Day 31 - (Travelling to) [R]hine River Cruise (Amsterdam), The Netherlands
Easiest transit of the trip
Another fair night’s sleep in the pod. This morning’s breakfast was ‘pre-ordered’ at the BUNK hotel. It was quite satisfactory, though served cold but for the poached egg. I spent some time compiling yesterday’s blog entry, sitting in the main foyer area of the hotel. I didn’t get anywhere near finished. While doing that, I was toying with the idea of leaving my bag at the hotel and going to do the DomUnder tour, which visits ancient Roman archaeology under the Dom plaza at the Domkirk. Eventually, I decided I was a bit flat from a big day of sight-seeing yesterday and should hold my energy for the transit to Amsterdam, which wasn’t going to be difficult, but I did want it to be done.
After checking out of the BUNK, I went through Hoog Catharijn specially to capture the images below. It is a vast sapce that, for a shopping mall, is much more appealing than the ones we have at home. To my mind, it speaks to the idea of building something to be a place, rather than just for its function; something that the Europeans seem to have thousands of years of background in.
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| Scenes inside Hoog Catharijn | ||
Having done my photographic survey, I walked over to Utrecht Central Station – literally next door – and bought a ticket to Amsterdam. The exchange with the train staff member was quite fun as we negotiated the best way for me to get a ticket to Amsterdam, including the additional charge for her printing the ticket over me buying it online, and whether or not I should use a travel day on my Eurail pass for this small journey. In the end, the €9 ticket was dispensed and I had 4 minutes to get on the train, or 19 minutes. I made the 4 minute train with ease.
I arrived at Amsterdam Central station without incident. Google maps told me that I had a 20 minute walk in front of me to the Passenger Terminal Administration building, where I was to board the Viking Sigrun. I could see that building from the concourse in front of the station, so I set off. Getting to the building was easy, but finding the ship was more elusive. I ended up walking around 3/4 of the perimeter of the building to find the narrow entrance to the wharf that ran beside it. Directions on signs on the building said that I could walk around one end of the building but when I first did that I discovered that it was blocked by a large security fence, so I had to walk all the way back and then found the narrow gap, signposted with a temporary electronic sign.
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| Scenes along the Rhine heading to the ship | ||
On arrival, my ‘stateroom’ (cabin) was not ready for me (as predicted in the material I’d received for the journey. I dropped my bag with the steward and headed into the restaurant where they were serving lunch. Looking around over lunch, I came to the view that I was going to be surround by folks that might reasonably be assumed to be ‘my people’, in spite of me feeling more engaged and associated with the young folks in Utrecht.
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| The early lunch crowd; many more came later, mostly the same ‘set’ | ||
After lunch, my room was still not ready. I asked the steward to escort me to the room so I could retrieve my laptop, which he did. When I got there, it was clear the room was ready, but the admin hadn’t caught up. Anyway, I spent the next hour or more in the lounge, finalising my post. It’s very comfortable, with a sophisticated coffee machine and an unlimited supply of cookies. After posting my blog entry, I checked again with reception and now my room was formally ready for me. So, I went straight there and had a nap!
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A lot of the cruise involves programmed activities (of course). Tonight involved a welcome talk and safety briefing in the lounge. The staff who spoke are all very practised speakers and the whole thing was very professional. The staff have been relentlessly friendly and several are already remembering my name. One of the facts announced by the Captain in his talk was that there are 200 passengers and 54 staff (9 ship crew and 45 hotel staff). It was quite a crowd for this first function.
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| Some of my fellow passengers | ||
I had dinner on the Aquavit Terrace (a small seating area above the kitchen) to avoid the huge crowd of passengers in the restaurant. My introversion is fizzing at the moment with so many people being welcoming and wanting to engage with you because you’re suddenly part of a specific crowd. After a lovely ‘regional theme’ dinner of bitterballen, halibut, and tompouce (basically, a vanilla slice) and a chat with two US passengers, I retired to my cabin and read for a while.
| Daily facts: Location: (Travelling to) [R]hine River (Amsterdam) Temp: 11 Weather: Light rain, or heavy overcast |
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