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Sunday, June 2
I slept very well. We went down for the buffet breakfast about 8.
We have a lazy morning planned, while most of the rest of the travelers took the included canal tour. Since we took our own, very similar tour yesterday, we passed on this one. Instead, we explored the ship a bit, getting to know our way around and were things were located, like the magic coffee machine...
Then it was time for lunch.
After eating, we met up with the tour group at 1pm for a drive to Muiderslot Castle. Our guide was very talkative...
The photo on the left is a view of Muiderslot Castle as we approached the entrance from the drop off point.
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The photo on the left shows the well situated in the middle of the castle's courtyard. The two young girls were very well behaved.
The photo on the right shows our guide explaining the "Prince's Chamber" of the castle. It's the guest room for important guests, and included it's own dining table and a small bed. The bed was typical of the time period. It's significantly shorter than today's beds. According to our guide, people of the time didn't sleep laying down, but sitting up instead. They believed it was healther for the heart....
The photo on the left shows some of the formal garden associated with the castle. This was one portion of one of the three or four large garden areas.
The photo on the right shows some people entering the "Tree Tunnel" through the center of the garden. The trees on each side are sculpted to form a tunnel. From a distance, this looks like a solid green bump in the hedges surrounding the gardens.
The photo on the left shows me taking a picture of the castle and its moat.
The photo on the right is another view of the castle.
I would have preferred spenting more time in the gardens and going up to the ramparts, skipping the applecake and predator birds and view of the Royal Yacht Club. The predator birds "exhibit" consisted of a bedraggled man with four raptors in their shelters, all hooded. He wasn't very informative at all.
The photo on the left shows some of the boats moored at the Royal Yacht Club. No, none of the royal boats were there at the time....
We walked back to the bus through the adjoining town. It was interesting, when not dodging bicycles...
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Then we took the bus back to ship which had left Amsterdam while we were at the castle. It was waiting for us in Utrecht. In fact, it had arrived at almost the same time we did. We had to wait for the gangplank to be put in place before boarding, that's all. The ship pulled out about 20 minutes later.
The photo on the right shows the view across the bow of our ship as we left Utrecht. Nice bridges in the Netherlands!
The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent on the canal between the Amstel and the Rhine. About 7 (during dinner), it went through our second lock and entered the Waal, a part of the Rhine delta. We should enter the Rhine proper sometime during the night.
We had drinks while the ship was going through the first lock (which everyone watched – no one paid attention to the second one – all too busy eating). It was another delicious meal. Since they were also serving in the Panorama Lounge, the dining room was less crowded and we ate alone.
This evening, we opened our sliding door for a while as we glided along. Very soothing. I won't last long tonight...