Today is both our last port stop and the last day of the cruise. We will dock in Tilbury, UK tomorrow morning and disembark the ship. Today, we stopped in the port city of IJmuiden, and yes, the spelling is correct. The destination for today is the city of Amsterdam, which is about 30 miles driving from IJmuiden.
It was a bright and sunny morning, there were only a few high clouds in the sky.
We both got up around 7:00 AM, got dressed, and headed to breakfast in the World Cafe. It was quite crowded because all of the tours today start at about the same time. Our tour for today is the included tour of Amsterdam, which includes a canal boat ride as part of the tour.
After we finished breakfast, we headed back to the cabin to get ready for the tour. We were scheduled to meet in the Star Theatre at 9:00 AM, and the tour was scheduled for 9:15 AM. We had talked to Michael and Suzie and found out that their tour was at the same time, but they had a different Group Number from us, so our plan was to see if we could be put together. We were not entirely sure if the tours were the same, and we just had different numbers, or if that meant we were on different tour buses altogether.
They called both of our groups together to leave the theatre and head to the gangway. Once we were off the ship, there was a Viking Rep outside and we asked her if we were on the same tour, just different numbers, but she was not sure. She did check on a couple of the buses that were already loaded and then put us all on one of those instead of either of our assigned groups, there were four extra seats on one of the buses that was already loaded.
We boarded the bus and off we went.
It is not far to Amsterdam as the crow flies, only 11 miles, but it was a slow and winding drive out of the port and surrounding areas to get there, and it took roughly 40 minutes.
Along the way, our guide explained all about the canals that are everywhere and how they use pumping stations to control the water levels since all of this land is below sea level by several feet. In days past, the windmills everyone is familiar with in Holland were used to pump the water, but now it is all done by large pumping stations using electric pumps.
We also passed by the gigantic lock that is used to transit between the sea and the canals in order to get to Amsterdam by sea. The lock is used to control the water level and separate the canals from the sea. It did not even look like a typical lock it was so large, many times larger than a Panama Canal Lock, but there was only one lock in the system, which makes it much simpler to operate.
We arrived near the main Amsterdam Central Train Station and got off our bus. There were already some other Viking Groups there and more were arriving. This was going to be the point where the canal tour ended later in the morning, and this was also our meeting point if anyone wanted to skip the canal tour and go off on their own to explore Amsterdam. Our canal tour was at the end, so we all walked to the other side of the train station with our guide and he pointed out some areas we could walk to in the hour of free time we had before the canal tour started. We then arrived at the starting point for the canal tour, so we had to be back here by 11:15 AM for that ride
The four of us wandered down one of the side streets the guide had pointed out. We were surprised at how trashy these streets in Amsterdam were. There was trash on the street everywhere, most of which seemed to be styrofoam food containers. It was almost as if someone had raided some of the trash cans on the street seeking leftover food, but we did not see any homeless people on the streets. It is hard to describe how much trash there was, as well as hundreds of cigarette butts.
Michael and Suzie had been to Amsterdam a couple of times on river tours, so they knew where we were once we found a large open square. There was a large fancy department store on the corner, and Suzie knew they had a nice restroom on the 5th floor. We headed inside to go upstairs to the restrooms. There was a security guard at all of the entrances to the store, I am sure to keep out any homeless people who might also want to use the restrooms inside.
We took escalators up to the 5th floor, and there was an area there with several restaurants. The restrooms were near those eateries.
With the restroom break completed, we headed back downstairs and outside. There was a Delft porcelain store nearby that they had visited before, and Michael and Suzie wanted to purchase something there this time also, a large pot with several smaller holes on the side to hold tulip blossoms. We all went inside and they made their purchase. We also bought a couple of small things to take home, one being a very small replica of a typical Amsterdam building front.
We headed out of the store and started the walk back to the meeting point for the canal tour. There was a large church across the street from the meeting point that Stephanie wanted to visit before the canal tour started. It was a Catholic Church, but we were not sure at first, we could not see any name on it when we first saw it when we had initially arrived at this area earlier. We arrived at the church, but since it was Sunday, it was not open for tourist visits, so we could not go inside.
We headed across the street and within a few minutes, our canal tour boat arrived and our group boarded the boat.
Each couple had their own bench seat, and I chose one with a side window that slid open so I could take photos without there being glass in front of the camera. It had been a cold and frosty morning in Amsterdam, so the top glass on the boat was still covered in either dew or frost. The tour was scheduled for one hour. We headed down several canals and also saw the large port area. It is pretty amazing how everything is tied together with canals, and at how far below sea level most of the entire area around Amsterdam is.
We got a great explanation of why there are large houseboats along some of the sides of the major canals. This was started in the 1960’s and eventually, a program was established to sell these spaces to individual owners. Each of the houseboats now has electrical and water hookups, but in the early days, there were no permanent utilities, these were added later. Our guide told us that some of these registrations that allow people to dock on the canal are now worth about $600,000.
Of course, the houseboats look old and a little worn, but all of the value is in the permit to dock there, the houseboats are generally not worth much themselves. There were all kinds, but many were smaller barges that were now used as residences. We were told about how they must be inspected every 7 years at a shipyard or they lose the ability to get insurance. This is mainly to keep them from sinking if they are not periodically inspected and repaired. Many of them have steel hulls that will rust over time.
