This is a quick post today! We will be leaving shortly to catch the train to Paris, but I wanted to post something today as I am not sure when I will have free WiFi again!
We
enjoyed a relaxing morning cruising along the Rhine – Amsterdam Canal. The
countryside is so different to what we have experienced up to now! It is very
flat in the The Netherlands. It seems there are bike tracks all along the canal
with lots of cyclists riding along. We docked in Amsterdam at lunch time then
after enjoying our last lunch on board the ship, we transferred to coaches for
a tour of the city of Amsterdam. Our tour included a canal boat tour too. On
the way to the canal boat we stopped at one of only 8 windmills that are left
in Amsterdam. And there are only 100 left in The Netherlands and these are all
heritage protected. There are thousands of bicycles in the city and the riders
do not stop for pedestrians! You have to be careful and make sure you look in
every direction when you get out of a bus or go to cross a road or even just
walking on the footpaths. Our tour of the canals was interesting. The canals
are just like streets – with intersections, some wider canals, so narrower
canals, some with small boats moored to the sides and lots of house boats too.
There is only allowed to be 2500 house boats in the city at any one time.
Something that we found hard to come to terms with is that about 20% of
effluent from toilets and sinks etc still goes into the river! They are aiming
to get the level to zero%. It certainly makes you think twice about putting a
hand or any other part of the body into the canal. Along with house boats, some
houses (apartment blocks) are built into the river. There have also been
artificial islands built to provide more space for housing as the city expands.
After
our tour we came back to the ship. The Phil Hoffmann group had a group photo with
the Captain, and then we waited till dinner. We enjoyed our last dinner on the
ship, and then spent a little time in the lounge before heading to bed.
We
had to pack up today, ready for our cases to be collected at 6.30am from
outside our rooms. So it will be another very early start in the morning!
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| the one windmill we saw in Amsterdam |
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| there are 7 bridges that line up down this canal |
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| boats moored on the canal at the back of the floating flower market |
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| there are bikes chained up everywhere - including on bridges |
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| these building are built into the river |
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