways began in Amsterdam, and ended in Basel, Switzerland. My trip didn’t start off great. At the Orlando airport, the incoming plane was delayed, causing a minor delay in boarding…then we had a thunder storm, which delayed us even further. As we were finally taxiing down to the runway, I realized that I would probably miss my connecting flight from Montreal to Amsterdam. What was a two hour connecting time, had turned into about 10 minutes. Needless to say that when I finally arrived in Montreal, my European flight had closed, but Air Canada offered me a hotel, some meal vouchers and a seat on the next plane to Amsterdam, which was almost 24 hours later.
So, because of the delay, I missed an evening canal cruise in Amsterdam, a walking tour of the red-light district, and my entrance time to the Van Gogh museum. I tried to rebook the Van Gogh museum, but sadly it was sold out all of the days that I would be in Amsterdam. I did, however, have a wonderful time in Amsterdam! While in Amsterdam, I stayed at the Apollo Hotel, and my room had a lovely view of one of the Amsterdam canals! I didn’t look out the window much when I arrived, since it was early Wednesday (Jul 24) afternoon, and I had been traveling since about noon on Monday. I went to bed and slept about 4 hours, waking up hungry. I left the hotel and walked a few blocks to a convenience store and found a few snacks to tide me over until morning. That delay in Montreal really was unfortunate, but I was so glad I planned to arrive early, as the delay wouldn’t affect my embarkation of the Avalon Vista on Saturday!
On my first full day in Amsterdam, I booked a tour, through Viator, of Zaanse Schans, Volendam & Giethorn. It was a full day tour, and I was really glad that I had planned this excursion a few months before, because our tour was full! (There were about 8 people total, I love those small groups!). Zaanse Schans is an open air museum with working windmills, a cheese making shop, and a shop that makes wooden shoes, with lots more. It was truly fascinating!
On our next stop, we visited Volendam, which is a tourist town known for its streets, old fishing boats, shops & restaurants. I looked through some of the shops, but the main reason for our visit was to have some lunch. I tried Kibbeling, which is a traditional Dutch dish of fried white fist pieces dipped in beer batter and spices. It was delicious!
On our last stop of the day, we visited Giethoorn. Giethoorn Village is located in the Northeastern part of of the Netherlands, about 85 minutes from Amsterdam. Geithoorn has no roads in the center, only canals! There are 176 bridges in this village, and everyone gets around either by boat, walking or by bicycles! To get to their cars, they need to boat to the villages parking lot which is outside the main area that people live & shop. It was absolutely beautiful, but there were so many tourists visiting! They estimate that about 1 million people visit their village each year!
After our canal ride and free time in Giethoorn, we were driven back to our pickup spot, to get an uber back to our hotels. When the driver asked where I was staying, it was on his way, so he volunteered to drop me off on his way home! After arriving, it was late, and I opted to skip dinner and just go to bed, as I had a lot of plans the next day!
I was able to sleep in a bit on Friday. Today was the day I was visiting the Anne Frank House. My entry ticket was for 2:00 and the instructions were to arrive no later than 1:55pm. I left the hotel around noon, and took an uber to a shop to buy some kibbeling for lunch. After waiting in line for about 20 minutes, I received my (medium) portion of fish (I wish I had ordered the small, as the medium was enough for 3 people! I walked a couple of blocks and found a nice bench with a lovely view of a canal to have lunch. Afterwards, I walked about 1/2 mile to the Anne Frank House for my tour.
The visit to the Anne Frank House was sobering to say the least. How they lived in such a small, cramped space for nearly two years is almost beyond belief. So sad, knowing that they were on the last train to the concentration camps that left Amsterdam…if only they could have been in hiding just a few more days!
After my visit, I decided to walk back to the hotel, seeing some sites along the way. I visited the floating flower market and decided I was very glad that I didn’t have a lot of room in my luggage, or I would have spent a small fortune on bulbs!
