Thursday - Friday, March 29 and 30 ~ Getting There is Exhausting!

Thursday - Friday, March 29 and 30 ~ Getting There is Exhausting!

We left Bethany and Jeremy's house in Somerville at about 1:15 p.m. on Thursday, experiencing our first Uber ride to Logan Airport.  Getting through security was fairly simple, and we spent an hour with a glass of wine (beer for Jeff) and playing Backgammon (Jeff beat me twice).  Then a stroll to our gate where we took turns "power walking" through our gate area.  We boarded our Lufthansa plane at about 4:30 p.m. and were in the air promptly at 5 p.m.  At some point during the night, a passenger experienced some sort of medical emergency.  He or she was taken from the plane first before the rest of us could disembark in Frankfurt.  We had a couple of hours layover in Frankfurt, that actually ended up being longer because the crew had been delayed and then the woman sitting next to me had a panic attack and decided that she could not fly.  So, we waited a good half hour while the airline sorted through the already loaded luggage to find those pieces belonging to the woman and her daughter.

We were happy to arrive in Amsterdam, where we picked up our luggage, breezed through customs, and met our Viking representative, who took us to a "meeting place" where we waited for others to join the group.  And then we were off to our Viking Long Ship, the Vili (Norse God, whose name means "will").

Here Jeff waits patiently for our bags to come off the carousel in the airport in Amsterdam.



Our Long Ship.  Our cabin, number 335 is the third one from the left on the upper deck, just below the sun deck.





We got ourselves settled into our cabin, which is lovely -- more pictures once we have packed and the place looks tidy.  And then we went for a simple lunch - a salad and a bit of chicken along with a lovely French Chardonnay.
I love the sky lights we find throughout the ship.  This was the view over our luncheon table!
After lunch we took a short nap before meeting our guide for a "walkabout" in Amsterdam.  After a very full 18 hours of travel, it was good to get out in the fresh air and move the legs!  This is Easter weekend and the city was teeming!  Lots of folks getting off work for the long weekend and hurrying home via bicycle and car.  Many locals and tourists flooded the streets.  Our guide, Michael, a Greek by birth, but a Netherlander by choice, constantly cajoled us to "stay with me" and "do we still have 22?"  I wouldn't call it a scenic walk, but we did see the train station, the Victoria Hotel, the last wooden building in Amsterdam, and lots of cars and bicycles!

Michael, our guide, answers questions about the city

The magnificent train station in Amsterdam

The oldest hotel in Amsterdam, the Victoria

I loved this little "hold out" in the center of the Hotel Victoria!

One of the many canals in Amsterdam
 I remember taking similar pictures the last time we were here with Josje and my Dad.



All in all, a great walk, but we are pretty exhausted at this point.  Back on board, we head to an orientation to the ship, and then off to dinner.  Dinner was quite delicious.  I had a lovely salad with beets, fennel, radishes and greens, followed by a wonderfully cooked Ahi tuna over spinach with just a few pieces of potato.  I had three bites of my creme brulee and let Jeff finish the rest.  All was accompanied by a lovely Riesling.  I remember drinking Riesling on my first cruise down the Mosel and how sweet (sickeningly so) it was.  These modern day Rieslings are much more dry and quite nice.


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