2024 Rhine River Cruise

  We started the day off by taking a canal boat ride on a tour of the canals of Amsterdam. Steve and Nan, Jim and Bertie, Denny and Becky We left the boat and traveled on the IJ Canal to the Prinsengracht (Prince Ditch).   Our guide told us the canals in Amsterdam were developed to perform   three main functions.   1) they carry off the excess water from the city   2) they were used as defense to protect the city 3) they move people and merchandise around the city As we entered the city he told us about the Bubble Barrier.   It was developed to prevent all the garbage from the city from following into the sea.   The bubbles act as a barrier for the floating trash to be stopped and then funneled to the side where it is deposited and collected to be thrown away.     He told us that the Amsterdam canals together are 62 miles long and have 5200 bridges spanning them.   The average canal is only eight feet deep.   Every year they fish approximately 10,000 bikes out of the water.   There a

  The view from the top of the ship after dinner was breathtaking. Moonlight over Amsterdam

  It was a long overnight flight from the United States to Amsterdam.   We left Fort Wayne at 11:15 am and had a short hop to Atlanta.   We rode the tram to the International Terminal and boarded   flight DL72 with a departure time of 5:30pm.   We flew on a large Airbus that held close to 450 people.   As it got dark we tried to sleep, but most of us were lucky to catch only  a few hours of sleep.   The flight was close to 8 hours long.   With the time difference, we arrived in Amsterdam as the sun came up at 8am on Saturday morning (still 2am back home). We all cleared customs and grabbed our bags for the bus ride into town.   The Emerald/Mayflower cruise ship was parked east of Centraal Station.    We quickly checked in at the ship knowing our rooms wouldn’t be ready until later that afternoon.   Then a group of us took off to explore the city. Centraal Station Centraal Station is where most people come in to Amsterdam and all the streets and canals radiate off from it.   We