April 8
We left Minneapolis an hour late (830PM). No worries – we were able to grab an
appetizer and a beer or two while we waited.
Bob & Bonnie had flown over
ahead of us to visit friends and so today we would be traveling with Gary &
Linda and Steve & Roxanne.
April 9
We arrived into Amsterdam at 1150AM and headed off to
purchase currency, pick-up our luggage, purchase train tickets and head off to
the city. Bob left us detailed
(including pictures) instructions of where to go and how to proceed. Once at the Amsterdam Central Station we had
a short walk (with Bob instructions) to our hotel – The Kimpton DeWitt.
We checked into our hotel rooms with 30 minutes to freshen
up and get organized and then off to roam the city. Bob ordered us a couple Uber cars and off we
went to see The Van Gogh Museum. Once
there, we were hooked up to their audio tour and maneuvered through the museum
enjoying the paintings and information on Vincent van Gogh’s life.
We walked through Amsterdam trying to avoid bikes, train and
cars. It was a must to have your head up
and paying attention or you might get clipped!
Bob chose the De Blauwe Hollander (a dutch restaurant – meaning The Fork)
for dinner this evening. As an
appetizer, we tried Bitterballen with Dijon mustard and several of us had the
Stampot (potatoes, carrots, onions and beef) for our dinner. It was awesome! Of course, we followed that up with several
desserts and I tried the mint tea.
After dinner, we wandered back to our hotel and had a final
nightcap at our hotel bar.
Tidbit: Amsterdam has
30,000 more bikes than people.
April 10
Rise and shine! We
left our hotel at 830AM to head to the Anne Frank House for a 900AM tour. The tour provides you with an audio tour
that takes you through the museum with mementos and the rooms that Anne Frank
and her family lived in hiding. The
tour was about an hour and provided us with information on Anne and her family.
They lived in this Secret Annex for 2 years until they were
discovered and brought to the concentration camps. Otto (Anne’s father) was the only one in the
family to survive the camps.
We had some time before our tour of the Rijksmuseum, so we
stopped for a coffee and cakes at one of the many restaurants along the
streets.
We spent the afternoon touring the Rijksmuseum along with
the Rembrandts Exhibition.
The Rijksmuseum is a Dutch national museum dedicated to arts
and history in Amsterdam. The
museum is quite large and its vast
collection showcases a variety of artifacts that date back more than 800 years.
As a last minute add-on, we were able to take in the
Heineken Experience. The Heineken beer
is brewed with only three ingredients – barley, hops and water – all of them
natural. The recipe dates back to 1873.
Bob had made dinner reservations at The Restaurant
d’Vijff Vlieghen (translation The Five
Flies). We were seated at the Rembrandt
table and had a 4-course dinner with wine pairings (or beer / coca cola
light). It was an amazing meal and made
special sharing with this group of friends.
Raffael was our delightful waiter for this evening.
Tidbit: Every year
12,000-15,000 bikes wind up in the canal and must be dredged out.
Amsterdam has the only floating flower market in the world
on the Singel Canal (since 1862).
April 11
We were able to sleep in a little today. Bob, the tour guide set us up for a 10:00AM
transfer to the Keukenhof Gardens (approximately 40 minutes). The tulips and other spring flowers
(daffodils, hyacinths, etc.) were in full bloom and just gorgeous. It was a bucket list item and well worth the
visit! 7 Million bulbs, 800 varieties
of tulips and 32 hectares of flowers to see between March 21-May 19 – a must to
see. The pictures will speak for
themselves!
Our driver then picked us up to return us to our hotel and
then off to meet up with our sailing vessel, the Viking Lofn. Upon our arrival (3PM), we were able to
check into our rooms and then proceed to the lounge area for a light lunch. Krista, the bar manager took care of us and then convinced us to dine
in the lounge (looking out over the
front of the ship) that evening for our dinner.
We were in!
We enjoyed that afternoon checking out the ship and enjoying
our Silver Spirits package (unlimited drinks). We took time to freshen up for dinner,
unpack our bags and then off to dinner.
After dinner, it was one last trip off the boat in Amsterdam
to catch a quick glimpse of the red light district. The red light district (a network of alleys)
is located in the oldest part of Amsterdam and is known for the red neon
windows that display barely-dressed woman advertising their services. This is all totally legal as long as it
stays inside this designated area.
The Viking Lofn then cruised out of Amsterdam at 1130PM that
evening.
Tidbit: Amsterdam is
known for its cheese, beer, bulbs and Stroopwafel (just to name a few items).
April 12
Our ship arrived in Kinderdijk at 10:00am and we were off on
our first shore excursion to see the Windmills of Kinderdijk (a UNESCO World
Heritage Site). The windmills date back
to the 1740’s and are still in use today for their water management. The water management network features 19
windmills and 3 pumping stations, plus dikes & reservoirs that control
flooding in the low lands. The
windmills are rented out for a fee of 250 euro per month and there is a wait
list to do so.