We went down some of the smaller side canals and passed by the house Anne Franke and her family had hidden in from the Germans during WWII before finally being captured. Unfortunately, it was mostly blocked from view by some construction vehicles near the canal
The canal tour was nice, it was sometimes hard to get good photos of the buildings being that close down to the water, the sides of the canals are quite high, and blocked some of the views, as well as all of the houseboats, and then also from cars parked along the canals on the street.
We arrived back at the original starting point we had arrived at on the buys this morning and we all got off the canal boat, It had a restroom, so many people made use of that before getting off and boarding our bus for the long ride back to the ship in IJmuiden.
We took a slightly different route back to the port and saw a few different things along the way. There was one of the original windmills in operation that we passed along the way, as well as one of the old steam-driven pumping stations that is now part of a museum.
When we arrived back at the ship, we all had to go through immigration before we could reboard our ship. This was for processing everyone for leaving The Netherlands and for leaving the European Union since our next stop is in the United Kingdom tomorrow morning.
All they did was stamp our passports, there was no electronic equipment there to scan our passports and to register that we had left. I do not know how they would even know if our passports had not been stamped, I guess they were making everyone do this on the way back to the ship as the only control. It must be an honor system if someone had not left the ship, they were supposed to get this done also, but how would anyone really know.
It was quite a long walk from the terminal building to the ship, we had seen a bus on the other side of the building but had not realized it was a shuttle back to the ship, most everyone was walking anyway.
We dropped off our gear in our room, as did Michael and Suzie, and then we all met in the World Cafe for lunch. It was 1;30 PM, and we were all hungry. Michael and Suzie had gotten there before us but were still wandering around looking for an open table for four. It was the most crowded we had ever seen the buffet. It seemed like most of the tours had all gotten back at exactly the same time, and now everyone wanted to eat lunch. This was the only option other than the grill out by the pool, The Restaurant usually closes at 1;00 PM every day, so no one was able to go there to eat to offset some of the crowds here.
We all made about four circles through the buffet and none of us could find a table that was open or that someone was getting ready to leave. There were a lot of people doing the same as us, so it was hard to get a table unless it happened right in front of us. This was not going to work, so we headed out to the pool deck to see if we could find a table there. It was also very crowded there, but we saw a group get up, so we claimed their dirty table and then had to wait for it to be cleaned.
I headed to the buffet, as did Suzie, but Stephanie and Michael were going to get a burger from the nearby grill. Michael got in line for a burger while Stephanie held the table and ordered us two glasses of Pinot Grigio. Suzie and I arrived back from the buffet and ate. Michael was still not anywhere close to being at the point in line to order his burger, so Stephanie just waited at the table with us. Michale finally came back and by this time, the burger line was getting shorter, so Stephanie went and ordered hers. It was the hardest lunch-eating experience we had on the entire trip.
We did get some photos of us leaving the port of IJmuiden after we had finished our lunch and were just sitting at our table. It was still nice outside out on the open decks.
After we all finished eating, Stephanie and I headed back to the cabin to do some packing. We got our suitcases out from under the bed and laid them on the bed to pack. It was a little easier than packing at home to get here. We are not going on an airplane tomorrow, so we do not need to follow any weight rules. We wanted to see if we could pack both bags without expanding one of them like we had to do to get to Finland from home.
It is still generally going to be colder temperatures for the next few days, so we will have more colder climate clothes on tomorrow. We were able to fill both suitcases without expansion. We also wanted to see what they weighed just for information, and the first weight was only 21.5 kg for both bags, less than the 23 kg limit for flying. However, we soon discovered a few additional items that we had left in the drawers to pack up last, but had forgotten about, so we added them in but did not weigh the bags again. It will not matter for tomorrow, and we did not have all of the same items in the suitcases we will have when we fly home in a few days, my toiletries were not getting packed today because I need them tomorrow morning when we take showers.
Our plan is to put the two large suitcases out in the hallway tonight so they can be collected and we do not have to drag them around tomorrow morning when we disembark the ship, we will collect them shoreside.
After the packing was complete, we watched a couple of the recorded onboard presentations on our room TV. Stephanie went a got us some glasses of wine from the Library Bar on Deck 1, just a short elevator ride away, and we just relaxed, watching the shows on our TV. One was on the Anne Frank family and it was very interesting and well done. It was interesting because we had just seen the house they hid in while we were on the Amsterdam canal tour today. Then we started watching the Viking China Future Cruise presentation we had participated in yesterday. It was better than we thought it was after watching each of our presentations.
After that, we started watching another onboard presentation about the Heavy Water in Norway that Hitler wanted for making atomic bombs during WWII. It was a little dry and hard to follow, and it was putting us to sleep.
We contacted Suzie and Michael and coordinated with them to head to the World Cafe for dinner. They arrived before us and were able to find a table for four in the rear of the buffet area. They had gone to the gym and then the spa while we were doing our packing and show-watching.
We had a nice dinner and then it was time to say our goodbyes.
Stephanie and I headed up to the Explorer’s Bar to tell the bartender there, Komang, goodbye, as well as a couple of the other bar staff. We had a couple of drinks and then headed back to the room for the night. We set alarms for 6:30 AM but had to manually set the time zone on the phones since we will be one hour ahead tomorrow morning in the United Kingdom. Our phones are on airplane mode while we are on the ship, and we were not sure the phones would automatically update the time to be correct for tomorrow..
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