Goodbye Amsterdam

Tuesday 11-8 our first day on the boat. We awake to a sunny morning with the  boat still docked in Amsterdam. This morning we get a guided canal cruise to other parts of the city, then a brief walk around the city center including the flower market. We then get a bus tour to meet the ship which has left Amsterdam to go through the locks into the Rhine canal.

Cheese delivery bike

The tour is very well planned and comfortable and we can relax and let the tour people sort out the traffic and logistics, something we have been doing since we arrived last week in Amsterdam.  For example, on our bus ride to meet up with the ship we make a brief stop at a functioning Dutch windmill.  We meet our ship in Wijk on the Amsterdam–Rhine Canal. This is a canal that was built to connect the port city of Amsterdam to the main shipping artery of the Rhine. Its course follows a generally southeasterly direction as it goes through the city of Utrecht towards Wijk where it intersects the Lek branch of the Rhine.

Floating flower market

We have a leisurely lunch on the ship as we sail to Cologne Germany.  This on of our longest sailings which will take us until Wednesday morning.  During the afternoon we hear about all of the things we can do when we dock at the various stops.  We retire for a quiet time watching the river go by from our balcony.

Dining room

We have our first winemaker dinner this evening and it is hosted by Barry Collier of Collier Falls.  He was a movie maker in Los Angeles who transitioned into wine making 20 years ago.  We have 4 estate wines that are 100 percent of the varietal: Zinfandel, petite Sarah, primativo and Cabernet Sauvignon.  Each food course is paired with a specific wine and is absolutely wonderful.  If you are reading this you would assume we have probably gained 20 pounds by now but the portions are much smaller that typical American portions so a dinner like this is possible and still not feel like you will explode.

We retire to a great nights sleep, ready for another day.We could have listened to some classical music in the lounge, but we will save that for another night.