Lunch, lounging on ship, dinner and trivia game night
completed the rest of our day/evening.
Note: For dessert, I
recommend the Chocolate Lava cake! Yum!
April 13
900AM – we departed the ship in Zons and took a motor coach
into Cologne for a tour of the city. The
Cathedral of Cologne built in the 14th century is a UNESCO World
Heritage Site. The Cologne Cathedral
was finally completed in 1880 and is used as a point of orientation (2nd
highest building in Cologne) and is also a source of pride for the people of
Cologne. Despite extensive bombing of
Cologne during World War II, the Cathedral survived (the windows had been
removed piece by piece to protect the stain glass). The Cologne Cathedral is known to house the
remains of the Three Wise Man. The
yearly maintenance of the cathedral comes at a cost of $8 million.
After our tour, we stopped at a pub to warm up and try the
local beer – Kolsch.
April 14, 2019
Our day began with a shore excursion that took us to
Marksburg Castle. The tour included a
view of the various rooms that they lived in (kitchen, bedrooms) and it also
showed the history of the weapons utilized as well as garments they wore during
a battle.
As well as the various methods of torture they used during
that period.
The afternoon was spent on the boat cruising along the Rhine
with views of the vineyards, towns and numerous castles (14). A beautiful day on the water with the sun
shining and providing us with a little warmer temperature. This is the most scenic part of the Rhine
river (Koblenz to Bingen).
In the evening, we strolled through Rudesheim and took our
evening meal at the Ristorante Da Toni.
The portions were large with Rigatoni, pizza and several choosing
schnitzel. What a great recommendation
by Krista (our Viking bar manager).
Tidbit: Our castle tour informed us that folks slept sitting
up because lying down was associated with being dead.
April 15, 2019
Today we would start out touring the Heidelberg Castle made
of red sandstone and located 300 ft. above the city of Heidelberg.
In the afternoon, our ship took us to the quiet town of
Speyer. We found the city to be larger
than what we expected, with many shops, restaurants, etc. I noticed the bikes were of better quality
than those we saw in Amsterdam. I assume
they had a little more space and could bring them inside and out of the
weather.
Tidbit: There are
about 20,000 castles throughout Germany.
April 16, 2019
Our cruise took us to the largest port on the Upper Rhine,
Strasbourg. The Old town of Strasbourg
is well preserved with cobblestone streets, wooden houses and intersecting
picturesque canals. Our tour took us to
the Strasbourg Cathedral. The cathedral
is absolutely beautiful, but its highlight is its astronomical clock that dates
back to 1842.
You are able to climb to the top of the cathedral for a
panoramic view.
In the afternoon, we chose to visit the Mercedes-Benz
factory tour. No pictures were allowed,
but we were able to view the automation process. Each car is custom made and they put out
1,200 cars per day.
Each evening we had music by Emil, but tonight we had a
music trivia contest. We were given 5
bonus points if we had a dancer for each song for each team. Linda & I managed that and eventually
everyone participated. Gary was our
Rockstar music trivia guy and we brought home the trophy – a couple bottles of
wine!
April 17, 2019
Today we docked in Breisach and our morning excursion was
into the Black Forest.
We headed off to go on a hike that followed along a stream
with a waterfall at the top.
It reminding me of the north shore of Minnesota. The town (Hofgut Sternen) we stopped in
provided us with a glass blowing demonstration, Black Forest cake demonstration
and a chance to visit their shops and check-out their cuckoo clocks. One of the building boasted a cuckoo clock on
the whole side of the building with dancers that danced on the hour.
This afternoon we had signed up the
optional tour: Colmar WW II: Museum & Memorial. The Colmar Pocket was a 35-40 mile area west
of the Rhine that the French Army was not able to push back the Germans and the
American Army was enlisted. The battle
began on December 15, 1944 and by February 19, 1945, all German units had been
pushed to the west of the Rhine liberating France. The Americans suffered 29,000 casualties and
the Germans had suffered 23,000 casualties.
The town of Turckheim has a war museum that is housed in an 18th
century wine cellar. This cellar was
used as a shelter by the Turckheim residents for 10 weeks while the war battled
around them.
Our guide, Dasha was extremely
knowledgeable about these battles and was able to make you feel the suffering
of the soldiers (facing extreme cold, battling against extreme odds at times),
but battling through to victory.
Audie Murphy (from Kingston TX), held
off the Germans and was the most decorated American combat soldier from WWII
(33 medals) and with medals of honor from France and Belgium.
Tonight was our last night and Captain Istvan joined us for
a farewell toast!
April 18, 2019
Luggage was packed and out the door by 600AM. We had an early departure and headed to the
Basel airport for our flight back to Minneapolis.
Wonderful trip with wonderful friends!