I stopped into a convenience store next to my hotel and picked up a few snacks for dinner and a bit of breakfast for the next day. When I got back to my room, I re-packed since the next day was Embarkation Day! I looked over my paperwork and noticed that I needed to be on the ship by 5:00pm, but my arrival time was lacking. In the paperwork for Avalon Waterways, they included the ship’s phone number. I dialed it, expecting to get some call center, but surprisingly, the Avalon Vista’s Concierge answered the phone. I identified myself, and asked what time I could arrive. He was very friendly, said that the ship was already docked in Amsterdam, and just plan to get to the ship at any time past 8:30. He then asked for my room number, and said that he would do his best to have my room ready early! Wow! Such a big difference from the other 45 cruises that I had been on! (The Romantic Rhine was my 46th cruise).
The hardest part of Embarkation Day was finding the ship! My uber dropped me off at the address that was in the Avalon app for the location of the dock. It happened to be at Amsterdam’s cruise terminal. The terminal was closed. I found a rep outside the building, I explained that I was to board the Avalon Vista that day, and he said, “oh, the Avalon ships, are just around the building” and proceeded to give me directions. After a short walk, I found the ships! One of the Avalon crew came up to me and asked which ship I was boarding, I told him, he tagged my luggage and told me to just walk onboard!
There was no security, it was like entering a hotel! I walked up to concierge, who asked for my passport. After checking me in, he told me that my room wasn’t quite ready and I could wait in the adjoining lounge until they called me. Before I could turn around, the cruise director came up to me, introduced herself, and invited me to sit down with her and go over my chosen shore excursions. I was really impressed, because I’ve never had such service on a cruise before! She suggested that one of my excursions that I had picked may be a poor choice, because the description says it was a hike in a vineyard, and what it actually is a hike in a vineyard that is on a mountain, so you’re actually climbing the mountain! She recommended another tour in Rudeshiem and then told me that after the tour, I could pay about $10 and take the gondola up the mountain, walk around, and ride it back down. She said that we were in for a hot week (weather-wise) in Germany, and climbing a mountain just wouldn’t be a great idea!
After we confirmed the other excursions that I had chosen, she introduced me to the Activity Director on the ship, who was in charge of the morning yoga sessions, the bike tours, the hiking tours, etc. I hadn’t been on the ship 20 minutes, and had already met 3 people! And, for the rest of the cruise, they greeted me by name. I went to sit down in the lobby, had a couple of glasses of water, and then they called me to let me know that my room was ready. I asked the concierge about my luggage, and he told me that it was already in my room. The cruise director told me what time to be in the lounge for my shore excursion departure, so I had about an hour to rest & refresh in the room before departing. I really liked the Panorama Suites that are exclusive to Avalon Waterways…everything in the room just made sense. Whoever designed these rooms, had done a lot of river cruising beforehand! Also, my Avalon reps (my go-to people for my clients) sent me a bouquet of fresh-cut flowers for my cabin! After owning & operating a florist for 28 years, I honestly don’t think that anyone had sent me flowers before. It was a lovely surprise!
For Embarkation day, I chose to re-visit Zaanse Scahns, because I wanted to see the windmills better (I really didn’t have enough time on Thursday) and I wanted to get some cheese & stroopwafels. I’m really glad I went again! By the time we got back to the ship, I had just enough time to change for dinner (not required, but I wanted to freshen up) and meet in the lounge for the welcome cocktail, the next day’s port talk, and then afterwards our first dinner on the Avalon Vista!
After dinner, I believe that there was some entertainment in the lounge, but I was more than ready for bed!
The next morning, almost the entire ship’s guests had opted for the Amsterdam Canal Cruise, and short walking tour of the Jewish district. It was fascinating, and I’m so glad that Avalon included the canal cruise with the fare, as I had missed the one earlier because of flight delays. We were back on the ship in time for lunch…then I had another excursion to Muiderslot Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Holland’s most beautiful castle fortresses.
After the tour, we met up with the ship (which had left the dock at Amsterdam and had begun the cruise) just in time for our second dinner. I’m really glad that I opted for the tour of Muiderslot, but it was the very first time in 46 cruises that I missed the sailaway! River cruises are so different from ocean cruises! I love them both, but just on this second day, I absolutely knew that this would become my first of many river cruises!
After dinner, again there was evening entertainment in the lounge, but I really wanted to do nothing besides lie in my bed while I watched the river go by on our way to Cologne, Germany! Stay tuned for Day 3 of my first River Cruise AND my first time in Germany — Cologne, Germany!
TTFN
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Cleared For Take-Off! 