River Cruise 2015 - April 24, Amsterdam

Having stayed overnight in Amsterdam, we began a 9 a.m. canal boat cruise around the city.

This is the beautiful canal boat we rode around in - way better than I expected!  He took us into some really tight spots, and only once bumped the wall! 

Some kitties at home on a boat. 

The Westertoren (1637) is the highest church tower (85m) in Amsterdam.  The oldest building in Amsterdam is the "Oude Kerk", consecrated in 1306, but I don't have a picture of that. 

I loved seeing the floating homes on the canals.  Some were beautiful like this one, others not so much. 

A beautiful view. 

They called this the "Venice" of Amsterdam - guess it's what Venice looks like. 

There are literally 1000's of bikes tied up at any time in Amsterdam downtown.  This is just ONE way to steal a bike.  Leave the front wheel tied up, and take the rest. 

Another type of floating home in a canal. 

This beautiful bridge was built in 1722.

I wonder if anyone ever parks too close to the edge.  And how do you get out of the driver's side and not fall into the canal? 

Such ornate old buildings! 

An interesting "garden" on a floating home. 

There is a tunnel for vehicles to go to the other side of the river, but you cannot ride a bike or walk in the tunnel, so there are ferries - free! - for pedestrians and bikers. 

One of the MANY museums in Amsterdam! 

After some free time spent wandering Amsterdam, we pulled away at 6 p.m.  So nice to see it from the water!  We also saw a LOT of other river cruise boats and realized why it was so busy in the downtown! 

The central train station - very big!  Also the place where the bike ferries come and go. 

LOTS of cruise boats! 

The green building that the architect swears was not meant to resemble a boat, houses a child-friendly science museum.  The tall brown columns are where the tunnel goes under the river. 

 


This is meant to be a woman watching for her husband returning from the sea. 

There are a great many very large and beautiful sailboats in the Netherlands!  It's meant to be the "sailboat capital of the world". 

And yet another lovely old sailboat. 

There are a great many cargo boats on the rivers in Europe, most of them inhabited by families.  They always have a car or two and some sort of small boat, with an arm like this to lift them off.  Must be going for groceries! 

As we ate dinner, we sailed to Volendam, where we were tied up overnight. 

Volendam was a lovely little town to visit, and lots more sailboats here!


.....until next time.....