Norway Coast Cruise - Amsterdam - March 16th 2010

The breakfast, which we took in Marco's Restaurant quite early, about 0710, was up to very good 3 star hotel standard, if not Hotel Forum (in Prague - the ultimate benchmark). I confined myself to fruit & yoghurt, bacon, eggs & liver sausage & a jam butty. We did not find any brown bread this time but later knew what to look for, after our dinner experience later. I was astonished & not a little shocked by the number of quite elderly & sometimes, infirm, ladies, who went off to serve their husbands' breakfasts from the self-service buffet. During breakfast, we watched us going along the North Sea Canal nearing Amsterdam & after we had curled our teeth, found we had been turned round & moored at the Passenger Terminal near the main railway station. Fine, but it took a while before we could get off, as the Port Authorities inspected us for Yellow Fever whatever. There would have been a reason for this: the ship had had an outbreak of Norovirus last Summer & they are properly paranoid about hygiene. There was a stiff letter under our door with the daily newsletter, about this & saying it was the only thing the Medical Centre would treat free of charge which, in my book, was an admission of liability if we catch it. Wherever you are near food, your hands are squirted with the stuff they use in hospitals since the MRSA outbreaks. We were eventually let off & walked nearly to the station, across the road & down Damrak to a C & A, where we got extra stuff for Avis. I bought more Euros, then we cut across to the Singel canal (the inner ring canal) & walked down it to the bend, where we had mocha coffees, quite good (E5) & went along to the Flower Market, which was interesting at this time of year, as there were a lot of big weird bulbs, Amaryllis etc.

Singel

Flower Market

Ugly bulbs

Mint Tower

Mint Tower Bells

The Sun made fitful, occasionally successful, attempts to come out. We carried on past the Mint Tower to the bridge East of the new Town Hall, a lamentable structure, walked through the Waterloomarkt (a bit Camden Marketish) & up to the New Market, thence to the railway station & back to the ship by about 1240. We went to the Waldorf for lunch, a mistake, as you got a full dinner. We discovered that it was a lot more informal in the self-service Marco's Restaurant & you could eat little if you liked. I went up on deck to photo us leaving, nominally at 1400 but in practice, after they had finished loading masses of rations (40 tonnes of food, Captain Zhukov said) & oiling, 1530 & it was gradually getting bloody cold. After a bit & well before we moved, I retrieved hot chocolate (now available) from the samovar & found Avis in the Marco's Restaurant talking & delighted to get the chocolate. She had had tea, which was being brought round by the staff & an inferior cake, cakes being available nearly all the time, it seemed. She came out after I got her coat & gloves but it was ages before we moved, so she went back in. So did I, coming out later for the end of the canal & when we went into the lock at the North Sea end. They crammed the 'City of Sunderland' into the lock behind us (see photo).

On the Quarter Deck

By the North Sea Canal

Dutch still have industry

North Sea Lock gate shutting

It was almost dinner time & we rushed in. Colin & Carol joined us but David & Ronnie must have eaten in Marco's Restaurant. After dinner (parma ham, cabbage soup, pork medallions, cheese for me & bread-and-butter pudding for Avis) we all went to a Russian cabaret, which was pretty dumbed down but at least was staffed by real Russians, by & large & very professional, if chilly & given the superficially gorgeous appearance of the girls, very unsexy. This took place in the Marco Polo Lounge, a theatre in the bow of the Magellen Deck, which is a cross between a theatre & night club, large but not large enough, so it paid to get there early & sit at the end of a row, so as to be able to sneak out of the direst shows. We had beers after in the Captain's Club, the dire pianist did at least, play some Schumann, as I had requested yesterday: the easy Album for the Young.

The next day (March 17th), we were entirely at sea, so they had the problem of keeping us amused & preventing us rioting for all the waking hours. We had breakfast in the relatively posher Waldorf Restaurant but this was not a good idea, as the table service was a bit desperate & it was so crowded round the buffet that it was a good thing all (well, most) of the people were microprocessor-controlled. After this, there was an illustrated talk about some of the later excursions in the salon, worth doing, as it also gave us ideas for the Tromso day we intend to do by ourselves. Then, to Marco's Restaurant, where I extracted the photos so far from the camera & showed Avis them on Geof Computer (the laptop I had brought). People were crowding in for an early lunch & we ate modestly, chatting to others, some of whom got a slide show. We went up to Scotty's Bar for a quiz & acquitted ourselves quite well. Avis went off to inspect the gym which she took part in but I don't do gym.