Baltic Cruise Adventure - week 1

Wendy and Eric recently went on an amazing adventure over 3 weeks in May. We flew to Europe, spent 5 days touring Amsterdam, took the train to Rotterdam, then boarded the Holland America Nieuw Statendam for a 13 day Baltic Cruise. After the cruise ended in Copenhagen, we toured around for a day, then flew to Dublin, Ireland, for two nights. The next three posts will capture one week at a time with some descriptions of what we did and many photos that helped captured our experience.

Apr 30 - upgraded flight to Amsterdam

An airport limo picked us up at home and started us off on the big adventure. We knew it was going to be an enjoyable flight, as we bid on (and won) upgraded seats on the transatlantic flight!  We arrived at the airport and checked in at the very peaceful business class desk. Our bags were taken by a porter for priority handling and we headed through security to find the Maple Leaf Lounge. Had a light dinner and some free drinks before getting on the plane. 

We got settled in our lay flat seats in the separate business class area and had some champagne before most of the rest of the passengers boarded. The flight was great, and after a light dinner, we configured the beds and slept comfortably for most of the flight.

We had a sliding divider that opened between us.

May 1 - Amsterdam touring, Street Art, and jet lag

On arrival in Amsterdam around 10am, we went through a very slow customs then walked over to the trains and headed into the city. The 18 min trip was easy, and we walked from Amsterdam Centraal Station to our hotel (Hotel Die Port van Cleve, across from Dam Square) and stored our bags. It was already over 26C and was scorching hot out! 

We headed out to tour for a while and had lunch on the way back to Centraal Station. We found one of the free ferries and Eric selected the wrong one! No big deal, this was only a 5 minute ride across the water. We returned and too the NDSM ferry (the correct one) and walked from there to the STRAAT Street art museum. This museum had some spectacular art in an amazing venue (a very large old factory)! 

We walked back to the hotel, checked in, and received our (wooden!) room keys. 

After a brief nap, we headed out to find some dinner. An interesting burger place nearby was a bust - couldn't figure out their ordering system and they explanation of the kitchen staff didn't make any sense. Went a few doors down to the Cafe Het Paleis and had burgers and some fries (with mayo, as is standard here). Just to keep awake, we walked around the canals and went over to see a few sites, including the Anne Frank House and to find the office of "Those Dam Boat Guys" for a potential canal tour. Completely exhausted, we headed back to the hotel and slept very well. 

May 2 - Heineken beer and Pannekoken Carrousel

On another bright and sunny day, Eric booked a canal tour online. The jet lag was obviously more of a problem than we thought, as he booked the wrong date!  We walked over to their office and rebooked for the correct day. After a tour of the Royal Palace across from our hotel, we headed to the Centraal Station again and met Mel and Murray as they arrived from the airport (they were joining us for the cruise). 

We all went for lunch at 't Nieuwe Kafe, a restaurant essentially 50 metres from the hotel. 

After a stop for M&M to check in and get their own wooden keys, we walked south to the Heineken Brewery to do the Experience tour. It was an interesting time that even included a ride (felt a little like we were on the Squid Game a few times). Of course, we also had lots of beer. 

After the beer experience, we walked only a few blocks to the Pannekoken Carrousel - a pancake restaurant built into an old carrousel - and had some traditional Dutch pancakes. It started to get chilly, so we walked back to the hotel and crashed for another night. 

May 3 - Keukenhof gardens, cheese/windmills/wooden shoes, Red Light district

Today was our first scheduled event of the trip - a tulip and windmill bus tour. All of us got on the bus and our first stop was the famous Keukenhof Gardens. Although it was late in the season, there were still lots of flowers to be seen in this massive decorative garden park. The weather was chilly/windy and there were lots of clouds, but that seemed to work well for taking pictures of tulips. 

A damp Amsterdam street on the way to our bus tour

We had lunch while at the gardens, then got back on the bus to go to the next stop - the Simonehoeve cheese farm near Volendam. We learned about how cheese and wooden shoes (clogs) are made. One interesting thing to note was that the last time Eric was in Volendam was in April 1965. 

Yes, they now make cannabis cheese...

59 years ago was the last time Eric was in Volendam (he is wearing white)!

The third stop was the small village of Zaanse Schans to see traditional windmills. We has some excellent hot chocolate and cookies inside a windmill and while there, Eric got tar all over his raincoat when he leaned against the side of the windmill (can we say he wasn't successful tilting at a windmill?). Light rain began to fall as we headed back to Amsterdam. On the way back to the hotel, we had dinner at an Argentinian Italian Steak House (Argentalia Grill Restaurant) - an odd combination but very good. We then headed through the Red Light district in the pouring rain then back to the hotel.

Inside a windmill

May 4 - Canal tour and Anne Frank house

Today was Memorial Day in the Netherlands, so there was lots of activity getting things set up at Dam Square next to the hotel for a big event in front of the Palace. We headed to our Those Dam Boat Guys tour and went through much of the canal system to see the sights. 

Seemed to be a few casualties from the recent King's Day events on the canal

Odd signs that sometimes were not easy to interpret. This one was easy.

After the canal tour, we went to the Anne Frank house (which we had to book 6 weeks in advance), listened to their pre-tour lecture for context, then walked through the Annex were Anne and her family were in hiding from the Nazi's for over two years. A very powerful and moving experience, particularly after having just finished reading the book.

This is a replica of Anne's diary - the real books she wrote in were visible later during the tour.

Front of the Anne Frank house.

We walked back to the hotel through rapidly building crowds for a late lunch/early dinner at dinner at Poco Loco in Nieuwmarkt (far side of the Red Light district).  The restaurant was described as contemporary light brown café (essentially a quirky pub). 

Through even larger crowds of people and lots of barricades, we headed to the hotel bar to have some classic Jenever.  While there, the city stopped for two minutes of silence at 8pm. All the police and many people on the street stood still. 

May 5 - Rotterdam and cruise embarkation

This bright sunny morning we checked out and walked over to the Centraal station for the 9:55 intercity direct train to Rotterdam. On arrival in Rotterdam, we took the chance to eat a snack at an automat - where all the food and drinks are available by tapping your phone and choosing (like a huge vending machine). 

After much struggle to find how to get to the cruise port, we took the subway for a short ride to the cruise ship terminal. There was a very long line to drop off our luggage, but after doing that, check in was very quick and on to the Nieuw Statendam we went. 

Ready to board (ship is behind us)

Our room was ready, so we settled in then went to explore the rest of the ship. We had a nice lunch in the Lido buffet then went to the Explorer's lounge for some free drinks ('welcome back' drink tickets were in our cabin) and for Wendy to start a puzzle!

 

View from our cabin

First sunset from our cabin

May 6 - Sea day

Today was the first of two sea days on the cruise. Eric went to a talk on Nordic Happiness and learned about the words hygge (pronounced as hooga - creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people ) and fika (a noun and verb meaning "to have coffee or a coffee break"). Wendy sat on the large white lounges on deck 10 and watched people in the pool area.  

At one point the fog rolled in so much that we couldn't even see the water from deck 3!  However, the water was virtually smooth as glass almost the entire time at sea. Our cabin was quite spacious and very comfortable. It was positioned on deck 10, right at the front of the ship facing forward (right on the midline of the ship). We had the same room on a different ship and liked the extra room and the view.

Foggy day!