Volendam & Windmills

 July 8

Typically, for us when travelling on a cruise these days, we fly in on the first day you can board the ship.  But for this trip, the air rates offered by AMA were significantly higher than those we could book on our own, so we did that.  BUT if you don't go through the cruise line and there are air issues, you are NOT guaranteed to make the cruise - and so your best bet is to give yourself a cushion day and fly in a day early, and stay over night in a hotel.  That's what we did yesterday.  So today we could board the AMA Serena but not until mid to late afternoon.  What to do all day?  Our travel agent and fearless group guide found and suggested a local tour in the area surrounding Amsterdam, so we joined six others from the group to do this and traveled to see some windmills at Zaanse Schans and then spend a few hours in the quaint waterfront village of Vlendam.  We left the hotel and walked ten minutes to the train station where we met our bus and tour guides then traveled about half an hour to Zaanse Schans to see the windmills and small shops surrounding the area.  

Good morning from Amsterdam - it's 57 degrees, MUCH cooler than So Fla!

The clock at the train station says we are ON TIME for our tour

All aboard - let's get this excursion started!

No matter how many times you see the windmills, they are always cool.  We walked around and enjoyed the very coolish morning air and breeze under partly cloudy skies

The majestic windmills

And note, these windmills are STILL working with Dutch millers & their families living in them

We were here about an hour before re-goarding the bus and heading about 20 minutes away to Volendam.  We walked along the dike from the parking lot to reach the waterfront which was lined with cool little shops.  We saw a cheese making demonstration; tasted some cheese and then were free for lunch and to walk around the village.

The main street of Volendam

The Volendam harbor

Found an interesting shoe shop and tried on a pair :)

And had a cup of coffee :)

They SAY that Dutch waffles have 0 calories....hmmmmm

Let's make some cheese!

Cheese tasting

We picked a quaint tavern and had a light lunch - though I WAS tempted by those waffles we'd seen across the street!  We had one final stop for about twenty-minutes in Merken where they made wooden shoes - there we met a local resident :)

Got back to the train station in Amsterdam about 2:30pm, picked our luggage and were transported to the ship where we moved into our "Twin Balcony" Stateroom, #203.  The interesting and unique thing about this AMA-only stateroom is that unlike most river cruise ships where you EITHER have a veranda or a French Balcony (where the doors slide open and the rail is right there), these staterooms are a little larger and you have BOTH a private balcony and a French Balcony - which provides you with a small, indoor sitting area.

After unpacking it was time for happy hour and then dinner.  Met Kim's twin sister Karrie and her husband Randy, and we were delighted that long-time high school buddies (now married) of the twins & Randy, Lynn & Doug joined us as well.  Had a nice dinner then played some cards (LOTS of laughs) before calling it a night.  Tomorrow we have a 9am excursion - the iconic canal cruise through Amsterdam and then we sail off a little after lunch for the extended voyage to Cologne, Germany where we will arrive on Wednesday afternoon.  That means a LOT of sailing time tomorrow - one of my favorite parts about river cruising!