More Amsterdam and then On board (Oct 6)

Another beautiful day in Amsterdam.  The fine breakfast at the Intercontinental Amstel consisted of Eggs Royale (salmon and poached eggs on an English muffin), along with various sausages, breads, fruits, juices, and pastries.  We checked out of our room, knowing that the cruise company Tauck would deliver our bags to the ship, and we set out walking.  We went to the Dutch Resistance museum, which was outstanding in explaining how the Netherlands coped with the Nazi occupation during WWII.  A few pictures:

After that museum, we walked by an old-time windmill which is now a brewery

and then we proceeded to a Saturday morning flea market/farmer's market which had a little bit of everything...clothing, produce, spices, etc.  The fresh fish caught my attention:

We walked back the hotel, where there was a small crowd of people in front.  Turns out that the rock band U2 was staying at the hotel and the paparazzi were waiting for them to come out from their lunch to get autographs (some had been waiting for 4-5 hours).  Not being U2 fans, we waited on the hotel's patio overlooking the Amstel River

 until we boarded the Tauck bus.

 The sheer volume of bicycle traffic in this city is amazing, and bicycles have priority over everything else, pedestrians and cars included.  Onboard the bus, the cruise director informed us that virtually everyone in Amsterdam has both had a bicycle stolen and stolen a bicycle themselves, and therefore everyone rides essentially pieces of junk (single speed, beat up).  They said 12-15,000 bicycles are thrown into the local canals every year, I presume because they were stolen.  No one wears helmets, and the bikes are frequently configured to carry cargo and children

The bus took us across town to the ship.  We boarded and went to our room, which is quite nice

We got our introduction briefing from the ship's crew, had dinner, and are looking forward to tomorrow's tour of the Rijksmuseum (Dutch artwork!) and a lunch cruise down one of Amsterdam's canals, before being bused to meet our ship downstream.  The cruise director informed us that we will travel a total of about 1200 miles on the river during this trip and pass thru 65 locks, some of which are quite narrow with as little as 6 inches clearance on either side of the ship.