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.

Amsterdam at night (Oct 5)

We went back to Old Town since our legs weren't tired enough yet.  We split a footlong hotdog smothered in cheese and pepperoni for the first course, and then got some of the "#1 French Fries in Holland"...they mistakenly gave us a double order, which probably amounted to 2-3 pounds of fries and sauce, and we ended up throwing most of them away (but they were very tasty!)

The canals were very pretty at night

Toronto! (night of Oct 4)

Made it to the Toronto airport for a wonderful 6 hour layover (though there is a current additional projected 20 minute delay).  The Air Canada flight from Denver was very good, the seats were well cushioned (as opposed to the planks they have on Frontier), and each seat had free TV (Curb Your Enthusiasm!) and movies (Ocean's 8...I highly recommend, Sandra Bullock is actually tolerable).  All the announcements were made in both English and French.

They have a lot of I-pads with games (video poker, blackjack, etc) on them in the airport that you can supposedly play and win food prizes (you get more entries if you buy food and drinks), but all the prizes were out of stock when I tried to order them.  So I just used all my points to enter a raffle for an Amazon gift card.

Arrived in Amsterdam (Oct 5)

Even though the takeoff from Toronto was 45 (unexplained) minutes late, I arrived in Amsterdam this morning on schedule.  Jerry arrived a couple hours before me.  We took a shuttle to the hotel.

The flight was aboard a Dreamliner 787, and even though the seat was comfortable enough to sit in, for sleeping it produced few Dreams...I got maybe 1-2 hrs, and hopefully I'll be able to make up for it tonight.  They even served us a hot meal (choice of chicken or pasta) with wine, very surprised!

The hotel (Intercontinental Amstel) is very nice and right on the Amstel River. There are uniformed staff everywhere to take care of you.   Interior shots:

 We requested an early check-in, and they not only didn't do that, they forced us to wait until 4:30pm for the 3pm check-in time (and we were tired after walking around for about 3 hours) until our room was ready.

It's a perfect day weather-wise, and we walked around a flea market:

and Old Town Amsterdam, which had a lot of souvenir shops, marijuana shops, and eating places...we were hungry, so I took several pictures of food.

Macaroons:

 Pot seeds:

 Waffles!

There are bicycles everywhere, and pedestrians do not have the right of way, very dangerous and almost got run over a few times

We walked along several canals

and over to the huge train/boat/trolley station.

We will board the boat tomorrow afternoon.  I accidentally left the anti-jet lag pills in my checked luggage, so that experiment is on hold.

Anti-jet lag?

I'm going to try the great anti-jet lag experiment!  One pill every 2 hours until landing in Amsterdam tomorrow morning, that's a lot of pills. 

Ship Change!

Ship changed 10/3/18 due to river water levels:

As you’ll recall, you were scheduled to explore the Danube aboard Tauck’s ms

Treasures riverboat. However, you will instead embark the ms Treasures’ sister-ship, the ms

Esprit, in Amsterdam at the start of your journey. We have made this change due to low water

levels on a short stretch of the Danube near Regensburg that have prompted us to redeploy

both the ms Treasures and the ms Esprit.

Briefly, both vessels are currently sailing the Danube, and as of late last week, they were

approaching this shallow length of the river from opposite directions at the same time. With

neither ship able to navigate past this stretch of the Danube, the decision was made to simply

move guests aboard each ship to the other, have the vessels turn back the way they’d come,

and allow both groups of guests to continue on their planned itinerary (just aboard different

vessels). Thus, the ms Esprit (which had been sailing toward Budapest) has reversed course

and is returning to Amsterdam, and the ms Treasures (which had been heading for Amsterdam)

has reversed course and is returning to Budapest.

As noted above, the ms Treasures and ms Esprit are true sister-ships, and you will enjoy the

equivalent cabin on the ms Esprit that you had reserved aboard the ms Treasures (same cabin

category, deck and cabin number). Also, both vessels underwent massive reconfigurations and

refurbishments this past winter, and they are identical in terms of dimensions, amenities and

passenger capacity.

Note: Please share the ms Esprit’s phone number (+31 6 54 96 88 55) with any family members or

friends who may wish to reach you during your cruise.

Low Water on Danube

Still having river water level issues:

(10/1/18) Conditions along the Danube river remain relatively unchanged, with Europe’s hot, dry summer continuing to cause low water levels in some areas. The situation has improved somewhat with recent rains, although the river is still far below its normal level. These low water levels have the potential to impact our upcoming Danube cruises. Conditions along the river are subject to change with short notice, and to varying degrees, select itineraries may be affected through the coming weeks. Itinerary alterations could be minimal, or more material including additional motor coach travel or other tour adjustments.
Please know that, in conjunction with our European office and our wide network of trusted partners, we are continuously and carefully monitoring conditions along the Danube. Should there be a major itinerary change, we will inform impacted guests as soon as those changes are known and confirmed. All Tauck cruises on Europe’s other rivers are operating normally.